Voice processing device and method, recording medium, and program

• US 20050143998A1
• Filed: 11/12/2003
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ogawa, Hiroaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,541 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/063 Training
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/187 Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/022 Demisyllables, biphones or triphones being the recognition units
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/027 Syllables being the recognition units
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/0631 Creating reference templates; Clustering

Abstract

The present invention relates to a speech processing device and a speech processing method, a storage medium, and a program that can decrease deletion errors and increase a speech recognition rate. With reference to FIG. 16C, a network of words and syllables is generated, in which a path 91 that does not contain a syllable “WA” and paths 92 and 93 that contain the syllable “WA” at a position corresponding to a boundary between a word “WA” and a word “<OOV>”, and a path 101 that does not contain a syllable “WA” and paths 102 and 103 that contain the syllable “WA” at a position corresponding to a boundary between a word “<OOV>” and a word “DESU”. Consequently, an optimal sub-word sequence on the network can be selected for an input utterance. The present invention can be applied to a speech recognition system.

Claims

1. A speech processing device for processing an input utterance and registering a word contained in the input utterance based on the processing result, comprising:

recognition means for recognizing a continuous input utterance;

unknown word determination means for determining whether or not a result of recognition by the recognition means contains an unknown word;

network generating means for generating a network having paths including sub-words at times corresponding to word boundaries on both sides of the unknown word and a path not including the sub-words if the unknown word determination means determines that the result of recognition by the recognition means contains the unknown word;

acquiring means for acquiring a word corresponding to the unknown word if the unknown word determination means determines that the result of recognition by the recognition means contains the unknown word; and

registering means for registering the word acquired by the acquiring means while associating the word with other information.

2. The speech processing device according to claim 1, further comprising pattern determination means for determining whether or not the result of the recognition matches a predetermined pattern,

wherein the registering means registers the word if the result of the recognition matches the predetermined pattern.

3. The speech processing device according to claim 2, further comprising response generating means for generating a response corresponding to the input utterance when the unknown word determination means determines that the result of the recognition does not contain an unknown word or the pattern determination means determines that the result of the recognition does not match the predetermined pattern.

4. The speech processing device according to claim 2, wherein the registering means registers the word while associating the word with a category serving as the other information.

5. The speech processing device according to claim 2, wherein the registering means registers the other information while associating the other information with the matched pattern if the pattern determination means determines that the result of the recognition matches the pattern.

6. The speech processing device according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring means acquires the word by clustering the unknown words.

7. The speech processing device according to claim 1, wherein the network generated by the network generating means is a network of words and syllables.

8. The speech processing device according to claim 7, further comprising:

selecting means for selecting a path having the highest score in the network based on matching between the input utterance and the network; and

pronunciation acquiring means for acquiring a pronunciation for the unknown word based on the network containing the path selected by the selecting means.

9. The speech processing device according to claim 1, further comprising comparison means for comparing an acoustic score obtained by matching a predetermined duration of the input utterance against known words with an acoustic score obtained by recognition of a syllable typewriter, wherein the comparison means estimates that the duration corresponds to an unknown word if the acoustic score by recognition of a syllable typewriter is superior to the other score.

10. The speech processing device according to claim 9, wherein the comparison means compares the acoustic score obtained by matching a predetermined duration of the input utterance against known words with the acoustic score obtained by recognition of a syllable typewriter after the comparison means corrects the acoustic score obtained by recognition of a syllable typewriter.

11. A speech processing method for a speech processing device for processing an input utterance and registering a word contained in the input utterance based on the processing result, comprising the steps of:

recognizing a continuous input utterance;

determining whether or not a result of recognition in the recognition step contains an unknown word;

generating a network having paths including sub-words at times corresponding to word boundaries on both sides of the unknown word and a path not including the sub-words if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word;

acquiring a word corresponding to the unknown word if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word; and

registering the word acquired in the acquiring step while associating the word with other information.

12. A storage medium for storing a computer-readable program executed in a speech processing device for processing input utterances and registering words contained in the input utterances, wherein the computer-readable program comprises the steps of:

recognizing a continuous input utterance;

determining whether or not a result of recognition in the recognition step contains an unknown word;

generating a network having paths including sub-words at times corresponding to word boundaries on both sides of the unknown word and a path not including the sub-words if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word;

acquiring a word corresponding to the unknown word if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word; and

registering the word acquired in the acquiring step while associating the word with other information.

13. A program for a speech processing device for processing an input utterance and registering a word contained in the input utterance based on the processing result, wherein the program allows a computer to execute the steps of:

recognizing a continuous input utterance;

determining whether or not a result of recognition in the recognition step contains an unknown word;

generating a network having paths including sub-words at times corresponding to word boundaries on both sides of the unknown word and a path not including the sub-words if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word;

acquiring a word corresponding to the unknown word if the determining step determines that the result of recognition contains the unknown word; and

registering the word acquired in the acquiring step while associating the word with other information.