Applying Service Levels to Transcripts

• US 20070299652A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Multimodal Technologies Incorporated (3M Company)
• Original Assignee: Multimodal Technologies Incorporated (3M Company)
• Inventors: Koll, Detlef, Finke, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/00 Speech or audio signals analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis in musical instruments G10H
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof

Abstract

Speech is transcribed to produce a draft transcript of the speech. Portions of the transcript having a high priority are identified. For example, particular sections of the transcript may be identified as high-priority sections. As another example, portions of the transcript requiring human verification may be identified as high-priority sections. High-priority portions of the transcript are verified at a first time, without verifying other portions of the transcript. Such other portions may or may not be verified at a later time. Limiting verification, either initially or entirely, to high-priority portions of the transcript limits the time required to perform such verification, thereby making it feasible to verify the most important portions of the transcript at an early stage without introducing an undue delay into the transcription process. Verifying the other portions of the transcript later ensures that early verification of the high-priority portions does not sacrifice overall verification accuracy.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

(A) identifying a first semantic meaning of a first portion of a first transcript of speech;

(B) assigning a first service level to the first portion of the transcript based on the first semantic meaning;

(C) identifying a second semantic meaning of a second portion of the first transcript;

(D) assigning a second service level to the second portion of the transcript based on the second semantic meaning; and

(E) verifying the transcript in accordance with the first and second service levels.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein (E) comprises:

(E)(1) verifying the first portion at a first time; and

(E)(2) verifying the second portion at a second time that is later than the first time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein (A) comprises:

(A)(1) identifying a first plurality of semantic meanings of a first plurality of portions of the first transcript of speech;

wherein (B) comprises;

(B)(1) assigning the first service level to the first plurality of portions of the first transcript;

wherein (C) comprises;

(C)(1) identifying a second plurality of semantic meanings of a second plurality of portions of the first transcript;

wherein (D) comprises;

(D)(1) assigning the second service level to the second plurality of portions of the first transcript; and

and wherein (E) comprises;

(E)(1) verifying the first plurality of portions during a first time period; and

(E)(2) verifying the second plurality of portions during a second time period that is later than the first time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein (E) comprises:

(E) (1) verifying the first portion using a human verifier.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein (E) further comprises:

(E)(2) verifying the second portion using a computer-implemented verifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein (A) comprises identifying a document section type of the first portion of the first transcript, and wherein (B) comprises assigning the first service level to the first portion of the transcript based on the document section type.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein (B) comprises:

(B)(1) determining whether the first portion requires verification by a human; and

(B)(2) assigning the first service level to the first portion based on whether the first portion requires verification by a human.

8. An apparatus comprising:

first meaning identification means for identifying a first semantic meaning of a first portion of a first transcript of speech;

first service level assignment means for assigning a first service level to the first portion of the transcript based on the first semantic meaning;

second meaning identification means for identifying a second semantic meaning of a second portion of the first transcript;

second service level assignment means for assigning a second service level to the second portion of the transcript based on the second semantic meaning; and

verification means for verifying the transcript in accordance with the first and second service levels.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the verification means comprises:

means for verifying the first portion at a first time; and

means for verifying the second portion at a second time that is later than the first time.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first meaning identification means comprises means for identifying a document section type of the first portion of the first transcript, and wherein the first service level assignment means comprises means for assigning the first service level to the first portion of the transcript based on the document section type.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first service level assignment means comprises:

means for determining whether the first portion requires verification by a human; and

means for assigning the first service level to the first portion based on whether the first portion requires verification by a human.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

(A) identifying a first semantic meaning of a first transcript of first speech;

(B) assigning a first service level to the first transcript based on the first semantic meaning;

(C) identifying a second semantic meaning of a second transcript of second speech;

(D) assigning a second service level to the second transcript based on the second semantic meaning; and

(E) verifying the first and second transcripts in accordance with the first and second service levels, respectively.

13. An apparatus comprising:

means for identifying a first semantic meaning of a first transcript of first speech;

means for assigning a first service level to the first transcript based on the first semantic meaning;

means for identifying a second semantic meaning of a second transcript of second speech;

means for assigning a second service level to the second transcript based on the second semantic meaning; and

means for verifying the first and second transcripts in accordance with the first and second service levels, respectively.