Systems and methods for comparing speech elements

• US 20070192093A1
• Filed: 10/07/2002
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Speech
• Original Assignee: Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Speech
• Inventors: Eskenazi, Maxine
• Granted Patent: US 7,752,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/231
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/04 Speaking with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/10 using distance or distortion measures between unknown speech and reference templates

Abstract

A method for comparing a first audio data source with a plurality of audio data sources, wherein the first audio data source has an utterance spoken by a first person and the plurality of audio data sources have the same utterance spoken by a second person. The method includes performing a speech recognition function on the first audio data source to isolate at least one element of the first audio data source. The method also includes comparing the isolated element with a corresponding element in the plurality of audio data sources and determining whether the utterance spoken by the first person contained an error based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method for comparing a first audio data source with a plurality of audio data sources, wherein the first audio data source has an utterance spoken by a first person and the plurality of audio data sources have the same utterance spoken by a second person, the method comprising:

performing a speech recognition function on the first audio data source to isolate at least one element of the first audio data source;

comparing the isolated element with a corresponding element in the plurality of audio data sources; and

determining whether the utterance spoken by the first person contained an error based on the comparison.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing a speech recognition function includes performing a forced alignment speech recognition function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the isolated element includes comparing an isolated duration element to a corresponding duration element in the plurality of audio data sources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the isolated element includes comparing an isolated recognition element to a corresponding recognition element in the plurality of audio data sources.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the first audio data source from an input voice signal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the utterance spoken by the first person is spoken in a non-native language and the utterance spoken by the second person is in spoken in the same language, wherein the language is native to the second person.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting an indication of one of a bad pronunciation of the utterance by the first person and a good pronunciation of the utterance by the first person.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

an audio capture module for receiving a first spoken utterance, wherein the first spoken utterance is spoken in a language that is not native to a speaker of the first spoken utterance; and

a comparison module for comparing an element of the first spoken utterance with a corresponding element in audio data from a plurality of audio data sources and for determining whether the first spoken contained an error based on the comparison, wherein the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources are spoken in the language, wherein the language is native to each speaker of the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources, and wherein the first spoken utterance and the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources are substantially similar in content.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising an audio database for storing the first spoken utterance.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a native speaker database for storing the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a display module in communication with the comparison module.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a speech recognition interface for interfacing with a speech recognizer.

13. A system, comprising:

an audio input device; and

a comparison device in communication with the audio input device, wherein the comparison device includes;

an audio capture module for receiving a first spoken utterance, wherein the first spoken utterance is spoken in a language that is not native to a speaker of the first spoken utterance; and

a comparison module for comparing an element of the first spoken utterance with a corresponding element in audio data from a plurality of audio data sources and for determining whether the first spoken contained an error based on the comparison, wherein the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources are spoken in the language, wherein the language is native to each speaker of the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources, and wherein the first spoken utterance and the audio data from a plurality of audio data sources are substantially similar in content.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a speech recognizer in communication with the comparison device.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

an input device; and

a display device.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the comparison device further comprises an audio database for storing the first spoken utterance.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the comparison device further comprises a native speaker database for storing the audio data from a plurality of data sources.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the comparison device further comprises a display module in communication with the comparison module.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the comparison device further comprises a speech recognition interface in communication with the speech recognizer.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

means for performing a speech recognition function on a first audio data source to isolate at least one element of the first audio data source, wherein the first audio data source has an utterance spoken by a first person;

means for comparing the isolated element with a corresponding element in a plurality of audio data sources, wherein the plurality of audio data sources have the same utterance as that spoken by the first person that is spoken by a second person; and

means for determining whether the utterance spoken by the first person contained an error based on the comparison.

21. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

perform a speech recognition function on a first audio data source to isolate at least one element of the first audio file, wherein the first audio data source has an utterance spoken by a first person;

compare the isolated element with a corresponding element in a plurality of audio data sources, wherein the plurality of audio data sources have the same utterance as that spoken by the first person that is spoken by a second person; and

determine whether the utterance spoken by the first person contained an error based on the comparison.