SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION OF REGIONAL ACCENTS BASED ON STATISTICAL INFORMATION AND USER CORRECTIONS

• US 20170148432A1
• Filed: 11/24/2015
• Published: 05/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Katz, Neil, Smart, Robert, Ugave, Viney A., Jaramillo, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,468,016 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/005 Language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/0635 updating or merging of old and new templates; Mean values; Weighting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/226 using non-speech characteristics

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a system for compensating for dialects and accents comprising an automatic speech recognition system comprising an automatic speech recognition device that is operative to receive an utterance in an acoustic format from a user with a user interface; a speech to text conversion engine that is operative to receive the utterance from the automatic speech recognition device and to prepare a textual statement of the utterance; and a correction database that is operative to store textual statements of all utterances; where the correction database is operative to secure a corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine and adds it to the corrections database if the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance is not available.

Claims

1. A system for compensating for dialects and accents comprising:

an automatic speech recognition system comprising;

an automatic speech recognition device that is operative to receive an utterance in an acoustic format from a user with a user interface;

a speech to text conversion engine that is operative to receive the utterance from the automatic speech recognition device and to prepare a textual statement of the utterance; and

a correction database that is operative to store textual statements of all utterances;

where the correction database is operative to secure a corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine and adds it to the corrections database if the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance is not available.

2. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device is further operative to communicate with the correction database to determine whether a corrected textual statement of the utterance is available prior to adding the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance to the database.

3. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device is further operative to communicate with the user to send to the user the speech to text conversion obtained from the speech to text conversion engine.

4. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device is further operative to communicate with the user to receive location data from the user interface and to derive context data thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device further comprises a sound transducer for reducing extraneous noise and providing an acoustically accurate signal to the speech to text conversion engine.

6. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device further comprises a processor that logs a location of the user and compares the speech to text conversion obtained from the speech to text conversion engine against a dialect database to correct for accents or dialects.

7. The system of claim 1, where the automatic speech recognition device is further operative to query databases to obtain dialect data that provides a correlation between a user'"'"'s history and his/her dialect or accent.

8. The system of claim 1, where the speech to text engine provides the user with a text conversion of his speech and where the automatic speech recognition system is operative to afford the user an opportunity to correct the text conversion of his speech.

9. The system of claim 8, where the user corrected text conversion is added to the correction database along with a tag that contains dialect information.

10. A method comprising:

transmitting an utterance in an acoustic format to an automatic speech recognition system comprising;

an automatic speech recognition device that is operative to receive an utterance in an acoustic format from a mobile user with a user interface;

a speech to text conversion engine that is operative to receive the utterance from the automatic speech recognition device and to prepare a textual statement of the utterance; and

a correction database that is operative to store textual statements of all utterances;

securing from the correction database a corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine; and

adding the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine to the corrections database if the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance is not available.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising obtaining location data from the user interface and deriving context data for the user thereof.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising performing sound filtering for reducing extraneous noise on the user'"'"'s speech and providing an acoustically accurate signal to the speech to text conversion engine.

13. The method of claim 10, where the automatic speech recognition device further logs a location of the mobile user and compares the speech to text conversion obtained from the speech to text conversion engine against a dialect database to correct for accents or dialects.

14. The method of claim 10, where the automatic speech recognition further queries databases to obtain dialect data that provides a correlation between a user'"'"'s history and his/her dialect or accent.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing the user with a text conversion of his/her speech.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising offering the user an opportunity to correct the text conversion of his speech.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising adding a user corrected text conversion with a tag that contains dialect information to the correction database.

18. A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising;

transmitting an utterance in an acoustic format to an automatic speech recognition system comprising;

an automatic speech recognition device that is operative to receive an utterance in an acoustic format from a mobile user with a user interface;

a speech to text conversion engine that is operative to receive the utterance from the automatic speech recognition device and to prepare a textual statement of the utterance; and

a correction database that is operative to store textual statements of all utterances;

securing from the correction database a corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine; and

adding the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance from the speech to text conversion engine to the corrections database if the corrected transcript of the textual statement of the utterance is not available.