Large-vocabulary dictation using SRI's DECIPHER speech recognition system: progressive search techniques

The authors describe a technique called progressive search which is useful for developing and implementing speech recognition systems with high computational requirements. The scheme iteratively uses more and more complex recognition schemes, where each iteration constrains the speech space of the next. An algorithm called the forward-backward word-life algorithm is described. It can generate a word lattice in a progressive search that would be used as a language model embedded in a succeeding recognition pass to reduce computation requirements. It is shown that speed-ups of more than an order of magnitude are achievable with only minor costs in accuracy.>