System and method for automating transcription services

An apparatus for substantially simplifying the production of a foreign language speech model for said speech recognition program wherein said foreign language provides a sufficient set of words to teach the voice dictation recording based upon a transcribed file produced by a human transcriptionist and a written text produced by a speech recognition program, wherein said written text is at least temporarily synchronized to said voice dictation recording, said apparatus comprising:

• means for sequentially comparing a copy of said written text with said transcribed file resulting in a sequential list of unmatched words culled from said copy of said written text, said sequential list having a beginning, an end and a current unmatched word, said current unmatched word being successively advanced from said beginning to said end;
• means for incrementally searching for said current unmatched word contemporaneously within a first buffer associated with the speech recognition program containing said written text and a second buffer associated with said sequential list;
• and
• means for correcting said current unmatched word in said second buffer, said correcting means including means for displaying said current unmatched word in a manner substantially visually isolated from other text in said copy of said written text and means for playing a portion of said synchronized voice dictation recording from said first buffer associated with said current unmatched word.

A method for automating transcription services for one or more voice users in a system including a manual transcription station and a speech recognition program, said method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a profile for each of the voice users, the profile containing a training status;
• creating a uniquely identified voice dictation file from a current voice user;
• choosing the training status of the current voice user from the group of enrollment, training, automated and stop automation;
• routing the uniquely identified voice dictation file to at least one of the manual transcription station and the speech recognition program based on the training status;
• receiving the uniquely identified voice dictation file in at least one of the manual transcription station and the speech recognition program;
• creating a transcribed file at the manual transcription station for each received uniquely identified voice dictation file;
• automatically creating a written text with the speech recognition program for each received uniquely identified voice dictation file if the training status of the current user is training or automated;
• manually establishing a verbatim file if the training status of the current user is enrollment or training;
• training the speech recognition program with an acoustic model for the current user using the verbatim file and the uniquely identified voice dictation file if the training status of the current user is enrollment or training;
• returning the transcribed file to the current user if the training status of the current user is enrollment or training;
• and
• returning the written text to the current user if the training status of the current user is automated.

A method for testing the skills of a human transcriptionist using a known accurate written text created by a speech recognition program and a transcribed file created by the human transcriptionist, the method comprising:

• sequentially comparing a copy of the written text with the transcribed file resulting in a sequential list of unmatched words culled from the copy of the written text, the sequential list having a beginning, an end and a current unmatched word, the current unmatched word being successively advanced from the beginning to the end;
• incrementally searching for the current unmatched word contemporaneously within a first buffer associated with the speech recognition program containing the written text and a second buffer associated with the sequential list;
• and
• displaying the current unmatched word in a manner substantially visually isolated from other text in the copy of the written text and playing a portion of the synchronized voice dictation recording from the first buffer associated with the current unmatched word;
• and
• calculating the accuracy rate of the human transcriptionist.