Patent ID: 7734460

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of processing speech using a computer with a processor, comprising: receiving a speech signal; generating, with the processor, a lattice having a plurality of possible sequences, each sequence having a plurality of nodes representing a plurality of hypothesized linguistic units and transitions connecting the linguistic units for the received speech signal; converting, with the processor, each of the plurality of nodes to an expanded node such that each expanded node is representative of previous nodes in the sequence and future nodes in the sequence; generating, with the processor, scores for each of the plurality of expanded nodes; storing the scores for the expanded nodes; identifying, with the processor, a second expanded node in the lattice that has similar previous nodes and similar future nodes to a given one of the expanded nodes; generating a score for the second expanded node using the stored score for the given one of the expanded nodes; generating scores for each possible sequence in the plurality of possible sequences based on the scores for the expanded nodes and the second expanded node; comparing, with the processor, the scores for each possible sequence; and determining, with the processor, a best possible sequence from the plurality of possible sequences based on the scores for each possible sequence.