Speech Recognition System

EE May 1987 A breakthrough and the prospect of a radical advance in the way man relates to machine has been achieved by Marconi Speech Systems, a GEC company, with its MACROSPEAK Speech Recognizer. 45 SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM The most rapid, universal and simplest form of human com- munications is speech. Speak- ing rates of 180 words per minute are quite typical, yet even a relatively slow rate of 100 words per minute is still much faster than an average typist. Speech recognition however in- volves solving many complex problems. For example:- • A speaker says the same word differently every time. We naturally accept these vari- ations when listening. ■Words spoken in isolation are often very different from the same words in normal speech. We say "to" , and we write "twenty to two", but in the latter case most of us actually say "twenty "t" two". ■ IFTEXTWASWRITTENINTHE SAME WAYASWESPEAKITW OULDLOOKLIKETHIS. Another problem for a recognizer is therefore to distinguish ea...