Search optimization for continuous speech recognition

A method for continuous speech recognition

• providing speech input to a continuous speech recognizer,
• providing to the continuous speech recognizer an acoustic model comprising a set of Hidden Markov Models, and a language model comprising both grammar and semantic information,
• performing recognition of speech input using semantic information to eliminate semantically null words from the N-best list of words and restrict searching to an N-best list of salient words,
• and performing word matching to output from the speech recognizer the N-best salient word sequences.

A system for continuous speech recognition

• comprising a continuous speech recognizer,
• input means for providing speech input to the continuous speech recognizer,
• means for providing to the continuous speech recognizer an acoustic model comprising a set of Hidden Markov Models, and a language model comprising both grammar and semantic information,
• the continuous speech recognizer comprising means for performing recognition of speech input using the semantic information for eliminating semantically null words from the N-best list of words and thereby restricting searching to an N-best list of salient words, and performing word matching to output the N-best salient word sequences.

A spoken language processing system for speech recognition comprising:

• a continuous speech recognition component (CSR)
• a natural language understanding component (NLU)
• means for providing speech input to the CSR,
• means for providing acoustic-phonetic knowledge to the CSR comprising a set of Hidden Markov Models;
• means for providing language knowledge comprising grammar and statistical models to the CSR, and means for providing semantic knowledge the NLU, and
• means for providing semantic knowledge to the CSR,
• the CSR being operable for searching using the semantic knowledge to constrain the search to an N-best list of salient words, and perform word matching to output N-best list of salient words to the NLU for interpretation of meaning.

A method for continuous speech recognition using a spoken language system comprising a continuous speech recognition component (CSR) linked to a natural language understanding component (NLU)

• providing speech input to the CSR
• providing acoustic-phonetic knowledge to the CSR comprising a set of Hidden Markov Models;
• providing language knowledge comprising grammar and statistical models to the CSR;
• providing language knowledge semantic knowledge to the CSR;
• performing searching with the CSR using the semantic knowledge to constrain the search to an N-best list of salient words comprising semantically meaningful words of the N-best list of words,
• and performing word matching to output the N-best salient word sequences to the NLU.