SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM, SPEECH RECOGNITION METHOD, AND SPEECH RECOGNITION PROGRAM

• US 20130268271A1
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Published: 10/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Osada, Seiya, Hanazawa, Ken, Okabe, Koji
• Application Number:
  US13/994,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268271A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/240
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/065 Adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/197 Probabilistic grammars, e.g. word n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A speech recognition system has: hypothesis search means which searches for an optimal solution of inputted speech data by generating a hypothesis which is a bundle of words which are searched for as recognition result candidates; self-repair decision means which calculates a self-repair likelihood of a word or a word sequence included in the hypothesis which is being searched for by the hypothesis search means, and decides whether or not self-repair of the word or the word sequence is performed; and transparent word hypothesis generation means which, when it is decided that the self-repair is performed, generates a transparent word hypothesis which is a hypothesis which regards as a transparent word a word or a word sequence included in a disfluency interval or a repair interval of a self-repair interval including the word or the word sequence.

Claims

1. A speech recognition system comprising:

a hypothesis search unit which searches for an optimal solution of inputted speech data by generating a hypothesis which is a bundle of words which are searched for as recognition result candidates;

a self-repair decision unit which calculates a self-repair likelihood of a word or a word sequence included in the hypothesis which is being searched for by the hypothesis search unit, and decides whether or not self-repair of the word or the word sequence is performed; and

a transparent word hypothesis generation unit which, when the self-repair decision unit decides that the self-repair is performed, generates a transparent word hypothesis which is a hypothesis which regards as a transparent word a word or a word sequence included in a disfluency interval or a repair interval of a self-repair interval including the word or the word sequence,

wherein the hypothesis search unit searches for an optimal solution by including as search target hypotheses the transparent word hypothesis generated by the transparent word hypothesis generation unit.

2. The speech recognition system according to claim 1, wherein:

the self-repair decision unit hypothesizes for the word or the word sequence included in the hypothesis which is being searched for by the hypothesis search unit a combination of a reparandum interval which includes the word or the word sequence in the repair interval, the disfluency interval and the repair interval, calculates a self-repair likelihood per hypothesized combination of the reparandum interval, the disfluency interval and the repair interval, decides whether or not the calculated self-repair likelihood is a predetermined threshold or more and thereby decides whether or not the self-repair of the combination is performed; and

the transparent word hypothesis generation unit generates the hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in the disfluency interval or the repair interval of the combination which is decided by the self-repair decision unit to be corrected.

3. The speech recognition system according to claim 1, wherein:

the transparent word hypothesis generation unit generates for a transparent word hypothesis a reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in a reparandum interval or the disfluency interval, and a repair interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in the disfluency interval or the repair interval; and

the hypothesis search unit searches for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis and the repair interval side transparent word hypothesis generated by the transparent word hypothesis generation unit.

4. The speech recognition system according to claim 3, further comprising a result generation unit which generates a speech recognition result, wherein:

the hypothesis search unit performs first search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the generated reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis, and second search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the generated repair interval side transparent word hypothesis; and

the result generation unit generates a speech recognition result obtained by combining a speech recognition result of the first search processing, and a speech recognition result of the second search processing.

5. The speech recognition system according to claim 4, wherein, when a maximum likelihood hypothesis indicated by the speech recognition result of the first search processing is the reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis, and a maximum likelihood hypothesis indicated by the speech recognition result of the second search processing is the repair interval side transparent word hypothesis, for an interval which is decided to be corrected, the result generation unit combines a word bundle in a self-repair interval indicated by the reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis and a word bundle in the self-repair interval indicated by the repair interval side transparent word hypothesis, and generates a speech recognition result which indicates a word bundle including all words in the self-repair interval without regarding the words as transparent words.

6. The speech recognition system according to claim 1, further comprising a result output unit which outputs a speech recognition result,

wherein the result output unit outputs not only text information indicated by a word bundle of a maximum likelihood hypothesis but also a speech recognition result which is assigned information of a reparandum interval, the disfluency interval or the repair interval.

11. The speech recognition system according to claim 2, wherein:

the transparent word hypothesis generation unit generates for a transparent word hypothesis a reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in a reparandum interval or the disfluency interval, and a repair interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in the disfluency interval or the repair interval; and

the hypothesis search unit searches for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis and the repair interval side transparent word hypothesis generated by the transparent word hypothesis generation unit.

12. The speech recognition system according to claim 2, further comprising a result output unit which outputs a speech recognition result,

wherein the result output unit outputs not only text information indicated by a word bundle of a maximum likelihood hypothesis but also a speech recognition result which is assigned information of a reparandum interval, the disfluency interval or the repair interval.

7. A speech recognition method comprising in process in which a hypothesis search unit searches for an optimal solution of inputted speech data by generating a hypothesis which is a bundle of words which are searched for as recognition result candidates:

calculating a self-repair likelihood of a word or a word sequence included in a hypothesis which is being searched for and deciding whether or not self-repair of the word or the word sequence is performed; and

when it is decided that the self-repair is performed, generating a transparent word hypothesis which is a hypothesis which regards as a transparent word a word or a word sequence included in a disfluency interval or a repair interval of a self-repair interval including the word or the word sequence,

wherein the hypothesis search unit searches for an optimal solution by including as search target hypotheses the generated transparent word hypothesis.

8. The speech recognition method according to claim 7, wherein, in process in which the hypothesis search unit searches for the optimal solution of the inputted speech data by generating the hypothesis which is the bundle of the words which are searched for as the recognition result candidates:

when it is decided that the self-repair is performed, a transparent word hypothesis generation unit generates a reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as a transparent word a word or a word sequence included in a reparandum interval or a disfluency interval, and a repair interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in the disfluency interval or a repair interval,

the hypothesis search unit performs first search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the generated reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis, and second search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the generated repair interval side transparent word hypothesis; and

the result output unit outputs a speech recognition result obtained by combining a speech recognition result of the first search processing, and a speech recognition result of the second search processing.

9. A non-transitory computer readable information recording medium storing a speech recognition program, when executed by a processor, performs a method for,

in process of hypothesis search processing of searching for an optimal solution of inputted speech data by generating a hypothesis which is a bundle of words which are searched for as recognition result candidates:

calculating a self-repair likelihood of a word or a word sequence included in a hypothesis which is being searched for and deciding whether or not self-repair of the word or the word sequence is performed; and

generating a transparent word hypothesis which is a hypothesis which regards as a transparent word a word or a word sequence included in a disfluency interval or a repair interval of a self-repair interval including the word or the word sequence when it is decided that the self-repair is performed,

searching for an optimal solution by including as search target hypotheses the generated transparent word hypothesis.

10. The non-transitory computer readable information recording medium according to claim 9, further comprising:

self-repair decision processing of calculating a self-repair likelihood of a word or a word sequence included in a hypothesis which is being searched for and deciding whether or not self-repair of the word or the word sequence is performed;

first transparent word hypothesis generation processing of generating a reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as a transparent word the word or the word sequence included in a reparandum interval or a disfluency interval, when it is decided that the self-repair is performed;

second transparent word hypothesis generation processing of generating a repair interval side transparent word hypothesis which regards as the transparent word the word or the word sequence included in the disfluency interval or a repair interval, when it is decided that the self-repair is performed;

first search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as search target hypotheses the generated reparandum interval side transparent word hypothesis;

second search processing of searching for the optimal solution by including as the search target hypotheses the generated repair interval side transparent word hypothesis; and

result output processing of outputting a speech recognition result obtained by combining a speech recognition result of the first search processing, and a speech recognition result of the second search processing.