Patent ID: 7401017

Claim:
A speech recognition system for recognizing spoken input received from a source of the spoken input coupled to the speech recognition system wherein the speech recognition system comprises: a. input means for receiving the spoken input from the source of the spoken input; and b. processing means coupled to the input means for performing a first pass speech recognition technique on the spoken input and for forming first pass results; wherein the first pass results identify a speech expression as corresponding to the spoken input with a corresponding score and wherein a characteristic of the spoken input is identified based upon the first pass results, the processing means selectively performs a second pass speech recognition technique on the spoken input according to the first pass results, wherein the second pass speech recognition technique is performed on the spoken input when the corresponding score is below a predetermined threshold and the second pass speech recognition technique is selected from a plurality of speech recognition techniques according to the characteristic of the spoken input identified by the first pass, and further the characteristic of the spoken input is gender of a speaker of the spoken input.