All The Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a mask blank, comprising:
preparing a rectangular substrate formed with a thin film becoming a transfer pattern to be transferred to a body to be transferred, and also formed with a resist film by applying resist liquid on the thin film and drying the resist film thus applied;
removing an unnecessary resist film formed in a removed area provided on a peripheral edge of a main surface of the substrate by using chemical liquid; and
heating the resist film formed in a non-removed area which is a main surface of the substrate and an area other than the removed area,
wherein in the unnecessary film removing step, a cover member is disposed in a main surface of the substrate formed with the resist film so as to form a prescribed gap with a main surface of the substrate in the removed area, further the substrate is rotated at the rotation speed R1 to dissolve the unnecessary resist film by feeding the chemical liquid in the gap, thereafter, the feeding of the chemical liquid is stopped, further the substrate is rotated at the rotation speed higher than the prescribed rotation speed, and the unnecessary resist film thus dissolved is removed outside the substrate,
wherein the substrate is rotated when removing the dissolved unnecessary resist film outside the substrate and drying the area from which the resist film is removed, at the rotation speed R2 capable of suppressing variations in removed width in each side of the substrate, the variation being caused by the difference in centrifugal force applied on the dissolved resist film in a direction along each side of the peripheral edge of the main surface of the substrate, and thereafter, the substrate is rotated at a prescribed rotation speed R3 so as to dry the area from which the resists film is removed.
2. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the resist liquid contains at least one type of solvent selected from the group consisting of diethylene glycol dimethyl ether, anisole, methyl cellosolve acetate, and cyclohexanone as a solvent, and the rotation speeds R1, R2, and R3 are expressed by:
R1=100 to 500 rpm\u2003\u2003(I)
R2\u2267300 rpm\u2003\u2003(II)
R1<R2\u2266R3\u2003\u2003(III).
3. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 2, wherein the rotation speed R2 is expressed by R2=300 to 600 rpm.
4. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 2, wherein the rotation speed R3 is expressed by R3\u22671000 rpm and R3\u22663000 rpm.
5. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the resist liquid contains at least one type of solvent selected from the group consisting of propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, propylene glycol monomethyl ether, and methyl isoamyl ketone as a solvent, and the rotation speeds R1, R2, and R3 are expressed by:
R1=400 to 800 rpm\u2003\u2003(I)
R2\u2267500 rpm\u2003\u2003(II)
R1<R2\u2266R3\u2003\u2003(III).
6. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 5, wherein the rotation speed R2 is expressed by R2=500 to 900 rpm.
7. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the gap is set in a size allowing the chemical liquid to flow into the gap through the gap and retained only in the gap.
8. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the cover member covers the main surface formed with a larger space than the gap in the non-removed area other than the removed area.
9. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the chemical liquid is fed from upside of the cover member to be fed into the unnecessary resist film through a chemical liquid path provided in the cover member.
10. The method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1, wherein the chemical liquid path is defined as a chemical liquid feeding path for feeding the chemical liquid to a position corresponding to the unnecessary resist film portion in the cover member, or as a chemical liquid path between the cover member and a chemical liquid guide member by providing the chemical liquid guide member outside the cover member.
11. A method of manufacturing a transfer mask, wherein a transfer pattern is formed on the substrate by using the mask blank obtained by using the method of manufacturing the mask blank according to claim 1 and by patterning the thin film.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A fragrance delivery system, comprising:
a control unit configured to control a release mechanism to release at least one selected fragrance, said control unit comprising a selection unit configured to select said selected fragrance from at least two fragrances and said control unit controlling said release mechanism to release said selected fragrance, and
a switching element configured to switch said release mechanism between a first release state and a second release state or vice versa,
wherein said release mechanism releases said selected fragrance from said fragrance delivery system to a space in said first release state and in said second release state, and wherein said release mechanism releases said selected fragrance at a higher rate in said first release state than in said second release state, and
wherein said switching element is further configured to switch said release mechanism between said first release state and said release second state during a first period of time, and to switch said release mechanism between said first release state and said second release state during a second period of time, wherein said first period of time is longer in duration than said second period of time,
a timer configured to measure a measured period of said first state in the range of from 100 to 200 seconds and a measured period of said second state is in the range of from 20 to 100 seconds,
a memory element in which at least one desired value of a period of the first andor second state may be stored, and
a comparator configured to compare said measured period of said first andor second state with said desired value and output a switching signal to said switching element,

wherein said switching element is arranged to change said release mechanism between said first state and said second state in response to said switching signal.
2. The fragrance delivery system according to claim 1, wherein in the second period of time the ratio of the duration of the first state relative to the duration of the second state is lower than in the first period of time.
3. The fragrance delivery system according to claim 2, wherein said release mechanism comprises a heating element wherein, during the second period of time, said heating element is configured to release said selected fragrance in the second state only.
4. The fragrance delivery system according to claim 1, wherein said release mechanism comprises an electro-thermal transducer, said transducer being electrically connectable to an electrical power source configured to be coupled thermally to a fragrance chemical, the transducer further configured to convert electrical energy from said power source to thermal energy applied to said selected fragrance.
5. The fragrance delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising a holder for holding at least two fragrance reservoirs.
6. The fragrance delivery system according to claim 5, wherein said release mechanism comprises a heating element in thermal contact with at least a part of a fragrance chemical in said fragrance reservoirs and is configured to release a selected one of at least two fragrances from said fragrance reservoirs.
7. A kit of parts comprising a fragrance delivery system according to claim 1 and at least two fragrance reservoirs filled with a fragrance chemical.
8. The kit of parts according to claim 7, wherein the release mechanism comprises a release mechanism provided for each of the at least two fragrance reservoirs configured to release the fragrance chemical contained in each of the at least two fragrance reservoirs.
9. The kit of parts according to claim 7, wherein the at least two fragrance reservoirs are part of a fragrance cartridge.
10. The kit of parts according to claim 7, wherein the fragrance chemical in each of the at least two fragrance reservoirs are different and complement each other.
11. A method comprising the use of a fragrance delivery system according to claim 1 to deliver a fragrance to a space which is at least periodically occupied by an individual.

1. A method, comprising:
detecting a received signal that includes a pilot signal; and
subtracting an interference signal from a data signal, the interference signal being a result of the pilot signal; and
said subtracting including subtracting a combined cross-talk interference and a finger interference from the data signal.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said subtracting includes subtracting a cross-talked interference effect of the pilot signal on the data signal.
3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said subtracting includes subtracting an individual finger interference from an individual finger contribution of the data signal.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising decoding a version of the data signal that represents the data signal with the combined cross-talk interference and the finger interference subtracted therefrom.
5. An apparatus, comprising:
a detector circuit to detect a received signal that includes a pilot signal; and
a subtractor circuit to subtract an interference signal from a data signal contained in the received signal, the interference signal being a result of the pilot signal and including a combined cross-talk interference and a finger interference.
6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5, said subtractor circuit to subtract a cross-talk interference effect of the pilot signal on the data signal.
7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5, said subtractor circuit to subtract an individual finger interference from an individual finger contribution of the data signal.
8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a decoder circuit to decode a version of the data signal that represents the data signal with the combined cross-talk interference and the finger interference subtracted therefrom.
9. An apparatus, comprising:
means for detecting a received signal that includes a pilot signal; and
means, for subtracting an interference signal from a data signal contained in the received signal, the interference signal being a result of the pilot signal and including a combined cross-talk interference and a finger interference.
10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9, said means for subtracting to subtract a cross-talk interference effect of the pilot signal on the data signal.
11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9, said means for subtracting to subtract an individual finger from an individual finger contribution of the data signal.
12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9, further comprising means for decoding a version of the data signal that represents the data signal with the combined cross-talk interference and the finger interference subtracted therefrom.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method of training an automatic speech recognition module, the method comprising:
training, via a processor of a computing device, acoustic and language models using a set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores for a retrieved set of un-transcribed data, wherein the set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores is generated by steps comprising:
recognizing utterances in a set of candidates for transcription using acoustic and language models trained using an initial set of transcribed data;
computing confidence scores of the utterances;
selecting a subset of utterances that have the smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing them into a transcribed set;
adding the transcribed set to the initial set of transcribed data to produce an updated set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores;
selecting a pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data, the un-transcribed data being associated with utterances not selected in the selecting of the subset of utterances; and
applying the pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data to train the acoustic and language models; and

iteratively performing the training if word accuracy has not converged.
2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:
prior to the training, training the acoustic and language models using another set of transcribed data.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
recognizing utterances in the set of candidates for transcription using the acoustic and language models.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:
computing by a processor confidence scores of the utterances.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
selecting k utterances that have smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing the k utterances into a first additional transcribed set.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein k is more than one.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting k utterances further comprises leaving out utterances with confidence scores indicating that the utterances were correctly recognized.
8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
adding the first additional transcribed set to the another set of transcribed data to produce the set of transcribed data.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
removing the first additional transcribed set from the set of candidates.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the retrieved set of un-transcribed data is retrieved from the set of candidates.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting a sample of un-transcribed data.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein word posterior probability estimates are used for word confidence scores associated with the utterances.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein a word is considered to be correctly recognized if the word has a confidence score higher than a threshold value.
14. A tangible computer-readable medium that stores a program which, upon execution on a processor, causes the processor to train an automatic speech recognition module, the program comprising instructions for:
training acoustic and language models using a set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores and word confidence scores for a retrieved set of un-transcribed data, wherein the set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores is generated by steps comprising:
recognizing utterances in a set of candidates for transcription using acoustic and language models trained using an initial set of transcribed data;
computing confidence scores of the utterances;
selecting a subset of utterances that have the smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing them into a transcribed set;
adding the transcribed set to the initial set of transcribed data to produce an updated set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores;
selecting a pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data, the un-transcribed data being associated with utterances not selected in the selecting of the subset of utterances; and
applying the pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data to train the acoustic and language models; and

iteratively performing the training if word accuracy has not converged.
15. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 14, the program further comprising instructions for, prior to the training, training the acoustic and language models using another set of transcribed data, recognizing utterances in a set of candidates for transcription using the acoustic and language models and computing by a processor confidence scores of the utterances.
16. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, the program further comprising instructions for selecting k utterances that have the smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing them into a first additional transcribed set, adding the first additional transcribed set to the another set of transcribed data to produce the set of transcribed data and removing the first additional transcribed set from the set of candidates and wherein the retrieved set of un-transcribed data is retrieved from the set of candidates.
17. A spoken dialog system, the system comprising:
a processor;
an automatic-speech recognition module controlling the processor to perform automatic speech recognition, the automatic speech recognition module trained using a method of training an automatic speech recognition module and stored in a memory storage device, the method comprising:
training acoustic and language models using a set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores and word confidence scores for a retrieved set of un-transcribed data, wherein the set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores is generated by steps comprising:
recognizing utterances in a set of candidates for transcription using acoustic and language models trained using an initial set of transcribed data;
computing confidence scores of the utterances;
selecting a subset of utterances that have the smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing them into a transcribed set;
adding the transcribed set to the initial set of transcribed data to produce an updated set of transcribed data, speech recognition scores, and word confidence scores;
selecting a pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data, the un-transcribed data being associated with utterances not selected in the selecting of the subset of utterances; and
applying the pre-determined amount of un-transcribed data to train the acoustic and language models; and
iteratively performing the training if word accuracy has not converged.
18. The spoken dialog system of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises, prior to the training, training the acoustic and language models using another set of transcribed data, recognizing utterances in a set of candidates for transcription using the acoustic and language models and computing by a processor confidence scores of the utterances.
19. The spoken dialog system of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises selecting k utterances that have the smallest confidence scores from the set of candidates and transcribing them into a first additional transcribed set, adding the first additional transcribed set to the another set of transcribed data to produce the set of transcribed data and removing the first additional transcribed set from the set of candidates and wherein the retrieved set of un-transcribed data is retrieved from the set of candidates.