Patent ID: 7580838
Filing Date: 2009-08-25
Classification: G06F,G10L

Abstract:
1. A method of recognizing punctuation in computer-implemented speech recognition in a computer having a processor responsive to instruction for performing the method of recognizing punctuation, the method comprising: receiving the instructions by the processor, and executing the instructions for: performing speech recognition on an utterance to produce a recognition result for the utterance; identifying a non-verbalized punctuation mark in a recognition result including predicting the non-verbalized punctuation mark using at least one text feature and at least one acoustic feature related to the utterance; inserting the non-verbalized punctuation mark into the recognition result; and formatting the recognition result based on the identification of the non-verbalized punctuation mark after the non-verbalized punctuation mark has been inserted in the recognition result; wherein the acoustic feature includes one or more of a length of a period of silence and a function of pitch of words near the period of silence, the acoustic feature including an average pitch of words near the period of silence and a function of a pitch of words adjacent to the word gap, the acoustic features based on word adjacent to the word gap including the average pitch of the words two back from the word gap and the a ratio of the average pitch of words one forward and one back from the word gap.