Patent ID: 7228276

Claim:
A voice recognition apparatus for processing an input voice and updating a dictionary used in a language processor in accordance with a result of the processing of the input voice, said voice recognition apparatus comprising: cluster detection means for detecting, from existing clusters obtained by clustering voices, a cluster to which said input voice is to be added as a new member; cluster division means for employing said input voice as the new member of the cluster detected by said cluster detection means and dividing said cluster depending on members of said cluster; and update means for updating the dictionary on the basis of a result of division performed by said cluster division means wherein the dictionary stores a phoneme sequence of a vocabulary to be recognized, and wherein the update means updates the dictionary by adding, as a new entry to the dictionary, a phoneme sequence of a voice corresponding to a representative member representing members of a cluster created by the division or by replacing an entry of the dictionary with the phoneme sequence of the voice corresponding to the representative member representing members of the cluster created by the division.