Method of using microphone characteristics to optimize speech recognition performance
View Patent ↗A system and method for tuning a speech recognition engine to an individual microphone using a database containing acoustical models for a plurality of microphones. Microphone performance characteristics are obtained from a microphone at a speech recognition engine, the database is searched for an acoustical model that matches the characteristics, and the speech recognition engine is then modified based on the matching acoustical model.
1. A method of tuning a speech recognition engine to an individual microphone, the method comprising:
(a) providing a database containing acoustical models for a plurality of microphones;
(b) receiving microphone performance characteristics from a microphone at a speech recognition engine;
(c) searching the database for an acoustical model that matches the characteristics;
(d) modifying the speech recognition engine based on the matching acoustical model; and
(e) if no matching acoustical model is found, making adjustments to a feature extraction phase of speech recognition and using a default acoustic model modified by the adjustments to the feature extraction phase, wherein the adjustments include reducing cepstral parameters up to a high cut-off frequency such that only frequencies below the high cut-off frequency will be used for speech extraction.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics comprise at least one of frequency response, sensitivity, or signal bandwidth.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics are determined by testing the microphone and the determined results are recorded on the microphone.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microphone is carried by a vehicle.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database containing acoustical models is located at a call center.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microphone stores the microphone performance characteristics at the microphone.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics are stored on a microphone using a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS).
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (d) comprises limiting a high-frequency encoding (HFE) algorithm using the microphone performance characteristics.
9. A method of tuning a speech recognition engine to an individual microphone, the method comprising:
(a) receiving microphone performance characteristics that are stored at a microphone;
(b) searching a database for an acoustical model that matches the microphone performance characteristics;
(c) if an acoustical model matches the microphone performance characteristics, uploading the matching acoustical model and applying the model to the speech recognition engine; and
(d) if an acoustical model does not match the microphone performance characteristics, making adjustments to a feature extraction phase of speech recognition and using a default acoustic model modified by the adjustments to the feature extraction phase wherein the adjustments include reducing cepstral parameters up to a high cut-off frequency such that only frequencies below the high cut-off frequency will be used for speech extraction.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics comprise at least one of frequency response, sensitivity, or signal bandwidth.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics comprise data indicating the frequency response of the microphone.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the microphone is carried by a vehicle.
13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising providing a database containing acoustical models that is located at a call center.
14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the microphone is a digital microphone.
15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the microphone performance characteristics are stored on a microphone using a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS).
16. The method of claim 9 , wherein steps (c) and (d) comprise limiting a high-frequency encoding (HFE) algorithm using the data parameters.
17. A method of tuning a speech recognition engine to an individual microphone, the method comprising:
(a) providing a database containing acoustical models for a plurality of microphones;
(b) receiving data parameters from a digital microphone at a speech recognition engine, wherein the data parameters indicates the performance characteristics of the microphone;
(c) searching the database for an acoustical model that matches the data parameters;
(d) if an acoustical model is not matched to the data parameters, sending new data parameters to the digital microphone;
(e) reconfiguring the digital microphone to perform based on the new data parameters; and
(f) saving the new data parameters at the microphone.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the digital microphone includes a bandpass filter or a digital filter.