Circuit and method for speech recognition

1. A circuit for speech recognition comprising:

a voice detection circuit configured to detect, based on at least one input parameter, the presence of a voice signal in an input audio signal and to generate an activation signal on each voice detection event;

a speech recognition circuit configured to be activated by the activation signal and to perform speech recognition on the input audio signal, the speech recognition circuit being further configured to generate an output signal indicating, based on the speech recognition, whether each voice detection event is true or false; and

an analysis circuit configured to:

generate a first value representing a true detection rate indicating the rate of true detection events among the total number of detection events generated by the voice detection circuit and/or a second value representing a false detection rate indicating the rate of false detection events among the total number of detection events generated by the voice detection circuit; and

generate a control signal for modifying one or more of said input parameters based on a comparison of the first value with a first threshold or of the second value with a second threshold and/or based on whether the first or second value is increasing or decreasing.

2. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the analysis circuit is further configured to:

generate a third value representing the total number of detection events generated by the voice detection circuit; and

compare the third value with a third threshold and/or determine whether the third value is increasing or decreasing.

3. The circuit of claim 2 , wherein the analysis circuit is configured to modify the control signal to render the voice detection circuit more sensitive if the first threshold and/or the third threshold is not exceeded and/or if the first value and/or third value is decreasing.

4. The circuit of claim 3 , wherein the analysis circuit is further configured to modify the control signal to render the voice detection circuit less sensitive if the second and/or third threshold is exceeded and/or if the second value is increasing.

5. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein each of the at least one input parameter is one of the following parameters:

a parameter setting one or more cut-off frequencies of one or more filters of the voice detection circuit;

a parameter setting one or more detection thresholds of the voice detection circuit;

a parameter setting one or more energy computation periods;

a parameter setting a threshold number of zero passages of the audio signal;

a parameter setting one or more debounce times; and

a parameter setting a weighting to be applied to the output signal of one or more sub-circuits of the voice detection circuit.

6. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the speech recognition circuit is adapted to generate a further activation signal for activating one or more further circuits in response to a speech recognition event.

7. The circuit of claim 6 , wherein the speech recognition circuit is adapted to perform keyword recognition.

8. A method of speech recognition comprising:

detecting, by a voice detection circuit based on at least one input parameter, the presence of a voice signal in an input audio signal;

generating, by the voice detection circuit an activation signal on each voice detection event;

activating a speech recognition circuit by the activation signal;

performing, by the speech recognition circuit, speech recognition on the input audio signal;

generating, by the speech recognition circuit, an output signal indicating, based on the speech recognition, whether each voice detection event is true or false;

generating, by the analysis circuit, a first value representing a true detection rate indicating the rate of true detection events among the total number of detection events generated by the voice detection circuit and/or a second value representing a false detection rate indicating the rate of false detection events among the total number of detection events generated by the voice detection circuit; and

generating, by an analysis circuit, a control signal for modifying one or more of said input parameters based on a comparison of the first value with a first threshold value or of the second value with a second threshold value and/or on whether the first or second value is increasing or decreasing.