Enhanced multilingual speech recognition system

• US 20050197837A1
• Filed: 03/08/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Vasilache, Marcel, Suontausta, Janne, Iso-Sipila, Juha
• Application Number:
  US10/795,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20050197837A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/005 Language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/187 Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme n-grams

Abstract

A speech recognition system comprising: a language identification unit for identifying the language of a text item entry; at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for at least one language; means for activating the pronunciation modelling unit including the phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit for obtaining a phoneme transcription for the entry; and a multilingual acoustic modelling unit for creating a recognition model for the entry.

Claims

1. A speech recognition system comprising

a language identification unit for identifying the language of a text item entry;

at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for at least one language;

means for activating the pronunciation modelling unit including the phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit for obtaining a phoneme transcription for the entry; and

a multilingual acoustic modelling unit for creating a recognition model for the entry.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit includes one or more of the following pronunciation models:

look-up tables, pronunciation rules, decision trees, or neural networks.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit is stored as a binary file.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit is run-time configurable.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein

said means for activating the pronunciation modelling unit are arranged to switch run-time between a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units according to the language identification of the text item entry.

6. A method for modifying speech recognition data in a multilingual speech recognition system, the method comprising

entering at least one text item in the speech recognition system via an input means;

identifying the language of the text item entry;

activating, from a group of a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units, the pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit;

obtaining a phoneme transcription corresponding to said text item entry; and

storing a character string of the text item entry with the corresponding obtained phoneme transcription in said pronunciation modelling unit.

7. A method according to claim 6, further comprising

carrying out the method run-time in said multilingual speech recognition system.

8. A method according to claim 6, further comprising switching run-time the activation of the pronunciation modelling unit between a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units according to the language identification of the text item entry.

9. A computer program product, loadable into the memory of a data processing device, for modifying speech recognition data in a multilingual speech recognition system, the computer program product comprising

program code for entering at least one text item in the device via an input means;

program code for identifying the language of the text item entry;

program code for activating, from a group of a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units, the pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit;

program code for obtaining a phoneme transcription corresponding to said text item entry; and

program code for storing a character string of the text item entry with the corresponding the obtained phoneme transcription in said pronunciation modelling unit.

10. A detachable hardware module for modifying speech recognition data in a multilingual speech recognition system, the module comprising

connecting means for connecting the module to an electronic device;

means for entering at least one text item in the device via an input means;

means for identifying the language of the text item entry;

means for activating, from a group of a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units, the pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit;

means for obtaining a phoneme transcription corresponding to said text item entry; and

means for storing a character string of the text item entry with the corresponding the obtained phoneme transcription in said pronunciation modelling unit.

11. A detachable hardware module for modelling pronunciation in a speech recognition system, the module comprising

connecting means for connecting the module to an electronic device;

and

means for modelling a phoneme set and pronunciation model for at least one language.

12. An electronic device configured to carry out speech recognition, the device comprising

a language identification unit for identifying the language of a speech or text item entry;

at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit including a phoneme set and pronunciation model for at least one language;

means for activating the pronunciation modelling unit including the phoneme set and pronunciation model for the language corresponding to the language identified in the language identification unit for obtaining a phoneme transcription for the entry; and

a multilingual acoustic modelling unit for creating a recognition model for the entry.

13. An electronic device according to claim 12, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit includes one or more of the following pronunciation models:

look-up tables, pronunciation rules, decision trees, or neural networks.

14. An electronic device according to claim 12, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit is stored as a binary file.

15. An electronic device according to claim 12, wherein

the at least one separate pronunciation modelling unit is run-time configurable.

16. An electronic device according to claim 12, wherein

said means for activating the pronunciation modelling unit are arranged to switch run-time between a plurality of separate pronunciation modelling units according to the language identification of the text item entry.

17. An electronic device according to claim 12, comprising

connecting means for connecting a detachable hardware module comprising means for means for modelling a phoneme set and pronunciation model for at least one language.