System and method for providing speaker-specific records of statements of speakers

• US 6,477,491 B1
• Filed: 05/27/1999
• Issued: 11/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Chandler, Mark, Daniel Altman
• Original Assignee: Chandler, Mark, Daniel Altman
• Inventors: Chandler, Mark, Altman, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Banks-Harold, Marsha D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Storm, Donald L.
• Application Number:
  US09/321,781
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 704/235, 704/246, 704/275
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A speech processing system for the generation of speaker specific text output. To automatically generate a transcript of a trial, hearing, or. meeting, the system uses microphones dedicated to specific speakers along with one or more computers with speech recognition software assigned to each microphone. The system tracks the occurrences of speech and assembles a transcript of the participant'"'"'s spoken words including the speaker'"'"'s identity and a text version of the spoken words in the order the words were spoken.

Claims

1. A system for providing a speaker-specific record of entire statements of a plurality of speakers at a court proceeding, conference, meeting or other event at which the plurality of speakers address subjects without the system imposing limitations on subject matter, comprising:

(a) a plurality of dedicated microphones for assignment to the plurality of speakers;

(b) means for electrically distinguishing each of the microphones;

(c) at least one computer programmed with speech recognition software including a plurality of dedicated speech recognition program components, each program component trained in the recognition, without subject matter limitation, of the speech of one of the speakers associated with one of the microphones; and

(d) means for assembling together the records of speech of the plurality of speakers into a single electronic record.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein means for electrically distinguishing each of the speakers comprises a series of separate electrical channels.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the separate electrical channels include digital conversion and transmission means for converting analog voice representations to digital voice representations and transmitting the digital voice representations via the separate electrical channels to the means for assembling.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the series of electrical channels comprises transmitters associated with the microphones, each transmitter having a distinct assigned frequency of transmission.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the series of electrical channels comprises hard-wired channels.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising timing means and means for associating the beginning time of each statement with that statement.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the means for assembling together the records comprise means responsive to the beginning time associated with the statements for arranging the records of speech in order of the beginning times of the statements.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for assembling together the records has a means for identifying in the assembled together record the individual speaker of each recorded statement based upon recognition of the means for electrically distinguishing each of the microphones.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an output device connected to receive an electronic output representative of a text of the assembled record.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the output device is selected from a group consisting of a printer, a display and a memory.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the means for electrically distinguishing comprises means for adding to electrically reproduced records of statements from said microphones an electronic identifier, distinguishing among the electrically reproduced statements corresponding to the several microphones.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said computer is programmed to. recognize each electronic identifier and to identify the source of an electrically reproduced statement based upon that recognition.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said computer is programmed to add a speaker identification to the assembled together records.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one computer comprises a plurality of computers, each connected to receive electronic representations of statements from an assigned one of the microphones and each programmed with one of said speech recognition program components.

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprising means connected with the plurality of computers for assembling digital electronic outputs from the computers into a unified record of a proceeding.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein each computer includes processor program operatively associated with said speech recognition program.

17. A system for providing a speaker-specific record of entire statements of a plurality of speakers at a court proceeding, conference, meeting or other event at which the plurality of speakers address subjects without the system imposing limitations in subject matter, comprising:

(a) a plurality of dedicated microphones for assignment to the plurality of speakers,

(b) at least one computer programmed with speech recognition software without subject matter limitation and a word processor program, and

(c) electrically distinctive communication links connected to transmit recognizable outputs of the microphones to the at least one computer, whereby statements at the plurality of microphones are readily identifiable for conversion to a text record identifying the speakers based on the microphones into which they speak.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the at least one computer comprises at least one computer programmed with a plurality of trained speech recognition software components.

19. The system according to claim 17, further comprising a timer and means for chronologically prioritizing statements transmitted to the computer from the plurality of microphones.

20. The system according to claim 17, further comprising means for assembling together records of the statements from the microphones with speaker identifications.

21. A method for providing speaker specific text output from speech input of a plurality of speakers at a court proceeding, conference, meeting or other event at which the plurality of speakers address subjects without the system imposing limitations on subject matter, comprising:

(a) assigning a plurality of dedicated microphones to a plurality of speakers to produce electrical signals representative of statements of the speakers;

(b) electrically distinguishing signals representative of statements of each of the speakers;

(c) processing the signals representative of statements of the plurality of speakers with at least one computer having speech recognition software without subject matter limitation, and

(d) assembling into a combined electronic record the processed signals representative of the statements of the speakers along with indicia identifying the speakers based on recognition of the electrical identification of step (b).

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising the step of converting analog signals representative of statements of the speakers to digital signals representative of statements of the speakers.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising transmitting the digital signals representative of statements of the speakers from a plurality of speaker stations at each of which is located one of the dedicated microphones to a receiver operatively coupled to the at least one computer.

24. The method according to claim 21, wherein the step of processing includes processing the signals representative of statements of the plurality of speakers with dedicated speech recognition program components trained in recognition of the speech of particular ones of the speakers associated with particular microphones.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein electrically identifying each of the speakers comprises providing a series of separate electrical channels.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein providing the series of electrical channels comprises providing separate assigned frequencies of transmission.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein providing the series of electrical channels comprises providing hardwired channels.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising electronically noting at least the beginning time of each statement.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising creating a chronologically compiled record of the statements using at least the beginning time of each statement.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising compiling a transcript of statements of the speakers chronologically by prioritizing the statement-representative signals using at least the beginning time of each speech input.