Automatic Recognition of Continuous Speech: Further Development of a Hierarchical Strategy.

Abstract : ACT PERIOD HAS BEEN PRIMARILY DEVOTED TO THE FOLLOWING MAJOR TASKS: (1) implementation of a digital software spectral analysis procedure based on Fast Fourier Transform techniques; (2) development of a clustering procedure for the purpose of obtaining steady-state phonetic referents; (3) modification of segmentation and dual classification algorithms to promote compatibility of these stages with front-end processing and the sublanguage; (4) development of an improved transeme classification technique involving 'don't care' states in the feature vector; (5) implementation of a revised procedure for phoneme-to-grapheme translation based on global search of phonetic paths; (6) incorporation of second-order transition constraints in the phonetic lexicon for the purpose of eliminating phonologically invalid paths; (7) use, for evaluation purposes of a sublanguage possessing a more diverse syntactic structure including declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences. (Modified author abstract)