Patent ID: 7454342

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving an audio data stream and a video data stream; and performing continuous speech recognition based on the audio and video data streams using a plurality of hidden Markov models (HMMs) including at least one HMM corresponding to each data stream, the HMM having a coupled node, a mixture node and an observable node, the coupled node and the mixture node being hidden, the coupled node at a time slot being subject to a separate coupled node of a separate HMM of the plurality of HMMs at a preceding time slot, the coupled node at the time slot being not directly subject to any hidden node of the plurality of HMMs at the time slot, the mixture node at the time slot being directly subject to the coupled nodes at the time slot, the mixture node at the time slot being not directly subject to any hidden node of the plurality of HMMs at the preceding time slot and the mixture node being not directly subject to any hidden node outside of the HMM.