Patent ID: 6868381

Claim:
An apparatus for generating a complex speech model associated to a given speech element, said complex speech model being suitable for use by a speech recognition device during speech recognition, said apparatus comprising: an input for receiving an input signal derived from a spoken utterance that contains at least one speech element that potentially matches the given speech element; a model group associated to the given speech element, said model group comprising a plurality of speech models, each speech model of said plurality of speech models being a different representation of the given speech element, said model group comprising two sets of speech models namely a first set having speech models of a first type and a second set having speech models of a second type, each speech model of a first type in said first set being associated to a speech model of the second type in the second set; a processing unit coupled to the input for; a) processing the input signal and the model group to generate a hybrid speech model associated to the given speech element said hybrid speech model being a weighted combination of speech models of the first type in said plurality of speech models effected on the basis of the input signal derived from the spoken utterance; b) processing the hybrid speech model to generate the complex speech model associated to the given speech element, said complex speech model being a weighted combination of speech models of the second type in said plurality of speech models; an output for releasing signal indicative of said complex speech model associated to the given speech element in a format suitable for use by a speech recognition device.