Abstract: Speech is processed that may be colored by speech accent. A method for recognizing speech includes maintaining a model of speech accent that is established based on training speech data, wherein the training speech data includes at least a first set of training speech data, and wherein establishing the model of speech accent includes not using any phone or phone-class transcription of the first set of training speech data. Related systems are also presented. A system for recognizing speech includes an accent identification module that is configured to identify accent of the speech to be recognized; and a recognizer that is configured to use models to recognize the speech to be recognized, wherein the models include at least an acoustic model that has been adapted for the identified accent using training speech data of a language, other than primary language of the speech to be recognized, that is associated with the identified accent. Related methods are also presented.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for responding to remotely-entered input from a plurality of technology platforms. An embodiment of the system includes a database that is configured to retrieve data in response to queries that are based on natural language; a first server that is configured to accept remotely-entered first natural-language input from a first technology platform and to determine a first query based on the first natural-language input and to obtain data from the database based on the first query; and a second server that is configured to accept remotely-entered second natural-language input from a second technology platform and to determine a second query based on the second natural-language input and to obtain data from the database based on the second query.