Patent ID: 7054812

Claim:
An apparatus for determining a sequence of sub-word unit labels representative of at least two word alternatives output by a word recognition unit in response to a common input word to be recognised, the apparatus comprising: a receiver operable to receive a first sequence of sub-word unit labels representative of a first one of said at least two word alternatives output by said word recognition unit and operable to receive a second sequence of sub-word unit labels representative of a second one of said at least two word alternatives output by said word recognition unit; an aligner operable to align and to compare sub-word unit labels of the first sequence with sub-word unit labels of the second sequence to form a number of aligned pairs of sub-word unit labels to determine a best aligned pair of sub-word unit labels; and a processor operable to process the best aligned pair of sub-word unit labels formed by said aligner, to determine an output sequence of sub-word unit labels which is different from the first and second sequences of sub-word unit labels and which is representative of the at least two word alternatives, wherein said processor is operable to determine said output sequence of sub-word unit labels by determining, for each aligned pair of sub-word unit labels, a sub-word unit label that is confusingly similar to the first and second sub-word unit labels of the aligned pair.