From telecom-request@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Tue Aug 22 17:58:52 1995 by 1995 17:58:52 -0400 telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 14:44:34 -0500 1995 14:44:31 -0500 To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Aug 95 14:44:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 353 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson TRW Versus Inmarsat - Patent Wars in Outer Space (PATNEWS via M. Solomon) 4th Int'l. Conference on Spoken Language Processing '96 (Jim Polikoff) New Area Code Test Numbers (Phillip M. Dampier) Book Review: "Educator's Internet Companion" by Giagnocavo (Rob Slade) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 500-677-1616 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. ************************************************************************ * * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Forwarded FYI to the Digest: To: patents@world.std.com One of the reasons that the professional IP community has been so apathetic to the problem of software prior art is that for the big boys, software patent lawsuits are more of a nuisance than anything else (and even then, when you lose you often can win, if you look at Microsoft's final arrangements with Stac and Wang). As big as a million dollars maybe to the rest of us, in some circles it isn't that much. A billion dollars, well that's big bucks to pretty much everyone, including two outer space companies, TRW and Inmarsat, amounts currently at stake over a patent with a very curious history for which the fat lady has yet to sing. It's hard to be apathetic to billion dollar actions. Last May, I had sent an IPNS news item on a patent TRW was seeking dealing with satellite configurations in medium Earth orbit, based on an article I had seen in the London Financial Times. TRW had been suggesting in the space community that it's patent was broad enough to prohibit anyone else from using medium Earth orbit's for satellite systems. While not many of us are trying to do so, one other company was doing so, Inmarsat. Both TRW and Inmarsat are spending billions to establish satellite telephone constellations, big stakes. Coincidently, the day after I sent out that news item, the patent issued, kind of. The "kind of" was that for awhile that day the patent was prepared to be issued, and made it to the PTO's patent text database long enough for me to download the text and mail it out as a news item, only for the patent to be retracted by the Patent Office and therefore never formally issued (TRW claimed to know of only two other such instances in the past 100 years). The action puzzled many. "All I can say is that the Patent Office told us they wanted more time to review their internal quality control methods", one TRW spokesman said. "We had expected to receive the patent certificates on May 16, as scheduled. It was not until that date that we were told otherwise". I quess that it is rare that a patent gets this far before being pulled. "It is our responsibility to not knowingly issue an invalid claim", said Stephen Kunin, the Patent Office's deputy assistant commissioner for patent policy and projects. "If, on internal review, it comes to our attention that we may have a claim that should not go out, and we have strong evidence that this is the case, we try to prevent it from going out. TRW will most certainly be given an opportunity to get the case ship shape. They may end up with the claims they thought they would get. From our standpoint of administering the law, we want to be sure we have done the job we are paid to do", Kunin said. I suspect Inmarsat must have some good lobbyists and pulled a few strings [The timing of the above events, with the patent temporarily issuing, is in conflict with the timing of an internal review catching the patent in time]. As it should, and should be able to, given that Inmarsat is investing $2.6 billion in its satellite telephone constellation system that will compete with TRW's Odyssey. As TRW was claiming that their patents would stop Inmarsat from deploying its satellites, Inmarsat must have done something to get the PTO to reconsider (though Inmarsat denies doing anything), especially given skepticism many in the space industry have about satellite orbit patents in general. Earlier in the year, TRW had said it would sue Inmarsat once the patents issued. TRW was notified in April that their patents were to be awarded, and due to TRW press releases, the PTO had been repeatedly contacted by members of the space industry to find out what was up. As Olof Lundberg, CEO of the Inmarsat project stated, "We have always been of the view that the concept of using intermediate circular orbits in connection with global mobile satellite communications has been known for decades and that any patent obtained by TRW for this general concept would be of questionable validity". The rivalry between the two companies is intense. Last June, TRW petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to deny the application of Comsat Corp. for authority to participate in the purchase of facilities of Inmarsat-P, the proposed private off-shot of Inmarsat. Comsat is the US signatory to Intelsat. Last month, TRW was awarded one patent, 5,433,726. Interestingly, the issued patent had 35 claims, while the original version that was reconsidered had 51 claims. TRW shortly thereafter warned Inmarsat that it could be infringing TRW's patent. According to Bruce Gerding, TRW vice president and managing director of the company's Odyssey program, "The broad scope of its coverage poses a major concern for any aspiring imitators in the field of space-based personal communications systems. We believe that any imitator would have difficulty in launching a commercially viable medium Earth orbit system without infringing our patent". Inmarsat's Lundberg countered, "We are certainly not in the business of infringing other people's patents. We cannot believe that any patent office would issue patents that are so broad that they cover orbits and the general ability to communicate through satellites. Our detailed system design is quite different from our competitor's." According to industry analysts, TRW has the fewest partners and the least capital and is least likely to get its system off the ground, and suspect TRW will use the patent offensively to buy time and raise more resources. (Other than Inmarsat, TRW also is competing with two low Earth orbit ventures which all will be targeting the personal communication systems market). Here are some of the details of the patent: 5433726 Medium-earth-altitude satellite-based cellular telecommunications system ABSTRACT A satellite-based cellular telecommunications system employing a constellation of telecommunications satellites in medium earth orbit to provide multibeam radio frequency (rf) communications links for worldwide cellular telephone service with a minimum number of satellites. The telecommunications satellites are placed in a plurality of inclined orbits about the earth at an altitude of between approximately 5600 and 10,000 nautical miles. The characteristics of the orbits, such as the number of orbits, the inclination of each orbit, the number of satellites in each orbit and the altitude of the satellites, are tailored to maximize the coverage area of the satellites and their related line-of-sight elevation angles, while minimizing propagation time delays, the number of beam-to-beam and satellite-to-satellite handovers, and the total number of satellites. The present invention also includes several additional features which essentially eliminate beam-to-beam and satellite-to-satellite handovers, thus dramatically reducing the likelihood of dropouts. between the plug and the anchor to prevent the plug from entering the opening in the vessel. CLAIM ONE A method of providing medium-earth-orbit satellite-based communications between low-power mobile handsets having an omni-directional antenna and a gateway station through a satellite forming part of a satellite constellation, comprising the steps of: launching a plurality of satellites to an orbiting altitude between 5600 and 10,000 nautical miles, wherein at least one satellite has a reduced antenna field of view (FOV) less than full earth coverage; orienting said satellites in a plurality of orbital planes which are inclined at a predetermined inclination angle with respect to the equatorial plane of the earth; receiving, by at least one of said satellites, radio frequency (RF) signals from a plurality of mobile handsets which transmit said RF signals using their omni-directional antennas; and overlapping a portion of a coverage region of a departing satellite with a portion of a coverage region of an arriving satellite, including assignment means having a predetermined criterion of assignment that calls placed to or from a user located within the coverage overlap region are assigned to said arriving satellite. Interestingly, the prior art cited includes 59 US patents, 8 foreign patents, and 36 literature references, which is a pretty good amount compared to most other patents, though no NASA or DoD technical reports were cited. I am curious to see what prior art will be dug up if the patent is ever challenged. In the end, all of this will end up in the courts. Stay tuned, the fireworks should be great. As a bit of advice to the PTO, there is a pending biotech patent that will cause a global morality outroar when it is issues. I suggest you crank up the internal reviews, and save yourself a massive headache. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA, 02178 617-489-3727, patents@world.std.com (for info on free subscription, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com ) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com ) (for WWW patent searching, try http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html ) ------------------------------ Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing October 3-6, 1996 Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel Philadelphia, PA, USA __________ICSLP 96 Organizers___________ H. Timothy Bunnell, Chair Richard A. Foulds, Vice-Chair Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories Wilmington, DE, USA ICSLP unites researchers, developers, and clinicians for an exchange on a wide variety of topics related to the spoken language processing of humans and machines. Conference presentations range from basic acoustic phonetic research to clinically oriented speech training devices to speech-based natural language interfaces for man- machine interaction. ICSLP 96 will feature technical sessions of both oral and poster format, plenary talks, commercial exhibits, and daily special sessions. In addition, satellite workshops will be held in conjunction with the conference in the areas of interactive voice technology, spoken dialogue, speech databases and speech I/O, and gestures and speech. A new emphasis for ICSLP 96 will be on the clinical applications of speech technology, including the use of speech technology based applications for persons with disabilities. _________________________Conference Update_________________________8/10/95 Dates to Note: January 15, 1996 - Paper abstracts due for review March 15, 1996 - Acceptance notification May 1, 1996 - Deadline for papers (camera-ready, 4 pages) Prospective authors are invited to submit papers relevant to spoken language processing in any of the conference Technical Areas. Abstracts of proposed papers must be received by the ICSLP 96 Organizing Committee no later than January 15, 1996. Papers will be selected by the ICSLP 96 Technical Program Committee and assigned for presentation in poster or oral format. English is the working language for the conference. Submission of an abstract implies a commitment to submit a four page, camera-ready version of the paper and to present the paper in either an oral or poster session if the abstract is accepted. Participants will be expected to pay their own registration fees, travel, and accommodations for ICSLP 96. _____________________Submission of Abstracts____________________________ Abstracts must be received by the ICSLP 96 Organizing Committee no later than January 15, 1996. Abstracts may be submitted either by post or by e-mail following these guidelines: + One page, 400 word maximum + Technical Area(s) indicated in order of preference using the codes (A - X) below. + Title of the proposed paper clearly indicated + Preference for paper or poster clearly indicated + If sent by post, submit four (4) copies of the abstract + If sent by e-mail, use plain text (ASCII) format only Each abstract must also include the following contact information: + Author name(s)* + Postal mailing address + Phone number + Fax number + E-mail address E-mailed abstracts will be acknowledged by e-mail within 48 hours of submission. If you do not receive e-mail confirmation, we have not received your abstract! Please check the e-mail address and resubmit. Please do not e-mail multiple copies for any other reason. *Please be sure that the primary contact person is noted if it is someone other than the First Author. Mail or send abstracts to: ICSLP 96 Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories A.I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 E-mail: ICSLP-abstract@asel.udel.edu ________________________Technical Areas___________________________________ A. Production of spoken language B. Perception of spoken language C. Robust speech modeling and speech enhancement D. Speech coding and transmission E. Automatic speech recognition F. Spoken language processing for special populations G. Phonetics and phonology H. Spoken discourse analysis/synthesis I. Synthesis of spoken language J. Applications for people with speech/language/hearing disorders K. Databases and standards for speech technology L. Prosody of spoken language M. Speech analysis and parameterization N. Spoken language acquisition/learning O. Integrating spoken language and natural language processing P. Hardware for speech processing Q. Neural networks and stochastic modeling of spoken language R. Dialects and speaking styles S. Instructional technology for spoken language T. Speaker/language identification and verification U. Human factors and assessment in spoken language applications V. Spoken language dialogue and conversation W. Gesture and Multimodal Spoken Language Processing X. Other ________________________Satellite Workshops___________________________ The following Satellite Workshops will be held immediately before or after the ICSLP 96 conference. 1. IVTTA - The 3rd IEEE workshop on Interactive Voice Technology for Telecommunications Applications (IVTTA) will be held at the AT&T Learning Center, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, from September 30 - October 1, 1996. The IVTTA workshop brings together applications researchers planning to conduct or who have recently conducted field trials of new applications of speech technologies. Due to workshop facility constraints, attendance will be limited primarily to contributors. For further information about the workshop, contact: Dr. Murray Spiegel Bellcore 445 South Street Morristown, NJ, USA ·_ e-mail: spiegel@bellcore.com Phone: 1-201-829-4519; Fax: 1-201-829-5963 Submit abstracts (400 words, maximum 1 page) before April 1, 1996 to: Dr. David Roe IEEE IVTTA `96 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2D-533 Murray Hill, NJ 07974 e-mail: roe@hogpb.att.com Phone: 908 582-2548; Fax: 908 582-3306 2. ISSD-96 The 1996 International Symposium on Spoken Dialogue (ISSD-96) will be held on October 2 and 3 at the venue of ICSLP 96. It is intended to be a forum of interdisciplinary exchange between researchers working on spoken dialogues from various points of view. The first day is devoted to invited lectures followed by sessions of both invited and contributed papers, which will be continued on the second day as special sessions of ICSLP 96. Papers submitted to ICSLP 96 (Technical Areas H,L,O,U,&V) may be selected for presentation at the symposium. For further information about the symposium, contact: Prof. Hiroya Fujisaki, Chairman, ISSD-96 Dept. of Applied Electronics Science University of Tokyo 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, 278 Japan e-mail: fujisaki@te.noda.sut.ad.jp Phone: +81-471-23-4327; Fax: +81-471-22-9195 3. COCOSDA Workshop 96 COCOSDA Workshop 96 will be held on Monday, October 7 at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel. The International Coordinating Committee on Speech Databases and Speech I/O Systems Assessment (COCOSDA) has been established to promote international cooperation in the fundamental areas of Spoken Language Engineering. Previous meetings have taken place in Banff 1992, Berlin 1993, Yokohama 1994 and Madrid 1995. Program and registration information for COCOSDA 96 will be forthcoming in later announcements. For more information about COCOSDA, consult the Web Page at http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/cocosda. 4. Workshop on Gesture and Speech The Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories of the University of Delaware will host a Workshop on Multimodal use of Gesture and Speech October 7 - 8, 1996. This Workshop will consider the integration of gesture and spoken language in intelligent human/computer interfaces, in advanced assisitve technology for individuals with disabilities, in telemanipulation and robotics systems, and in human conversation. Gestures including hand postures, dynamic arm movements, facial expression, and eye gaze will be considered along with more traditional lip shapes and handwriting movements. For further information, contact: Dr. Lynn Messing A. I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 e-mail: messing@asel.udel.edu Phone: +1 302 651 6830; Fax: +1-302-651-6895 _____________Sponsoring and Cooperating Organizations_________________ The Acoustical Society of America American Speech and Hearing Association (Pending) The Acoustical Society of Japan Canadian Acoustical Association European Speech Communication Association IEEE Signal Processing Society International Phonetic Association Others - contact ICSLP 96. ______________For more information, contact____________________________ ICSLP 96 Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories A.I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 Phone: +1 302 651 6830 TDD: +1 302 651 6834 Fax: +1 302 651 6895 Email: ICSLP96@asel.udel.edu WWW: http://www.asel.udel.edu/speech/icslp.html FTP: zeppo.asel.udel.edu:pub/ICSLP A two-page PostScript format copy of the most recent Conference Announcement and Call for Papers can also be obtained by anonyomus ftp. Connect to host zeppo.asel.udel.edu, cd to directory pub/ICSLP96, and get call.ps.Z in binary mode. The file must be uncompressed with a unix compatable uncompress program before being printed. This plain text version of the announcement is located in the same directory as file call.txt _______________________International Advisory Board_______________ Hiroya Fujisaki Science University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan Jens Blauert John Ohala Ruhr-Universitat Bochum University of California Bochum, Germany Berkeley, CA, USA Anne Cutler Lawrence Rabiner Max Planck Institute for AT&T Bell Labs Psycholinguistics Murray Hill, NJ, USA Nijmegen, The Netherlands Gunnar Fant Katsuhiko Shirai Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Waseda University Stockholm, Sweden Tokyo, Japan John Laver Kenneth Stevens Humanities Research Board of Massachusetts Institute the British Academy of Technology Edinburgh, Scotland Cambridge, MA, USA Joseph Mariani Yoh'ichi Tohkura LIMSI-CNRS ATR Human Information Orsay, France Processing Research Lab Kyoto, Japan J. Bruce Millar Victor Zue Australian National University Massachusetts Institute Canberra, Australia of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA ------------------------------ US West issued a press release on August 17th that included supposedly "toll-free" test numbers for reaching new area codes. These are generally used by people who are concerned whether their PBX's have been updated sufficiently to allow calls to new area codes. I can't be certain these are toll-free, but calling them gets you what sounds like a standard intercept. State Old AC New AC Test Number ======================================================================= Alabama 205 334 (334) 223-0600 Arizona 602 520 (520) 782-0100 Colorado 303 970 (970) 241-0022 Georgia 404 770 (770) 666-9999 Oregon 503 541 (541) 334-0057 or 276-0192 (*) Texas 713 281 (281) 792-8378 Washington 206 360 (360) 532-0023 or 576-0023 (*) - Effective November 5, 1995 Phillip M. Dampier + Fidonet: 1:2613/225 3176 Elmwood Avenue + E-Mail: philjohn@eznet.net Rochester, New York 14618-2096 + Faxes: +1 716 461 3169 ** PhilJohn Home Page: http://roch0.eznet.net/~philjohn ** ** Rochester Free-Net: http://www.vivanet.com/freenet ** ------------------------------ BKEDINCM.RVW 950529 %A Gregory Giagnocavo jgg@wentworth.com %A Tim McLain %A Vince DiStefano %A Chris Noonan Sturm cnsturm@wentworth.com %C 1866 Colonial Village Lane, PO Box 10488, Landcaster, PA 17605- 0488 %D 1995 %G 0-932577-10-5 %I Wentworth Worldwide Media, Inc. %O U$39.99/C$53.99 800-638-1639 fax 717-393-5752 connect@wentworth.com %P 271 %T "Educator's Internet Companion" "Educator's Internet Companion", Gregory Giagnocavo, 1995, 0-932577-10- 5, U$39.99/C$53.99 The video which accompanies this book (little more than an ad for Internet access -- and "Classroom Connect") states at one point that the Internet's educational resources are almost uncharted. This is true only in comparison to the overexposure that other topics get. "Educator's Internet Companion" is, too, almost a sampler of other Wentworth products. Still, it is worth consideration for some practical ideas and a quick, easy-to-follow resource guide. The lesson plans of chapter one are quite terse and provide more suggestions and sites than usable curriculum. Still, the thirty outlines do cover a range of topics and activities (albeit they rely heavily on Gopher, and World Wide Web). The idea of "guided" tours through menu-driven systems is odd, but the Internet can be daunting initially. The lists of Gopher, telnet, ftp, and WWW sites, as well as mailing lists and newsgroups, are brief, but to the point and easy to read. A discussion of funding sources is limited in specifics to the United States, but possibly extremely helpful there. A series of appendices cover, concisely, Internet concepts and tools, acceptable use policies, and the major commercial online services. Wentworth seems to be quite serious about the educational market, and their offerings are practical in both content and prices. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKEDINCM.RVW 950529. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver roberts@decus.ca | "If a train station Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | is where a train Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca | stops, what happens User Rob_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca | at a workstation?" Security Canada V7K 2G6 | Frederick Wheeler ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #353 ******************************