Patent ID: 7219062
Filing Date: 2007-05-15
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A speech recognition system comprising: an acoustic detector for detecting speech utterances of a speaker using an audio input device; a visual detector for detecting at least one facial characteristic associated with speech utterances of the speaker; a processing arrangement connected to be responsive to the acoustic and visual detectors for deriving a signal having first and second values respectively indicative of the speaker making and not making speech utterances such that the first value is derived in response to the acoustic detector detecting a finite, nonzero acoustic response while the visual detector detects at least one facial characteristic associated with speech utterance of the speaker, said processing arrangement comprising a circular buffer for continuously receiving and maintaining a most recent time period of the acoustic response supplied to said audio input device, said time period having a duration corresponding to that predefined for a typical speech utterance; and a speech recognizer for deriving an output indicative of the speech utterances as detected only by the acoustic detector, the speech recognizer being connected to be responsive to the acoustic detector in response to the signal having the first value.