Abstract:
A method and system for transcribing speech on demand using a transcription portlet. The method can include the step of providing a transcription portlet including user data having personalized speech profiles for individual users. The transcription portlet can receive audio data. A user associated with the audio data can be identified. A personalized speech profile corresponding to the identified user can be determined. The audio data can be transcribed using the determined personalized speech profile to generate transcribed text. The transcription portlet can present the transcribed text.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to the field of automatic speech recognition and more particularly to a method and system for transcription on demand.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Computer based transcription of speech has traditionally been a client-server model application, in which transcription jobs are captured by the client and submitted to servers for processing. Speech recognition software is loaded and run on the servers. In order to use the transcription service, a user of the software must first enroll and create a user profile, typically by reading a standardized script in order that the software can recognize that user&#39;s distinctive speech patterns. The user profile is typically stored on the same server as the speech recognition software. Alternatively, the transcription itself may be done manually by a typist, and fed back into the system. Upon transcription, the results are made available in a separate database for the clients to query for the results. This type of system has a large overhead in maintaining hundreds of users and managing their enrollment data together with thousands of jobs, and cannot be utilized on demand.  
         [0005]     Known transcription systems are difficult to scale so that a large number of users can input different audio data at the same time for retrieval. Users must typically wait while their transcription is processed, which may involve the use of manual typing and correction. This creates delays for users, which is not desirable.  
         [0006]     For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,614 to Kahn et al. (Kahn) discloses one such known transcription system. Kahn discloses a transcription server, which handles multiple users by creating a user profile in a directory system, using a sub-directory for each user. A human transcriptionist creates transcribed files for each received voice dictation file during a training period. Once a user has progressed past the training period, the dictation file is routed to a Speech Recognition Program. A transcription session is run, and any speech adaptation is done by manually correcting the text and sending it for correction. Such a speech recognition system, using a particular user&#39;s speech profile, has to be run on the system where the particular user&#39;s directory exists. In addition, the system described in this reference is a batch mode system where the data is submitted, queued, and then run at a time convenient for the server.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention provides a computer-implemented method and system for automatic speech recognition (ASR) text transcription on demand.  
         [0008]     One aspect of the invention relates to a method which includes providing a transcription portlet including user data having personalized speech profiles for individual users. The transcription portlet can receive audio data. A user associated with the audio data can be identified. A personalized speech profile corresponding to the identified user can be determined. The audio data can be transcribed using the determined personalized speech profile to generate transcribed text. The transcription portlet can present the transcribed text.  
         [0009]     Another aspect of the present invention relates to a transcription system which includes a Web portal and at least one transcription server. The Web portal can include a transcription portlet that is configured for receiving user provided audio data, using at least one transcription server to transcribe the audio data into transcribed text, and presenting the transcribed text to a user that provided the audio data.  
         [0010]     It should be noted that the invention can be implemented as a program for controlling a computer to implement the functions described herein, or a program for enabling a computer to perform the process corresponding to the steps disclosed herein. This program may be provided by storing the program in a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, any other recording medium, or distributed via a network.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]     There are shown in the drawings, embodiments that are presently preferred; it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a multimodal communication environment in which a system according to one embodiment of the present invention can be used.  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of a system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a method according to another embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 4  is an illustrative image of a Web interface suitable for viewing transcription results. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a multimodal communications environment  100  in which a system  200  for transcribing speech on demand can be used, according to the present invention. As illustrated, the communication environment  100  can include a communications network  110 . The communications network  110  can include, but is not limited to, a local area network, a wide area network, a public switched telephone network, a wireless or mobile communications network, or the Internet. Illustratively, the system  200  is also able to electronically communicate via another or the same communications network  110  to a computer system  120  and to a telephone  130  for transcription input and output. The system  200  is also able to electronically communicate with a computer system  140  operated by a correctionist, for correcting transcribed speech.  
         [0017]     It will be readily apparent from the ensuing description that the illustrated multimodal communications environment  100  is but one type of multimodal communications environment in which the system  200  can be advantageously employed. Alternative multimodal communications environments, for example, can include various subsets of the different components illustratively shown.  
         [0018]     Referring additionally to  FIG. 2 , the system  200  illustratively includes one or more transcription servers  210 , and a Web/portal server  220 . The transcription servers  210  have an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine loaded thereon. Any suitable ASR may be used, such as IBM&#39;s Recognition Engine software. The Web/portal server  220  has a portal server application loaded onto it, such as IBM&#39;s WebSphere Portal Server software. Additionally, a transcription portlet is loaded on the Web/portal server, which controls the flow of data between the components of the system  200 . One or more communications devices and an application program interface (API) through which the application program is linked may also be included.  
         [0019]     It should be appreciated that the arrangements shown in  FIG. 2  are for illustrative purposes only and that the invention is not limited in this regard. The functionality attributable to the various components can be combined or separated in a different manner than those illustrated herein. For instance, the portal server and the transcription portlet can be implemented as a single software component in another arrangement of the present invention. The illustrated communications components are representative only, and it should be appreciated that any communications component capable of sending and/or receiving an audio file and/or transcribed text can be utilized in arrangements of the present invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a method  300  of speech transcription according to aspects of the present invention. If a user wishes to have audio data transcribed into text, the user can request access to the system  200 . The method  300  can begin at step  310 . In step  310  an administrator adds a transcription portlet to the user&#39;s profile. This step can also be achieved by the user joining the system  200 , for example, by logging on to an Internet based application, and setting up their own profile following prompts. In step  320 , once the transcription portlet has been added to the user&#39;s profile, the user logs in to the portal. The user may use any suitable communications device to log in to the portal, including but not limited to a telephone, a mobile telephone with a Web browser, a computer with microphone attached, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.  
         [0021]     The portal server program (not shown) queries the enrollment data for the user in step  330 . If the user is a new user of the system, they are prompted for enrollment. The enrollment process may include capturing a scripted audio file for creation of the user&#39;s personalization profile. The script may be displayed to the user in the user&#39;s Web browser or may be sent to the user in any suitable means, such as by e-mail. The user reads the script and sends the captured audio file to the system  200 . The audio file is collected and enrollment is run for the user on the speech recognition engine to create a speech profile for the user in their enrollment data. The enrollment data is saved in the Portal Personalization database.  
         [0022]     Once a user has been enrolled, the user may begin to upload the audio data that is to be transcribed. In step  340  the audio data is captured from either the telephone or the microphone connected to the browser, or from the API. The audio may be captured by any suitable means, and the system is preferably multi-modal so that a user can select any appropriate audio capture means that the user wishes to use, and the invention advantageously is not limited in this regard. It will be understood that any application which has audio capabilities can use the transcription portlet loaded on the portal server to forward the audio file to the transcription server. The audio may be captured by the portlet using any suitable voice capture program, such as IBM&#39;s WebSphere Voice Server.  
         [0023]     For example, the voice server may run a program, such as VoiceXML over the telephone, or the system may use an applet that captures the audio. In another example, the audio may be attached to an email and sent to a voice server or other suitable server or application. For instance, in one arrangement, a mail application can capture audio from an audio source, can transcribe the captured audio into text, and can convey the captured audio and/or transcribed text via email as an attachment. It should be noted that the system as described can advantageously use VoiceXML without the need for any extensions.  
         [0024]     In step  350 , the transcription portlet loads the user speech profile from the Portal Personalization database and starts a transcription session by sending the audio file and the user speech profile to the transcription server  210 . The user data is stored on the portal server  220 , and is fed to the transcription server  210  only at the time that a job is to be run on the transcription server. Thus, any number of transcription servers  210  may be connected to the system  200 , and the portal server  220  can route the transcription job to any suitable transcription server  210  in order to receive the transcription results in the quickest possible time. This enables the system to be scaled easily so that a large number of users can request transcription at the same time, because more transcription servers  210  can be added to the system  200  as the need arises, without any requirement of copying and updating the Portal Personalization database containing the user profiles to each server.  
         [0025]     The portal server  220  also handles a GUI portlet for correction/updating of the user profile. The results are returned to the user either via email, a Web browser, Text-to-Speech, as form results, or via API callback or as a log to a database. The transcribed text may be transmitted to the user in any desired format, such as html. A user, for example using a computer  120 , can then view the transcription results. The results may be displayed using a Web interface  400 , such as that shown illustratively in  FIG. 4 . The Web interface  400  may include user ID data  410 , audio input buttons  420  to operate a microphone attached to the computer running the Web interface, transcription job lists  430  and other data. Alternatively, the results may be fed back to the same interface that the user uses to upload the audio data. This can be useful in many instances, for example, a physician may view images, such as patient scans, using an image viewing portal. The image viewing portal may include an audio portal that the physician may use for dictation of notes while viewing the images. The transcribed text can be returned to the audio portal from the Web/portal server quickly enough and in near real-time such that the physician can review the transcribed text while the images are still on screen. The physician can then review the text and save the results to the patient&#39;s file, or can delegate the correction of any errors to a correctionist. In another example, the system  200  can be used to reduce bandwidth when a user desires to reply to an e-mail using voice. If audio files are recorded and sent with the e-mail, this requires a large bandwidth to transfer the audio files between users. Using the transcription portlet, the email Portlet can capture audio and send it to the transcription system  200  to transcribe the audio and email only the text.  
         [0026]     The system  200  improves its accuracy over time by adaptation. A correctionist  260  may log in to the system  200 , and may correct the transcribed text. Checking by a correctionist may be carried out on a random basis, or may be done for the first few documents for a particular user that are transcribed by the system. As corrections are made to documents, the corrections are used to adapt and update the user&#39;s speech profile for improved accuracy. Alternatively, or in addition, the user may correct the document upon receipt, and may upload the corrections for review either by the system or by a correctionist. Yet further, the user may record a second audio file with the corrections which may be uploaded to the system with the transcribed text for correction of the errors. The corrections are sent back to the recognition engine, which runs a correction session against the data, and the resulting user data is saved to the Portal Personalization database so that the user&#39;s personalized speech profile is updated for use on the next transcription job for that user.  
         [0027]     The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention can be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software can be a general purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.  
         [0028]     The present invention also can be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.  
         [0029]     This invention can be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. Accordingly, reference should be made to the following claims, rather than to the foregoing specification, as indicating the scope of the invention.