As an example, a server may receive, from a computing device, a submission created by an author. The submission includes book data associated with a book and author data associated with the author. The author data includes incarceration data indicating whether the author was incarcerated. The server may determine, based on the author data and the book data, that the submission is publishable. The server may create, based on the book data, a printable book, an e-book, and an audio book and make one or more of the printable book, the e-book, and the audio book available for acquisition.

An application gateway including application service programming positioned at a user premises can provide voice controlled and managed services to a user and one or more endpoint devices associated with the application gateway. The application gateway can be controlled remotely by the application service provider through a service management center and configured to execute an application service provided from the application service provider. The application gateway can execute the application service at the user premises upon voice command by a user and independent of application services executing on the application service provider's network. An application service logic manager can communicate with an application service enforcement manager to verify that the request conforms with the policy and usage rules associated with the application service in order to authorize execution of the application service on the application gateway, either directly or through endpoint devices.

An application gateway including application service programming positioned at a user premises can provide voice controlled and managed services to a user and one or more endpoint devices associated with the application gateway. The application gateway can be controlled remotely by the application service provider through a service management center and configured to execute an application service provided from the application service provider. The application gateway can execute the application service at the user premises upon voice command by a user and independent of application services executing on the application service provider's network. An application service logic manager can communicate with an application service enforcement manager to verify that the request conforms with the policy and usage rules associated with the application service in order to authorize execution of the application service on the application gateway, either directly or through endpoint devices.

In one aspect, an example method to be performed by a computing device includes (a) determining that a ride-sharing session is active; (b) in response to determining the ride-sharing session is active, using a microphone of the computing device to capture audio content; (c) identifying reference audio content that has at least a threshold extent of similarity with the captured audio content; (d) determining that the ride-sharing session is inactive; and (e) outputting an indication of the identified reference audio content.

In one aspect, an example method to be performed by a computing device includes (a) determining that a ride-sharing session is active; (b) in response to determining the ride-sharing session is active, using a microphone of the computing device to capture audio content; (c) identifying reference audio content that has at least a threshold extent of similarity with the captured audio content; (d) determining that the ride-sharing session is inactive; and (e) outputting an indication of the identified reference audio content.

The present disclosure is directed to an agent automation framework that is capable of extracting meaning from user utterances and suitably responding using a search-based natural language understanding (NLU) framework. The NLU framework includes a meaning extraction subsystem capable of detecting multiple alternative meaning representations for a given natural language utterance. Furthermore, the NLU framework includes a meaning search subsystem that enables elastic confidence thresholds (e.g., elastic beam-width meaning searches), forced diversity, and cognitive construction grammar (CCG)-based predictive scoring functions to provide an efficient and effective meaning search. As such, the disclosed meaning extraction subsystem and meaning search subsystem improve the performance, the domain specificity, the inference quality, and/or the efficiency of the NLU framework.

Example systems, apparatus, and methods receive audio information including a plurality of frames from a source device, wherein each frame of the plurality of frames includes one or more audio samples and a time stamp indicating when to play the one or more audio samples of the respective frame. In an example, the time stamp is updated for each of the plurality of frames using a time differential value determined between clock information received from the source device and clock information associated with the device. The updated time stamp is stored for each of the plurality of frames, and the audio information is output based on the plurality of frames and associated updated time stamps. A number of samples per frame to be output is adjusted based on a comparison between the updated time stamp for the frame and a predicted time value for play back of the frame.

Example systems, apparatus, and methods receive audio information including a plurality of frames from a source device, wherein each frame of the plurality of frames includes one or more audio samples and a time stamp indicating when to play the one or more audio samples of the respective frame. In an example, the time stamp is updated for each of the plurality of frames using a time differential value determined between clock information received from the source device and clock information associated with the device. The updated time stamp is stored for each of the plurality of frames, and the audio information is output based on the plurality of frames and associated updated time stamps. A number of samples per frame to be output is adjusted based on a comparison between the updated time stamp for the frame and a predicted time value for play back of the frame.

Certain exemplary embodiments relate to entertainment systems and, more particularly, to systems that incorporate digital downloading jukebox features and improved user interfaces. For instance, a smart search may be provided, e.g., where search results vary based on the popularity of songs within the venue, in dependence on songs being promoted, etc. As another example, a tile-based approach to organizing groupings of songs is provided. Groupings may involve self-populating collections of songs that combine centrally-promoted songs, songs in a given genre that are popular across an audiovisual distribution network, and songs that are locally popular and match up with the given genre (e.g., because of shared attributes such as same or similar genre, artist, etc.). Different tile visual presentations also are contemplated, as are different physical jukebox designs. In certain example embodiments, a sealed core unit with the “brains” of the jukebox is insertable into a docking station.

Provided is an information processing apparatus and an information processing method that are capable of providing contents suitable for a user. The information processing apparatus includes an information generation section that refers to information related to an action history and an action schedule of a user acquired and a database of event content information regarding a plurality of events, and generates profile information of the user while tying together information of stay places in past and future of the user and information of artistes of the events, and an output section that sets a priority for each of the plurality of artistes on the basis of the generated profile information, and outputs a content corresponding to each of the artistes in accordance with the priority.