Speaker verification method

• US 6,931,375 B1
• Filed: 01/21/2000
• Issued: 08/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bossemeyer, Jr., Robert Wesley, Ratasuk, Rapeepat
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Opsasnick, Michael N.
• Application Number:
  US09/489,254
• Time in Patent Office: 2,034 Days
• Field of Search: 704/231, 704/246, 704/255, 704/250
• US Class Current: 704/246
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/06 Decision making techniques; Pattern matching strategies

Abstract

A speaker verification method consist of the following steps: (1) generating a code book (42) covering a number of speakers having a number of training utterances for each of the speakers; (2) receiving a number of test utterances (44) from a speaker; (3) comparing (46) each of the test utterances to each of the training utterances for the speaker to form a number of decisions, one decision for each of the number of test utterances; (4) weighting each of the decisions (48) to form a number of weighted decisions; and (5) combining (50) the plurality of weighted decisions to form a verification decision (52).

Claims

1. A speaker verification method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a code book covering a plurality of speakers having a plurality of training utterances for each of the plurality of speakers, wherein a first utterance of the plurality of training utterances is not the same as a second utterance of the plurality of training utterances;

(b) receiving a plurality of test utterances from one of the plurality of speakers, wherein a first of the plurality of test utterances is not the same as a second of the plurality of test utterances;

(c) comparing each of the plurality of test utterances to each of the plurality of training utterances for the speaker to form a plurality of preliminary verification decisions, one preliminary verification decision of the plurality of preliminary verification decisions for each of the plurality of test utterances, wherein the one preliminary verification decision is either a true or a false decision; and

(d) combining the plurality of preliminary verification decisions to form a verification decision.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further includes the steps of:

(d1) weighting each of the plurality of preliminary verification decisions.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of weighting includes determining a historical probability of false alarm for each of the plurality of utterances.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of weighting includes evaluating a quality of the preliminary verification decision for each of the plurality of preliminary verification decisions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further includes the steps of:

(a1) separating the plurality of speakers into a male group and a female group;

(a2) determining a male variance vector from the male group;

(a3) determining a female variance vector from the female group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein step (b) further includes the step of:

(b1) determining if the speaker is a male.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein step (c) further includes the steps of:

(c1) when the speaker is male using the male variance vector to determine a weighted Euclidean distance between each of the plurality of test utterances and the plurality of training utterances.

8. A method of speaker verification, comprising the steps:

(a) receiving a plurality of test utterances from a speaker;

(b) determining if the speaker is a male;

(c) when the speaker is male, using a male variance vector to determine a weighted Euclidean distance between each of the plurality of test utterances and the plurality of training utterances;

(d) forming a preliminary verification decision for each of the plurality of test utterances to form a plurality of preliminary verification decisions;

(e) combining the plurality of preliminary verification decisions to from a verification decision.

9. The method of claim 8, further including the steps of:

(f) when the speaker is not male, using a female variance vector to determine a weighted Euclidean distance between each of the plurality of test utterances and the plurality of training utterances;

(d) forming a preliminary verification decision for each of the plurality of test utterances to form a plurality of preliminary verification decisions;

(e) combining the plurality of preliminary verification decisions to from a verification decision.

10. A speaker verification method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a plurality of different test utterances from a speaker;

(b) comparing the plurality of different test utterances to a plurality of training utterance for the speaker to form a plurality of preliminary verification decisions, one preliminary verification decision for each of the plurality of different test utterances;

(c) combining the plurality of preliminary verification decision s to form a verification decision.