US 6,789,062 B1 · Automatically retraining a speech recognition system

Abstract

A telephone-based interactive speech recognition system is retrained using variable weighting and incremental retraining. Variable weighting involves changing the relative influence of particular measurement data to be reflected in a statistical model. Statistical model data is determined based upon an initial set of measurement data determined from an initial set of speech utterances. When new statistical model data is to be generated to reflect new measurement data determined from new speech utterances, a weighting factor is applied to the new measurement data to generate weighted new measurement data. The new statistical model data is then determined based upon the initial set of measurement data and the weighted new measurement data. Incremental retraining involves generating new statistical model data using prior statistical model data to reduce the amount of prior measurement data that must be maintained and processed. When prior statistical model data needs to be updated to reflect characteristics and attributes of new speech utterances, statistical model data is generated for the new speech utterances. Then the prior statistical model data and the statistical model data for the new measurement data are processed to generate the new statistical model data.

Claims32

Dependent claims

A method for automatically updating a statistical model for a speech recognition system comprising:

accepting data representing a plurality of individual prior speech utterances on which the statistical model is based;
accepting data representing one or more individual new speech utterances;
and
generating an updated statistical model for use by the speech recognition system to recognize speech utterances, including relatively weighting the data representing the plurality of individual prior speech utterances and the data representing the one or more individual new speech utterances according to a weighting factor.

1 more element

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for automatically retraining a telephone-based interactive speech recognition system, the one or more sequences of one or more instructions including instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

selecting a portion of prior measurement data for a prior set of speech utterances based upon a set of measurement data selection criteria;
retrieving the portion of prior measurement data;
determining new measurement data for a new set of speech utterances;
applying a weighting factor to the new measurement data to generate weighted new measurement data;
and
generating new statistical model data for use by the telephone-based interactive speech recognition system, including using the portion of prior measurement data and the weighted new measurement data.

3 more elements

A telephone-based interactive speech recognition system comprising:

a storage medium;
and
a retraining mechanism communicatively coupled to the storage medium, wherein the retraining mechanism is configured to
select a portion of prior measurement data for a prior set of speech utterances based upon a set of measurement data selection criteria,
retrieve the portion of prior measurement data from the storage medium,
determine new measurement data for a new set of speech utterances,
apply a weighting factor to the new measurement data to generate weighted new measurement data, and
generate new statistical model data for use by the telephone-based interactive speech recognition system, including using the portion of prior measurement data and the weighted new measurement data.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Automatically retraining a speech recognition system

Life of this patent

Automatically retraining a speech recognition system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims32