Patent ID: 8543395

Claim:
A method of processing audio signals, comprising: receiving an audio signal comprising vocal elements; a processor performing a forward alignment of the vocal elements in a forward direction with corresponding textual transcriptions of the vocal elements; based on the forward alignment, determining forward timing boundary information associated with an elapsed amount of time for a duration of a portion of the vocal elements processed in the forward direction; the processor performing a reverse alignment of the vocal elements processed in a reverse direction with corresponding reverse textual transcriptions of the vocal elements; determining reverse timing boundary information associated with an elapsed amount of time for a duration of the portion of the vocal elements processed in the reverse direction; processing the reverse alignment of the vocal elements and the reverse timing boundary information so as to provide the reverse alignment and the reverse timing boundary information in a forward direction and establish a second forward alignment of the vocal elements and a second forward timing boundary information; and based on a comparison between the forward timing boundary information and the second forward timing boundary information, outputting a confidence metric indicating a level of certainty for at least one of the forward timing boundary information and the second forward timing boundary information.