Method and apparatus for transmitting speech activity in distributed voice recognition systems

A wireless subscriber station, comprising:

• means for receiving an acoustic speech signal, including periods of speech and non-speech, from a user of the wireless subscriber station, and for converting the acoustic speech signal to an electrical speech signal;
• means for detecting voice activity information related to the electrical speech signal;
• means, operating substantially in parallel to the means for detecting voice activity, for identifying feature extraction information related to the electrical speech signal;
• means for selectively utilizing the detected voice activity information and the feature extraction information to form advanced front end data;
• and
• means for transmitting the detected voice activity information over a first wireless communication channel to a wireless base station, and
• means for transmitting the feature extraction information over a second wireless communication channel, separate from the first wireless communication channel, to the wireless base station.

A method of operating a distributed speech recognition system employed by a wireless subscriber station, comprising:

• receiving an acoustic speech signal, including periods of speech and non-speech, from a user of the wireless subscriber station;
• converting the acoustic speech signal to electrical speech data;
• extracting voice activity data from the electrical speech data;
• identifying feature extraction data from the electrical speech data;
• and
• transmitting the detected voice activity information over a first wireless communication channel to a wireless base station, and
• transmitting the feature extraction information over a second wireless communication channel, separate from the first wireless communication channel, to the wireless base station.

A method of operating a distributed speech recognition service, comprising:

• performing, by a wireless subscriber station, a first portion of the distributed speech recognition service, comprising:
• receiving an acoustic speech signal, including periods of speech and non-speech, from a user of the wireless subscriber station;
• converting the acoustic speech signal to an electrical speech signal;
• assembling detected voice activity information related to the electrical speech signal;
• identifying feature extraction information related to the electrical speech signal;
• selectively utilizing the detected voice activity information and the feature extraction information;
• and
• transmitting the detected voice activity information over a first wireless communication channel to a wireless base station, and
• transmitting the feature extraction information over a second wireless communication channel, separate from the first wireless communication channel, to the wireless base station;
• and
• performing, by a wireless base station, a second portion of the distributed speech recognition service, comprising:
• receiving the detected voice activity information over the first wireless communication channel and the feature extraction information over the second wireless communication channel;
• determining a linguistic estimate of the electrical speech signal responsive to receiving the detected voice activity information over the first wireless communication channel and the feature extraction information over the second wireless communication channel;
• and
• transmitting information over a third wireless communication channel from the wireless base station to the wireless subscriber station responsive to the linguistic estimate of the electrical speech signal for controlling the wireless subscriber station.

A method of operating a speech recognition service employed by a wireless based station, comprising:

• receiving from a wireless subscriber station advanced front end data, including detected voice activity information sent over a first wireless communication channel and feature extraction information send over a second wireless communication channel, separate from the first wireless communication channel, wherein the wireless subscriber station comprises:
• receiving an acoustic speech signal, including periods of speech and non-speech, from a user of the wireless subscriber station;
• converting the acoustic speech signal to an electrical speech signal;
• assembling the detected voice activity information related to the electrical speech signal;
• identifying feature extraction information related to the electrical speech signal;
• and
• selectively utilizing the detected voice activity information and the feature extraction information to form the advanced front end data;
• determining a linguistic estimate of the electrical speech signal responsive to receiving the advanced front end data;
• and
• transmitting information over a third wireless communication channel from the wireless base station to the wireless subscriber station responsive to the linguistic estimate of the electrical speech signal for controlling the wireless subscriber station.