System for recognizing a word sequence by dynamic programming and by the

Abstract

Operation of a continuous speech recognition system operable according to the dynamic programming technique, is controlled by a state transition diagram in compliance with which word sequences to be recognized by the system with reference to a predetermined number of reference words B.sup.n 's are pronounced. The system comprises a state transition table accessed by the reference words B.sup.n 's to successively produce particular states y's in the diagram and previous states z's for each particular state y. In cooperation with a recurrence value and an optimum parameter table, a matching unit determines a recurrence value T.sub.y (m) and an optimum parameter set ZUN.sub.y (m) according to: ##EQU1## where u and m represent an end and a start point of a fragmentary pattern A(u, m) of an input pattern A representative of a word sequence and D(u, m, n), a similarity measure between the fragmentary pattern A(u, m) and a reference word B.sup.n assigned to a permutation of the previous and the particular states z and y. By referring to the optimum parameter table and, as the case may be, to the recurrence value table, a decision unit recognizes the word sequence as a concatenation of optimum ones of the reference words B.sup.n 's.