Abstract: Processing a speech utterance by communicating between a local computer and a remote computer using a hyper text communication session. The local computer sends a recording of a speech utterance to the remote computer in the session, and receives a result from the remote computer, the result based on a processing of the recording at the remote computer.

Abstract: An approach to multi-lingual speech recognition that permits different words in an utterance to be from different languages. Words from different languages are represented using different sets of sub-word units that are each associate with the corresponding language. Despite the use of different sets of sub-word units, the approach enables use of cross-word context at boundaries between words from different languages (cross-language context) to select appropriate variants of the sub-word units to match the context.

Abstract: An arrangement is provided for generating a reduced unit database of a desired size to be used in text to speech operations. A reduced unit database with a desired size is generated based on a full unit database. The reduction is carried out with respect to a text database with a plurality of sentences. Units from the full database are pruned to minimize an overall cost associated with using alternative units other than the units in the reduced unit database.

Abstract: An arrangement is provided for text to speech processing based on linguistic prosodic models. Linguistic prosodic models are established to characterize different linguistic prosodic characteristics. When an input text is received, a target unit sequence is generated with a linguistic target that annotates target units in the target unit sequence with a plurality of linguistic prosodic characteristics so that speech synthesized in accordance with the target unit sequence and the linguistic target has certain desired prosodic properties. A unit sequence is selected in accordance with the target unit sequence and the linguistic target based on joint cost information evaluated using established linguistic prosodic models. The selected unit sequence is used to produce synthesized speech corresponding to the input text.

Abstract: A telephone-based interactive speech recognition system is retrained using variable weighting and incremental retraining. Variable weighting involves changing the relative influence of particular measurement data to be reflected in a statistical model. Statistical model data is determined based upon an initial set of measurement data determined from an initial set of speech utterances. When new statistical model data is to be generated to reflect new measurement data determined from new speech utterances, a weighting factor is applied to the new measurement data to generate weighted new measurement data. The new statistical model data is then determined based upon the initial set of measurement data and the weighted new measurement data. Incremental retraining involves generating new statistical model data using prior statistical model data to reduce the amount of prior measurement data that must be maintained and processed.

Abstract: A barge-in detector for use in connection with a speech recognition system forms a prompt replica for use in detecting the presence or absence of user input to the system. The replica is indicative of the prompt energy applied to an input of the system. The detector detects the application of user input to the system, even if concurrent with a prompt, and enables the system to quickly respond to the user input.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for automatically recognizing words of spoken speech using a computer-based speech recognition system according to a dynamic semantic model. In an embodiment, the speech recognition system recognizes speech and generates one or more word strings, each of which is a hypothesis of the speech, and creates and stores a probability value or score for each of the word strings. The word strings are ordered by probability value. The speech recognition system also creates and stores, for each of the word strings, one or more keyword-value pairs that represent semantic elements and semantic values of the semantic elements for the speech that was spoken. One or more dynamic semantic rules are defined that specify how a probability value of a word string should be modified based on information about external conditions, facts, or the environment of the application in relation to the semantic values of that word string.

Abstract: A speech recognition system includes a user interface configured to provide signals indicative of a user's speech. A speech recognizer of the system includes a processor configured to use the signals from the user interface to perform speech recognition operations to attempt to recognize speech indicated by the signals. A control mechanism is coupled to the voice recognizer and is configured to affect processor usage for speech recognition operations in accordance with a loading of the processor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for computing and reporting statistical information that describes the performance of an interactive speech application. The interactive speech application is developed and deployed for use by one or more callers. During execution, the interactive speech application stores, in a log, event information that describes each task carried out by the interactive speech application in response to interaction with the one or more callers. After the log is established, an analytical report is displayed. The report describes selective actions taken by the interactive speech application while executing, and selective actions taken by one or more callers while interacting with the interactive speech application. Information in the analytical report is selected so as to identify one or more potential performance problems in the interactive speech application. The analytical reports are generated based on the information stored in the event logs.

Abstract: Phonetic units are identified in a body of utterance data according to a novel segmentation approach. A body of received utterance data is processed and a set of candidate phonetic unit boundaries is determined that defines a set of candidate phonetic units. The set of candidate phonetic unit boundaries is determined based upon changes in Cepstral coefficient values, changes in utterance energy, changes in phonetic classification, broad category analysis (retroflex, back vowels, front vowels) and sonorant onset detection. The set of candidate phonetic unit boundaries is filtered by priority and proximity to other candidate phonetic units and by silence regions. The set of candidate phonetic units is filtered using no-cross region analysis to generate a set of filtered candidate phonetic units. No-cross region analysis generally involves discarding candidate phonetic units that completely span an energy up, energy down, dip or broad category type no-cross region.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for automatically recognizing words of spoken speech using a computer-based speech recognition system according to a dynamic semantic model. In an embodiment, the speech recognition system recognizes speech and generates one or more word strings, each of which is a hypothesis of the speech, and creates and stores a probability value or score for each of the word strings. The word strings are ordered by probability value. The speech recognition system also creates and stores, for each of the word strings, one or more keyword-value pairs that represent semantic elements and semantic values of the semantic elements for the speech that was spoken. One or more dynamic semantic rules are defined that specify how a probability value of a word string should be modified based on information about external conditions, facts, or the environment of the application in relation to the semantic values of that word string.

Abstract: The lexical network of a large-vocabulary speech recognition system is structured to effectuate the rapid and efficient addition of words to the system's active vocabulary. The lexical network is structured to include Phonetic Constraint Nodes, which organize the inter-word phonetic information in the network, and Word Class Nodes which organize the syntactic semantic information in the network. Network fragments, corresponding to phoneme pronunciations and labeled to specify permitted interconnections to each other and to phonetic constraint nodes, are precompiled to facilitate the rapid generation of pronunciations for new words and thereby enhance the rapid addition of words to the vocabulary even during speech recognition. Functions defined in accordance with linguistic constraints may be utilized during recognition. Different language models and different vocabularies for different portions of a discourse may also be invoked depending, in part, on the discourse history.

Abstract: An approach for automatically determining the accuracy of a pronunciation dictionary in a speech recognition system involves comparing an expected pronunciation representation for a particular word from a pronunciation dictionary to one or more actual pronunciations of the particular word. An accuracy score for each of the phonemes that constitute the pronunciation of the particular word is determined from the comparison of the expected and actual pronunciations for the particular word. The accuracy score is evaluated against specified accuracy criteria to determine whether the expected pronunciation for the particular word satisfies the specified accuracy criteria. If the expected pronunciation does not satisfy the specified accuracy criteria for the particular word, then the expected pronunciation for the particular word in the pronunciation dictionary is identified as requiring updating.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for improving the performance of an interactive speech application. The interactive speech application is developed and deployed for use by one or more callers. During execution, the interactive speech application stores, in a log, event information that describes each task carried out by the interactive speech application in response to interaction with the one or more callers. The application also stores one or more sets of audio information, in which each of the sets of audio information is associated with one or more utterances by one of the callers. Each of the sets of audio information is associated with one of the tasks represented in the log. After the log is established, an analytical report is displayed. The report describes selective actions taken by the interactive speech application while executing, and selective actions taken by one or more callers while interacting with the interactive speech application.

Abstract: An approach for automatically modifying a pronunciation dictionary in a speech recognition system based on patterns of alternate pronunciations is described. A representation of the pronunciation dictionary, such as a plurality of dynamically linked phoneme values, is obtained. One or more pattern definitions are obtained. The pattern definitions specify zero or more phonemes to be substituted for zero or more phonemes of all words in the pronunciation dictionary. The linked phoneme values are modified by adding, for each path of each word, alternate paths that use each of the substitute phonemes according to the pattern definitions, thereby creating an expanded set of dynamically linked phoneme values. One or more example pronunciations of a particular word are then obtained. One or more best paths through the expanded set of phoneme values are determined for each of the example pronunciations and used to find the overall best path(s).

Abstract: A barge-in detector for use in connection with a speech recognition system forms a prompt replica for use in detecting the presence or absence of user input to the system. The replica is indicative of the prompt energy applied to an input of the system. The detector detects the application of user input to the system, even if concurrent with a prompt, and enables the system to quickly respond to the user input.

Abstract: Dialogue modules are provided, with each dialogue module includes computer readable instructions for accomplishing a predefined interactive dialogue task in an interactive speech application. In response to user input, a subset of the plurality of dialogue modules are selected to accomplish their respective interactive dialogue tasks in the interactive speech application and are interconnected in an order defining the call flow of the application, and the application is generated. A graphical user interface represents the stored plurality of dialogue modules as icons in a graphical display in which icons for the subset of dialogue modules are selected in the graphical display in response to user input, the icons for the subset of dialogue modules are graphically interconnected into a graphical representation of the call flow of the interactive speech application, and the interactive speech application is generated based upon the graphical representation.

Abstract: A barge-in detector for use in connection with a speech recognition system forms a prompt replica for use in detecting the presence or absence of user input to the system. The replica is indicative of the prompt energy applied to an input of the system. The detector detects the application of user input to the system, even if concurrent with a prompt, and enables the system to quickly respond to the user input.

Abstract: A speech recognition system capable of recognizing a word or a plurality of words based on a continuous spelling of the word(s) by a user. The system includes a speech recognition engine with a decoder running in forward mode such that the recognition engine continuously outputs an updated string of hypothesized letters based on the letters uttered by the user. The system further includes a spelling engine for comparing each string of hypothesized letters to a vocabulary list of words. The spelling engine returns a best match for the string of hypothesized letters. The system may also include an early identification unit for presenting the user with the best matching word(s) possibly before the user has completed spelling the desired word(s).