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US6421640B1 Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Speech recognition method using confidence measure evaluation

Assignee: Nuance Communications Inc
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Filing: 1999-09-13
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Granted: 2002-07-16
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Expires: 2019-09-13
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Abstract

Abstract The invention relates to a method of automatically recognizing speech utterances, in which a recognition result is evaluated by means of a first confidence measure and a plurality of second confidence measures determined for a recognition result is automatically combined for determining the first confidence measure. To reduce the resultant error rate in the assessment of the correctness of a recognition result, the method is characterized in that the determination of the parameters weighting the combination of the second confidence measures is based on a minimization of a cross-entropy-error measure. A further improvement is achieved by means of a post-processing operation based on the maximization of the Gardner-Derrida error function.

Inventors

  • 👤 Jannes G. A. Dolfing
  • 👤 Andreas Wendemuth

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 23:01
CPC Classifications
G; G10; G10L; G10L15/00; G10L15/08; G10L15/10

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim 74 words
A method of automatically recognizing speech utterances, the method comprising the steps of: evaluating a recognition result using an initial confidence measure and a plurality of second confidence measures determined for a recognition result, determining a resulting confidence measure by combining the initial confidence measure and the plurality of second confidence measures, wherein the determining step includes, determining parameters for the combining of the second confidence measures using a minimization of a cross-entropy-error measure.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 74 words
A method of automatically recognizing speech utterances, the method comprising the steps of: evaluating a recognition result using an initial confidence measure and a plurality of second confidence measures determined for a recognition result, determining a resulting confidence measure by combining the initial confidence measure and the plurality of second confidence measures, wherein the determining step includes, determining parameters for the combining of the second confidence measures using a minimization of a cross-entropy-error measure.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 22 words
The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the resulting confidence measure is a linear combination of the second confidence measures.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 48 words
The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in the determination of the parameters weighting the combination of the second confidence measures on the basis of the minimization of the cross-entropy-error measure, a post-processing operation is performed on the basis of maximization of the Gardner-Derrida error function.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 39 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the combination of the second confidence measures is preceded by a pre-processing operation in which the second confidence measures are formed by multiplication of a plurality third rough confidence measures.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 49 words
The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of determining the modified second confidence measures, every second confidence measure is multiplied by every other second confidence measure, and in that the modified second confidence measures are subjected to said combination for forming the resulting confidence measure.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 52 words
The method of automatically recognizing speech utterances, in which a recognition result is evaluated by means of a confidence measure, as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the confidence measure is adapted by means of a user and/or speech utterance-specific offset before comparison with a threshold value serving as the decision limit.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 23 words
The speech recognition system comprising processing units for evaluating a recognition result by means of a method as claimed in claim 1 .

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US5267345A Cited
US5371809A Cited
US5710866A Cited
US6256609B1 Cited

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 2005-07-15 2006-01-14 2006-07-16 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2009-07-15 2010-01-14 2010-07-16 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2013-07-15 2014-01-14 2014-07-16 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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