Abstract: A voice retrieval device includes a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute: setting detection criteria for a retrieval word, based on a characteristic of the retrieval word, such that the higher the detection accuracy of the retrieval word or the lower the pronunciation difficulty of the retrieval word or the lower the appearance probability of the retrieval word, the stricter the detection criteria; performing first voice retrieval processing on voice data according to the detection criteria and detecting a section that possibly includes the retrieval word as a candidate section from the voice data; and performing second voice retrieval processing different from the first voice retrieval processing on each candidate section and determining whether or not the retrieval word is included in each candidate section.

Abstract: A voice retrieval device includes a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute: setting detection criteria for a retrieval word, based on a characteristic of the retrieval word, such that the higher the detection accuracy of the retrieval word or the lower the pronunciation difficulty of the retrieval word or the lower the appearance probability of the retrieval word, the stricter the detection criteria; performing first voice retrieval processing on voice data according to the detection criteria and detecting a section that possibly includes the retrieval word as a candidate section from the voice data; and performing second voice retrieval processing different from the first voice retrieval processing on each candidate section and determining whether or not the retrieval word is included in each candidate section.

Abstract: There are provided a speaker distance detection apparatus and method using a microphone array, capable of exactly detecting the distance between a speaker and even a small terminal such as a mobile telephone, and a speech input/output apparatus using the method. The speaker distance detection apparatus uses a microphone array composed of a plurality of microphones, previously determines a reference microphone to be a reference among a plurality of microphones, detects differences between a signal level of the reference microphone and signal levels of the other microphones, based on correlations between signals in the respective microphones, and determines the distance from the microphone array to the speaker based on the detected signal level difference.

Abstract: There are provided a speaker distance detection apparatus and method using a microphone array, capable of exactly detecting the distance between a speaker and even a small terminal such as a mobile telephone, and a speech input/output apparatus using the method. The speaker distance detection apparatus uses a microphone array composed of a plurality of microphones, previously determines a reference microphone to be a reference among a plurality of microphones, detects differences between a signal level of the reference microphone and signal levels of the other microphones, based on correlations between signals in the respective microphones, and determines the distance from the microphone array to the speaker based on the detected signal level difference.

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus includes a sound pickup, a standard feature storage device, a comparing device, a display pattern storing device, and a display. The apparatus can display non-speech sounds either as a message or as an image, and is especially useful for hearing-impaired individuals. For example, if a fire engine siren is detected, the display can show a picture of a fire engine, or can display the message "siren is sounding".

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus is provided with a word dictionary managing subword sequences of words that have possibility of being input together with information indicating importance of each of subwords in each subword sequence which forms a word, where the importance indicates whether or not the subwords of the word are an important factor when recognizing the word, a managing part for managing standard values of acoustic feature patterns of each of the subwords, a generating part for successively reading the words stored in the word dictionary and for generating acoustic feature patterns of each of read subwords using the standard values managed by the managing part, and a collating part for calculating and evaluating distances between an acoustic feature pattern of an input word that is to be recognized and each of the acoustic feature patterns generated by the generating part by referring to the information.