METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CORRECTING ERROR IN SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM

• US 20140195226A1
• Filed: 05/24/2013
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: YUN, Seung, KIM, Sanghun, KIM, Jeong Se, LEE, Soo-jong, KIM, Ki Hyun
• Application Number:
  US13/902,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20140195226A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/231
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/01 Assessment or evaluation of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/225 Feedback of the input speech

Abstract

A method of correcting errors in a speech recognition system includes a process of searching a speech recognition error-answer pair DB based on a sound model for a first candidate answer group for a speech recognition error, a process of searching a word relationship information DB for a second candidate answer group for the speech recognition error, a process of searching a user error correction information DB for a third candidate answer group for the speech recognition error, a process of searching a domain articulation pattern DB and a proper noun DB for a fourth candidate answer group for the speech recognition error, and a process of aligning candidate answers within each of the retrieved candidate answer groups and displaying the aligned candidate answers.

Claims

1. A method of correcting an error in a speech recognition system, comprising:

a process of searching a speech recognition error-answer pair DB based on a sound model for a first candidate answer group for a speech recognition error;

a process of searching a word relationship information DB for a second candidate answer group for the speech recognition error;

a process of searching a user error correction information DB for a third candidate answer group for the speech recognition error;

a process of searching a domain articulation pattern DB and a proper noun DB for a fourth candidate answer group for the speech recognition error; and

a process of aligning candidate answers within each of the retrieved candidate answer groups and displaying the aligned candidate answers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of displaying the aligned candidate answers comprises displaying a candidate answer that belongs to one or more of the retrieved candidate answer groups as a final candidate answer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of displaying the aligned candidate answers comprises displaying only a candidate answer that belongs to all of the retrieved candidate answer groups as a final candidate answer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of displaying the aligned candidate answers comprises aligning the retrieved candidate answer groups according to a specific priority and displaying the aligned candidate answer groups.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of searching for the first candidate answer group comprises:

a process of searching the speech recognition error-answer pair DB for a candidate answer group;

a process of calculating phonetic similarity for a corresponding erroneous speech recognition word and extracting a word having relatively high phonetic similarity, from among words included in a recognition dictionary, as a preliminary candidate answer group if, as a result of the search, a candidate answer group is not present; and

a process of setting the candidate answer group or the preliminary candidate answer group as the first candidate answer group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the phonetic similarity is calculated by calculating a distance between phonemes.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the process of searching for the first candidate answer group further comprises a process of adjusting a number of candidate answers that belong to the determined first candidate answer group to a specific number if the number of candidate answers is plural.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of searching for the second candidate answer group comprises:

a process of extracting remaining words other than a word recognized as the speech recognition error;

a process of extracting candidate words having a semantic correlation between words by searching the word relationship information DB based on the extracted words; and

a process of setting a word common to the extracted candidate words as the second candidate answer group.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the process of searching for the second candidate answer group further comprises a process of adjusting a number of candidate answers that belong to the determined second candidate answer group to a specific number if the number of candidate answers is plural.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the adjustment to the specific number is limited to a word having relatively high phonetic similarity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of searching for the third candidate answer group comprises:

a process of searching the user error correction information DB for a candidate answer group for a corresponding erroneous word;

a process of checking a number of candidate answers within the retrieved candidate answer group;

searching a server-based user error correction information DB for a preliminary candidate answer group if, as a result of the check, the number of candidate answers is less than a specific number; and

determining the candidate answer group or the candidate answer group and both the preliminary candidate answer group as the third candidate answer group.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the process of searching for the third candidate answer group further comprises a process of adjusting a number of candidate answers that belong to the determined third candidate answer group to the specific number if the number of candidate answers is plural.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the adjustment to the specific number is performed based on any one of phonetic similarity, information on a correlation between words, and information on a domain pattern.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the process of searching for the preliminary candidate answer group is selectively executed when a voice recognizer is a recognizer adopting a server-client method.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of searching for the fourth candidate answer group comprises:

a process of checking whether or not a corresponding erroneous word belongs to articulation to which a domain articulation pattern is applied by searching the domain articulation pattern DB;

a process of extracting a candidate answer group by searching the proper noun DB if, as a result of the check, the corresponding erroneous word belongs to the domain articulation pattern; and

a process of setting the extracted candidate answer group as the fourth candidate answer group.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the process of searching for the fourth candidate answer group further comprises a process of adjusting a number of candidate answers that belong to the determined fourth candidate answer group to a specific number if the number of candidate answers is plural.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the adjustment to the specific number is limited to a word having relatively high phonetic similarity.

18. An apparatus for correcting an error in a speech recognition system, comprising:

a database module for including a speech recognition error-answer pair DB based on a sound model, a word relationship information DB, a user error correction information DB, a domain articulation pattern DB, and a proper noun DB;

a speech recognition error detection block for detecting an error in speech recognition for input speech;

a first candidate answer search block for determining a first candidate answer group for a corresponding erroneous word using the speech recognition error-answer pair DB when the error in speech recognition is detected;

a second candidate answer search block for determining a second candidate answer group for the corresponding erroneous word using the word relationship information DB when the error in speech recognition is detected;

a third candidate answer search block for determining a third candidate answer group for the corresponding erroneous word using the user error correction information DB when the error in speech recognition is detected;

a fourth candidate answer search block for determining a fourth candidate answer group for the corresponding erroneous word using the domain articulation pattern DB and the proper noun DB when the error in speech recognition is detected; and

a candidate answer alignment and display block for aligning candidate answers within each of the determined candidate answer groups according to a specific condition and displaying the aligned candidate answers.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the candidate answer alignment and display block displays a candidate answer that belong to one or more of the determined candidate answer groups as a final candidate answer.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the candidate answer alignment and display block determines only a candidate answer that belongs to all of the determined candidate answer groups as a final candidate answer and displays the determined final candidate answer.