Recognition of proper nouns using native-language pronunciation
First Claim
1. A method of improving automated recognition of proper nouns spoken by users, comprising:
- predicting at least one native pronunciation, in at least one natural language, of a proper noun stored as text; and
augmenting a speech recognizer, that is not configured to recognize words in the at least one natural language, using the at least one native pronunciation of the proper noun.
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Abstract
Recognition of proper nouns by an automated speech recognition system is improved by augmenting the pronunciation of each proper noun or name in the natural language of the speech recognition system with at least one “native” pronunciation in another natural language. To maximize recognition, preferably the pronunciations are predicted based on information not available to the speech recognition system. Prediction of pronunciation may be based on a location derived from a telephone number or postal address associated with the name and the language or dialect spoken in the country or region of that location. The “native” pronunciation(s) may be added to a dictionary of the speech recognition system or directly to the grammar used for recognizing speech.
248 Citations
69 Claims
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1. A method of improving automated recognition of proper nouns spoken by users, comprising:
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predicting at least one native pronunciation, in at least one natural language, of a proper noun stored as text; and
augmenting a speech recognizer, that is not configured to recognize words in the at least one natural language, using the at least one native pronunciation of the proper noun. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of improving automated recognition of proper nouns spoken by users, comprising:
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predicting pronunciation of a proper noun in text, based on information obtained from information other than the text containing the proper noun; and
generating a text string that, when pronounced as a word in a first natural language, sounds similar to the proper noun when pronounced in a second natural language selected based on said predicting. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. At least one computer readable medium storing at least one program for controlling a computer system to automatically recognize proper nouns spoken by users according to a method comprising:
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predicting pronunciation of a proper noun in text, based on information obtained from information other than the text containing the proper noun; and
generating a text string that, when pronounced as a word in a first natural language, sounds similar to the proper noun when pronounced in a second natural language selected based on said predicting. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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59. A system to automatically recognize proper nouns spoken by users, comprising:
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a speech recognizer configured to recognize words in at least a first natural language, but not a second natural language; and
a processor, coupled to said speech recognizer, to predict at least one native pronunciation, in at least the second natural language, of a proper noun and to augment the speech recognizer to recognize the at least one native pronunciation of the proper noun. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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Specification