System and method for combining phonetic and automatic speech recognition search

A method for searching an audio recording using text, the method comprising:

• accepting a text search query comprising a plurality of words;
• searching over an ASR index created for an audio recording using the text search query to produce ASR search results, the ASR search results comprising words, each word associated with a confidence score;
• for each of the words comprised in the ASR search results associated with a confidence score below a threshold and having one or more preceding words in the ASR index and one or more subsequent words in the ASR index, searching over a phonetic representation of the audio recording for the word associated with a confidence score below the threshold where it occurs in the audio recording after the one or more preceding words and in the audio recording before the one or more subsequent words, to produce phonetic search results;
• and
• returning as search results ASR search results and phonetic search results.

A system for searching an audio recording using text, the system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a controller configured to:
• accept a text search query comprising a plurality of words;
• search over an ASR index created for an audio recording using the text search query to produce ASR search results, the ASR search results comprising words, each word associated with a confidence score;
• for each of the words comprised in the ASR search results associated with a confidence score below a threshold and having one or more preceding words in the ASR index and one or more subsequent words in the ASR index, search over a phonetic representation of the audio recording for the word associated with a confidence score below the threshold where it occurs in the audio recording after the one or more preceding words and in the audio recording before the one or more subsequent words, to produce phonetic search results;
• and
• return as search results ASR search results and phonetic search results.