Pattern recognition system
First Claim
1. Speech recognition apparatus comprising:
- (a) input means for receiving, in successive overlapping temporal portions, an electrical signal containing speech data;
(b) a feature detection device responsive to said electrical signal over a temporal portion thereof for detecting the presence of a plurality of predetermined features within said portion; and
(c) decision means for indicating recognition of elements of speech, each said element corresponding to the presence of a predetermined combination of said detected features, the said decision means including;
(i) assignment means for assigning a label corresponding to one of said elements of speech to each said portion in dependence on the features detected therein, together with a corresponding confidence measure indicating the degree of confidence in the correctness of the assignment of that label;
(ii) an output buffer connected to said assignment means for storing values corresponding to a plurality of said successive portions forming a temporal array, said values comprising, for each said portion, timing information defining the relative position in time of that portion, and the label and corresponding confidence measure assigned to that portion; and
(iii) output means for indicating recognition of an element of speech, by outputting from said output buffer the labels and timing information for those portions in said array whose corresponding successive confidence measures define local maxima in said array.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A waveform recognition system including a plurality of detectors of features having the combined presence at a plurality of instants spaced at predetermined intervals relative to each other in time of instantaneous amplitudes each satisfying respectively predetermined constraints; apparatus for assigning a plurality of labels and corresponding confidence measures to each of successive portions of the waveform in dependence on the features detected in the portions and storing each label in a buffer corresponding to the rank of the confidence with which the label is assigned relative to other labels assigned to the same portion of data and apparatus for outputting labels from that buffer containing labels assigned with the highest confidence whose confidence measures are in a predetermined relationship with those of adjacent labels in the same buffer when the confidence measures of labels in other buffers containing labels assigned with confidence measures of lower rank satisfy predetermined conditions.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. Speech recognition apparatus comprising:
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(a) input means for receiving, in successive overlapping temporal portions, an electrical signal containing speech data; (b) a feature detection device responsive to said electrical signal over a temporal portion thereof for detecting the presence of a plurality of predetermined features within said portion; and (c) decision means for indicating recognition of elements of speech, each said element corresponding to the presence of a predetermined combination of said detected features, the said decision means including; (i) assignment means for assigning a label corresponding to one of said elements of speech to each said portion in dependence on the features detected therein, together with a corresponding confidence measure indicating the degree of confidence in the correctness of the assignment of that label; (ii) an output buffer connected to said assignment means for storing values corresponding to a plurality of said successive portions forming a temporal array, said values comprising, for each said portion, timing information defining the relative position in time of that portion, and the label and corresponding confidence measure assigned to that portion; and (iii) output means for indicating recognition of an element of speech, by outputting from said output buffer the labels and timing information for those portions in said array whose corresponding successive confidence measures define local maxima in said array. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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3. Pattern recognition apparatus comprising:
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(a) means for receiving an input electrical signal; (b) decision means for indicating recognition of reference pattern elements by outputting corresponding reference labels for portions of said signal, said decision means including assignment means for assigning, to each of said portions, a plurality of said reference labels together with corresponding confidence measures indicating the degree of confidence in the correctness of assignment of each such label; (c) a plurality of buffer means, each for storing values corresponding to a plurality of successive said portions and forming a temporal array wherein said values include, for each said portion, (i) timing information defining the relative position in time of the portion, (ii) one of said labels and (iii) the corresponding confidence measure, and each buffer means containing labels having corresponding confidence measures, one of said buffer means being an output buffer means containing values whose corresponding confidence measures indicate the highest confidence in the correctness of assignment of the corresponding label of all labels in said reference labels in respect of the corresponding said portion; and (d) output means for indicating recognition of a pattern, by outputting from said output buffer means, labels and timing information corresponding to those portions in said array whose successive confidence measures define local maxima in said array, when the successive confidence measures of labels in the others of said buffer means are not rising with time. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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13. Speech recognition apparatus comprising pattern recognition apparatus according to 3 or 4.
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14. A method of detecting the occurrence of speech events in a speech signal comprising the steps of:
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(a) partitioning the speech signal into successive, overlapping temporal portions Si ; (b) comparing each portion Si with a vocabulary of speech events and generating, for each said speech event, a measure Ci of the similarity between the portion Si and that speech event Ln ; (c) for each portion Si, finding the highest-ranking speech event L1, and at least the next-highest-ranking speech event L2, ranked by their similarity to that portion in accordance with their similarity measures C1, C2 ; (d) storing an indication of the highest-ranking such speech event L1 and of the corresponding similarity measure C1 for each of a sequence of successive portions S1, S2. . . , spanning a time interval at least comparable to the length of the longest speech event in the said vocabulary; (e) locating the temporal position of the detected highest-ranking speech event L1, within the sequence, by finding a local maximum portion SK indicated by its highest-ranking similarity measure C1 to be more similar to the highest-ranking speech event L1 than those preceding it and succeeding it in the sequence; and (f) indicating recognition of the highest-ranking speech event L1 at the temporal position corresponding to the local maximum portion SK. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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Specification