Automatic analysis of a speech dictated document

Abstract

A method for automatically analyzing a document in a speech recognition system having a vocabulary and language model can include the steps of: determining whether the document has undergone previous analysis; undoing the previous analysis; and, analyzing the document. More specifically, the determining step comprises the steps of: comparing trigrams in the document with trigrams in the language model; and, setting a reference point containing document data for undoing a previous analysis in the undoing step if the compared language model contains all the document trigrams. Moreover, the undoing step comprises the step of removing from the language model each trigram contained in the document data in the reference point. Finally, the analyzing step comprises the steps of: searching the document for new words not contained in the vocabulary; adding said new words to said vocabulary; updating the language model with trigrams contained in the document; and, setting a reference point containing document data for undoing the updating of the language model in the updating step. In addition, the adding step can comprise identifying among the new words found in the searching step, correctly-spelled words not requiring a speaker-supplied pronunciation; and adding the correctly-spelled words to the vocabulary. The inventive method can further comprise the steps of: recognizing a request from a user of the speech dictation system to discontinue user editing; finding in the document new words not contained in the vocabulary in response to the request; enhancing the vocabulary with the new words; undoing the analysis created during the analyzing step; and, further analyzing the document.