Phoneme-expert assisted speech recognition and re-synthesis

Abstract

Various implementations disclosed herein include an expert-assisted phoneme recognition neural network system configured to recognize phonemes within continuous large vocabulary speech sequences without using language specific models ('left-context'), look-ahead ('right-context') information, or multi-pass sequence processing, and while operating within the resource constraints of low-power and real-time devices. To these ends, in various implementations, an expert-assisted phoneme recognition neural network system as described herein utilizes a-priori phonetic knowledge. Phonetics is concerned with the configuration of the human vocal tract while speaking and acoustic consequences on vocalizations. While similar sounding phonemes are difficult to detect and are frequently misidentified by previously known neural networks, phonetic knowledge gives insight into what aspects of sound acoustics contain the strongest contrast between similar sounding phonemes. Utilizing features that emphasize the respective second formants allows for more robust sound discrimination between these problematic phonemes.