SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPLEMENTAL SPEECH RECOGNITION BY IDENTIFIED IDLE RESOURCES

• US 20130090925A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 04/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ljolje, Andrej, Gilbert, Mazin
• Granted Patent: US 9,431,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/236
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/285 Memory allocation or algorithm optimisation to reduce hardware requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for improving automatic speech recognition performance. A system practicing the method identifies idle speech recognition resources and establishes a supplemental speech recognizer on the idle resources based on overall speech recognition demand. The supplemental speech recognizer can differ from a main speech recognizer, and, along with the main speech recognizer, can be associated with a particular speaker. The system performs speech recognition on speech received from the particular speaker in parallel with the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer and combines results from the main and supplemental speech recognizer. The system recognizes the received speech based on the combined results. The system can use beam adjustment in place of or in combination with a supplemental speech recognizer. A scheduling algorithm can tailor a particular combination of speech recognition resources and release the supplemental speech recognizer based on increased demand.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, based on an expected demand for speech recognition, a main speech recognizer and a supplemental speech recognizer;

beginning to process a recognition task using the main speech recognizer, to yield main results; and

upon determining that the supplemental speech recognizer is idle;

assigning the supplemental speech recognizer to the recognition task based on an actual demand for speech recognition resources;

continuing to process the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer, to yield supplemental results; and

combining the main results and the supplemental results.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer is done in parallel with processing of the recognition task using the main speech recognizer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer belong to a plurality of speech recognizers comprising additional speech recognizers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental speech recognizer is assigned to idle based on increased demand for speech recognition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the main results and the supplemental results comprise recognition strings.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising recognizing the recognition strings using at least one of a word lattice and a confusion network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer differ from each other in at least one of a spectral analysis in a front end, a pronouncing dictionary, and a training algorithm.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising;

identifying, based on an expected demand for speech recognition, a main speech recognizer and a supplemental speech recognizer;

beginning to process a recognition task using the main speech recognizer, to yield main results; and

upon determining that the supplemental speech recognizer is idle;

assigning the supplemental speech recognizer to the recognition task based on an actual demand for speech recognition resources;

continuing to process the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer, to yield supplemental results; and

combining the main results and the supplemental results.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein processing the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer is done in parallel with processing of the recognition task using the main speech recognizer.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer belong to a plurality of speech recognizers comprising additional speech recognizers.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the supplemental speech recognizer is assigned to idle based on increased demand for speech recognition.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the main results and the supplemental results comprise recognition strings.

13. The system of claim 12, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which result in the method further comprising recognizing the recognition strings using at least one of a word lattice and a confusion network.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer differ from each other in at least one of a spectral analysis in a front end, a pronouncing dictionary, and a training algorithm.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

identifying, based on an expected demand for speech recognition, a main speech recognizer and a supplemental speech recognizer;

beginning to process a recognition task using the main speech recognizer, to yield main results; and

upon determining that the supplemental speech recognizer is idle;

assigning the supplemental speech recognizer to the recognition task based on an actual demand for speech recognition resources;

continuing to process the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer, to yield supplemental results; and

combining the main results and the supplemental results.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein processing the recognition task using the supplemental speech recognizer is done in parallel with processing of the recognition task using the main speech recognizer.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer belong to a plurality of speech recognizers comprising additional speech recognizers.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the supplemental speech recognizer is assigned to idle based on increased demand for speech recognition.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the main results and the supplemental results comprise recognition strings.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which result in the method further comprising recognizing the recognition strings using at least one of a word lattice and a confusion network.