Abstract: A speaker recognition system for selectively permitting access by a requesting speaker to one of a service and facility include an acoustic front-end for computing at least one feature vector from a speech utterance provided by the requesting speaker; a speaker dependent codebook store for pre-storing sets of acoustic features, in the form of codebooks, respectively corresponding to a pool of previously enrolled speakers; a speaker identifier/verifier module operatively coupled to the acoustic front-end, wherein: the speaker identifier/verifier module identifies, from identifying indicia provided by the requesting speaker, a previously enrolled speaker as a claimed speaker; further, the speaker identifier/verifier module associates, with the claimed speaker, first and second groups of previously enrolled speakers, the first group being defined as speakers whose codebooks are respectively acoustically similar to the claimed speaker (i.e.

Abstract: Apparatus for providing repetitive enrollment in a plurality of biometric recognition systems based on an initial enrollment is provided. The apparatus includes an extractor for extracting a biometric attribute from a user. Further, a server is included, operatively coupled to the extractor, for interfacing with the plurality of biometric recognition systems to receive requests for biometric attributes therefrom and transmit biometric attributes thereto. The server has a memory device for storing the biometric attribute.

Abstract: Speaker recognition is attempted on input speech signals concurrently with provision of input speech signals to a speech recognition system. If a speaker is recognized, a speaker dependent model which has been trained on an enrolled speaker is supplied to the speech recognition system. If not recognized, then a speaker-independent recognition model is used or, alternatively, the new speaker is enrolled. Other speaker specific information such as a special language model, grammar, vocabulary, a dictionary, a list of names, a language and speaker dependent preferences can also be provided to improve the speech recognition function or even configure or customize the speech recognition system or the response of any system such as a computer or network controlled in response thereto. A consistency check in the form of a decision tree is preferably provided to accelerate the speaker recognition process and increase the accuracy thereof.

Abstract: Feature vectors representing each of a plurality of overlapping frames of an arbitrary, text independent speech signal are computed and compared to vector parameters and variances stored as codewords in one or more codebooks corresponding to each of one or more enrolled users to provide speaker dependent information for speech recognition and/or ambiguity resolution. Other information such as aliases and preferences of each enrolled user may also be enrolled and stored, for example, in a database. Correspondence of the feature vectors may be ranked by closeness of correspondence to a codeword entry and the number of frames corresponding to each codebook are accumulated or counted to identify a potential enrolled speaker. The differences between the parameters of the feature vectors and codewords in the codebooks can be used to identify a new speaker and an enrollment procedure can be initiated.

Abstract: A technique to improve the recognition accuracy when transcribing speech data that contains data from a wide range of environments. Input data in many situations contains data from a variety of sources in different environments. Such classes include: clean speech, speech corrupted by noise (e.g., music), non-speech (e.g., pure music with no speech), telephone speech, and the identity of a speaker. A technique is described whereby the different classes of data are first automatically identified, and then each class is transcribed by a system that is made specifically for it. The invention also describes a segmentation algorithm that is based on making up an acoustic model that characterizes the data in each class, and then using a dynamic programming algorithm (the viterbi algorithm) to automatically identify segments that belong to each class. The acoustic models are made in a certain feature space, and the invention also describes different feature spaces for use with different classes.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for programming SSI cells or an array of said cells. The method achieves very fast programming while consuming only a very small amount of power, which paves the way for new applications such as battery-operated systems, page-mode programming for very high data throughput. The method also allows for the bitline voltage to be increased internally on the chip in order to circumvent the efficiency decrease associated with supply voltage scaling. By exploring the SSI mechanism in the subthreshold regime, an optimum value for the CG voltage is found for which the gate current is no longer maximized, but the energy consumed from the power supply is minimized and the injection efficiency during programming is maximized. The programming of a memory cell in this regime, where the gate current is a very steep function of the CG voltage, is, however, still achieved in a few microseconds while consuming only a very small cell current in the range of nanoamperes.

Abstract: A speech recognition system is disclosed useful in, for example, hands-free voice telephone dialing applications. The system will match a spoken word (token) to one previously enrolled in the system. The system will thereafter synthesize or replay the recognized word so that the speaker can confirm that the recognized word is indeed the correct word before further action is taken. In the case of voice activated dialing, this avoids wrong numbers. The token itself is not explicitly recorded; rather, only the lefemes may be recorded from which the token can be reconstructed for playback. This greatly reduces the amount of disk space that is needed for the database as well as provides the ability to reconstruction data in real time for synthesis use by a local name recognition machine.

Abstract: The present invention is a portable client PDA with a touch screen or other equivalent user interface and having a microphone and local central processing unit (CPU) for processing voice commands and for processing biometric data to provide user verification. The PDA also includes a memory for storing financial and personal information of the user and I/O capability for reading and writing information to various cards such as smartcards, magnetic cards, optical cards or EAROM cards. The PDA includes a Universal Card, which is common generic smartcard with a unique imprint provided by a service provider, on which selected financial or personal information stored in the PDA can be downloaded to perform certain consumer transactions.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memories (EEPROM) and, in particular, to contactless array configurations that are used for the practical and efficient implementation of a particular type of memory transistor. Such a memory transistor allows fast 5V-only programming by the use of an enhanced source-side injection mechanism. This concept requires a program gate in the field oxide region which serves to capacitively couple a high voltage to the floating gates. Thus, a very high injection current is established during programming. This additional program gate, however, increases the cell area considerably. The present disclosure shows a contactless 5V-only Flash EEPROM array configuration that relies on shared program lines in order to minimize the area overhead that is caused by this program gate. Furthermore, a memory array with shared wordlines is presented which further enhances the density achievable.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for programming SSI cells or an array of said cells. The method achieves very fast programming while consuming only a very small amount of power, which paves the way for new applications such as battery-operated systems, page-mode programming for very high data throughput. The method also allows for the bitline voltage to be increased internally on the chip in order to circumvent the efficiency decrease associated with supply voltage scaling. By exploring the SSI mechanism in the subthreshold regime, an optimum value for the CG voltage is found for which the gate current is no longer maximized, but the energy consumed from the power supply is minimized and the injection efficiency during programming is maximized. The programming of a memory cell in this regime, where the gate current is a very steep function of the CG voltage, is, however, still achieved in a few microseconds while consuming only a very small cell current in the range of nanoamperes.

Abstract: The present invention includes a method of generating a set of substantially shift invariant acoustic features from an input speech signal which comprises the steps of: splitting the input speech signal into a plurality of input speech signals; respectively delaying a majority of the input speech signals by a successively incrementing time interval; respectively extracting a plurality of sets of acoustic features from the plurality of input speech signals; summing the plurality of sets of acoustic features to form a set of summed acoustic features; and dividing the set of summed acoustic features by a number equivalent to the number of sets of acoustic features summed in the summing step thereby forming a set of averaged acoustic features which are substantially shift invariant.

Abstract: A portable acoustic signal (speech signal) preprocessing (SSP) device for accessing an automatic speech/speaker recognition (ASSR) server comprises a microphone for converting sound including speech, silence and background noise signals to analog signals; an analog signals to digital converter for converting the analog signals to digital signals; a digital signal processor (DSP) for generating feature vector data representing the digitized speech and silence/background noise, and for generating channel characterization signals; and an acoustic coupler for converting the feature vector data and the characterization signals to acoustic signals and coupling the acoustic signals to a communication channel to access the ASSR server to perform speech and speaker recognition at a remote location. The SSP device may also be configured to compress and encrypt data transmitted to the ASSR server via the DSP and encryption keys stored in a memory.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus are provided for performing speech recognition on speech segments frequently input by a user. The method and the apparatus include use of keyword scoring in connection with a speech recognition vocabulary, a temporary score, and a predetermined margin to determine an appropriate output as being representative of the input speech segment.

Abstract: A system for processing a signal representing acoustical information performs a linear predictive coding (LPC) analysis and segments the signal into music, speech and noise components (including channel noise and acoustic artifacts) in accordance with behavior, over time, of the poles describing the signal, resulting from the LPC analysis. Poles exhibiting behavior characteristic of speech, music and channel noise of interest may then be selected while other poles representing random noise or information which is not of interest are suppressed. A "cleaned" signal can then be synthesized, with or without additional pre-processing to further suppress unwanted components of the signal. Additionally or alternatively, tags can be applied to frames or groups of frames of the original signal to control application of decoding procedures or speech recognition algorithms.

Abstract: Voice-controlled customized commands including customization of the command to be preformed, such as a number to be dialed to make a connection with an address of a corporate voice dialing system, and the speech pattern or utterance which may be enrolled by a user to invoke the command can be used by other users, if authorized by the enrolling user. When a current user wants to use a customized command enrolled by another user, a preferably voice actuated command is invoked to cause the search of a database containing a page of customized commands for each user and the return of commands to which access of a current user is authorized in accordance with aliases established by the enrolling user. The returned commands are preferably presented to the current user as a menu from which the current user can make a selection and obtain execution of the authorized command.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for securing access to a service or facility employing automatic speech recognition, text-independent speaker identification, natural language understanding techniques and additional dynamic and static features. The method includes the steps of receiving and decoding speech containing indicia of the speaker such as a name, address or customer number; accessing a database containing information on candidate speakers; questioning the speaker based on the information; receiving, decoding and verifying an answer to the question; obtaining a voice sample of the speaker and verifying the voice sample against a model; generating a score based on the answer and the voice sample; and granting access if the score is equal to or greater than a threshold.

Abstract: Clusters of quantized feature vectors are processed against each other using a threshold distance value to cluster mean values of sets of parameters contained in speaker specific codebooks to form classes of speakers against which feature vectors computed from an arbitrary input speech signal can be compared to identify a speaker class. The number of codebooks considered in the comparison may be thus reduced to limit mixture elements which engender ambiguity and reduce system response speed when the speaker population becomes large. A speaker class processing model which is speaker independent within the class may be trained on one or more members of the class and selected for implementation in a speech recognition processor in accordance with the speaker class recognized to further improve speech recognition to level comparable to that of a speaker dependent model.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memories (EEPROM) and, in particular, to contactless array configurations that are used for the practical and efficient implementation of a particular type of memory transistor. Such a memory transistor allows fast 5 V-only programming by the use of an enhanced source-side injection mechanism. This concept requires a program gate in the field oxide region which serves to capacitively couple a high voltage to the floating gates. Thus, a very high injection current is established during programming. This additional program gate, however, increases the cell area considerably. The present disclosure shows a contactless 5 V-only Flash EEPROM array configuration that relies on shared program lines in order to minimize the area overhead that is caused by this program gate. Furthermore, a memory array with shared wordlines is presented which further enhances the density achievable.

Abstract: A programmable EEPROM cell structure consisting in a split-gate structure in series with a coupling capacitor between the floating gate and an additional program gate in order to provide enhanced injection efficiency. The electron injection is controlled by a control gate at the source side. The area of the coupling capacitor is selected with a substantial coupling factor to a high voltage onto the floating gate during programming so as to produce hot-electron injection at the split point in the channel region between the control gate and the floating gate. Submicrosecond programming at a 5 V drain voltage can thereby be achieved.

Abstract: A programmable EEPROM cell structure consisting in a split-gate structure in series with a coupling capacitor between the floating gate and an additional program gate in order to provide enhanced injection efficiency. The electron injection is controlled by a control gate at the source side. The area of the coupling capacitor is selected with a substantial coupling factor to a high voltage onto the floating gate during programming so as to produce hot-electron injection at the split point in the channel region between the control gate and the floating gate. Submicrosecond programming at a 5 V drain voltage can thereby be achieved.