JP5704686B2 - Speech translation system, speech translation device, speech translation method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a speech translation system that translates input speech and outputs a synthesized speech.

  Conventionally, there has been a dialogue translation technique for translating an utterance by preparing a translation example sentence in advance and displaying a translation of a specific example sentence to a conversation partner (see Patent Document 1). This technology is a dialogue translation technology that presents the choices of answer sentences for questions from users to the conversation partner, and displays the translated sentences of the answers selected by the conversation partner to the users, thereby interpreting the answers of the conversation partners to the users. It is.

  In addition, there is an automatic interpretation system that acquires a keyword from a speech recognition result sentence of input speech, searches for an example sentence using the keyword, and performs automatic interpretation using the example sentence (see Non-Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 3952709 (first page, FIG. 1 etc.)

Takahiro Ikeda and four others "Automatic interpretation system integrating free sentence interpretation and example sentence selection type interpretation" FIT (Information Science and Technology Forum) 2002

  However, in the conventional speech translation system, if there is an error in the speech recognition result, the translation accuracy is significantly degraded.

  More specifically, although the speech recognition result sentence often includes words that are close in sound but far from meaning, in the conventional technology, the words included in the speech recognition result are used as keys. By searching for example sentences, text including words far from the correct answer becomes an input for machine translation, and the translation accuracy has been significantly degraded.

  The speech translation system according to the first aspect of the present invention is a speech translation system including a terminal device and a server device, and the terminal device includes a speech reception unit that receives speech and speech received by the speech reception unit, or speech reception. A speech related information acquisition unit that acquires speech related information that is one or more feature quantities related to speech received by the unit, a speech related information transmission unit that transmits the speech related information to the server device, and a speech synthesis result received from the server device And a synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result, and the server device can store two or more unique representation information having a phoneme string and a character string. An information storage unit, a voice-related information receiving unit that receives voice-related information, a voice recognition unit that uses the voice-related information to perform voice recognition, acquires a phoneme string, and a phoneme string acquired by the voice recognition unit A similar phoneme string acquisition unit that acquires a similar phoneme string from the specific expression information storage unit, and a similar character string that is a character string corresponding to the phoneme string acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit is acquired from the specific expression information storage unit A similar character string acquisition unit, a similar character string acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, a machine translation unit that acquires a translation result, a speech synthesis of the translation result acquired by the machine translation unit, and a voice synthesis result A speech translation system including a speech synthesis unit to be acquired and a speech synthesis result transmission unit that transmits a speech synthesis result to a terminal device.

  With such a configuration, even if there is an error in the speech recognition result, a good translation result can be obtained.

  Further, in the speech translation system of the second invention, in contrast to the first invention, the speech recognition unit recognizes speech using speech related information, and is one or more phoneme sequences and one or more speech recognition results. The similar phoneme string acquisition unit acquires one or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired by the voice recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, The similar character string acquisition unit acquires one or more similar character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit, and the one or more speech recognition character strings and similar character strings acquired by the voice recognition unit One candidate character corresponding to the candidate character string transmitting unit that transmits one or more candidate character strings that are one or more similar character strings acquired by the acquiring unit to the terminal device and the transmission of two or more candidate character strings Receives candidate character string specifying information, which is information for specifying a string, from the terminal device A candidate character string specifying information receiving unit, wherein the machine translation unit translates a speech recognition character string or a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information, acquires a translation result, and the terminal device is a server A candidate character string receiving unit that receives two or more candidate character strings from the device, a candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings received by the candidate character string receiving unit, and a candidate character string output unit that outputs An instruction receiving unit that receives an instruction for one candidate character string from among the two or more candidate character strings, and candidate character string specifying information that specifies a candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit, Is a speech translation system further comprising a candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit to be transmitted.

  With this configuration, even if the speech recognition result has an error, a better translation result can be obtained.

  Further, in the speech translation system according to the third invention, in contrast to the first invention, the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit stores two or more phoneme sequences similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit, and stores the unique expression information. The similar character string acquisition unit acquires two or more similar character strings that are two or more character strings corresponding to the two or more phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit, and the similar character string acquisition unit In response to transmission of two or more candidate character strings which are two or more similar character strings acquired by the candidate character string transmission unit and two or more candidate character strings, one candidate character string is obtained. A candidate character string specifying information receiving unit that receives candidate character string specifying information that is information to be specified from the terminal device, and the machine translation unit translates a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information; The translation result is acquired, and the terminal device receives two or more candidates from the server device. A candidate character string receiving unit that receives a character string, a candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings received by the candidate character string receiving unit, and two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit The candidate character string specification that transmits to the server device, the instruction receiving unit that receives an instruction for one candidate character string, and the candidate character string specifying information that specifies the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit A speech translation system further comprising an information transmission unit.

  With this configuration, even if the speech recognition result has an error, a better translation result can be obtained.

  In the speech translation system according to the fourth aspect of the invention, in contrast to the second or third aspect of the invention, the server device has a character string acquired by the speech recognition unit and one or more similar items acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. A control unit that compares the character string and determines whether or not a character string that matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit exists in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit; Further, the candidate character string transmission unit is a speech translation system that does not transmit the candidate character string.

  With this configuration, when the speech recognition result is correct, high-speed processing is possible.

  The speech translation apparatus according to the fifth aspect of the present invention includes a specific expression information storage unit that can store two or more specific expression information having a phoneme string and a character string, a voice reception unit that receives voice, and a voice reception unit. A speech recognition unit that recognizes the received speech and obtains a phoneme sequence; a similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit that acquires a phoneme sequence similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit; A similar character string acquisition unit that acquires a similar character string that is a character string corresponding to the phoneme string acquired by the column acquisition unit, and a machine translation that translates the similar character string acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit and acquires a translation result A speech translation device comprising: a speech synthesis unit that synthesizes a translation result obtained by the machine translation unit, obtains a speech synthesis result, and a synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result.

  With such a configuration, even if there is an error in the speech recognition result, a good translation result can be obtained.

  Further, in the speech translation apparatus according to the sixth invention, in contrast to the fifth invention, the speech recognition unit recognizes speech using speech related information, and 1 or more phoneme sequences and 1 or more speech recognition results are obtained. The similar phoneme string acquisition unit acquires one or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired by the voice recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, The similar character string acquisition unit acquires one or more similar character strings that are one or more character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit, and the one or more voices acquired by the voice recognition unit. A candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings that are one or more similar character strings acquired by the recognized character string and the similar character string acquisition unit, and two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit And an instruction receiving unit that receives an instruction for one candidate character string. And a machine translation unit translates a speech recognition character string or similar character string corresponding to candidate character string specifying information for specifying a candidate character string corresponding to an instruction received by the instruction receiving unit, and acquires a translation result It is a translation device.

  With this configuration, even if the speech recognition result has an error, a better translation result can be obtained.

  Further, in the speech translation apparatus according to the seventh invention, in contrast to the fifth invention, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit stores two or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired by the speech recognition unit, and stores the unique expression information. The similar character string acquisition unit acquires two or more similar character strings corresponding to the two or more phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit, and the two or more similar characters acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit A candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings that are character strings, and an instruction reception unit that receives an instruction for one candidate character string from two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit The machine translation unit translates the speech recognition character string or the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit, and the translation result This is a speech translation device to be acquired.

  With this configuration, even if the speech recognition result has an error, a better translation result can be obtained.

  The speech translation apparatus according to the eighth aspect of the invention relates to the sixth or seventh aspect of the invention, a character string acquired by the speech recognition unit and one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. A control unit that compares and determines whether or not a character string that matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit exists in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit; The candidate character string output unit is a speech translation device that does not output a candidate character string.

  With this configuration, when the speech recognition result is correct, high-speed processing is possible.

  According to the speech translation system according to the present invention, a good translation result can be obtained even when there is an error in the speech recognition result.

Conceptual diagram of speech translation system 1 according to Embodiment 1 Block diagram showing the internal structure of the speech translation system 1 A flowchart for explaining the operation of the terminal device 11 A flowchart for explaining the operation of the server device 12 The flowchart explaining the same phoneme sequence acquisition process Figure showing the unique expression management table The figure which shows the output example of the candidate character string Block diagram of speech translation apparatus 2 in Embodiment 2 A flowchart for explaining the operation of the speech translation apparatus 2 Overview of the computer system in the above embodiment Block diagram of the computer system

Hereinafter, embodiments of a speech translation system and the like will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, since the component which attached | subjected the same code | symbol in embodiment performs the same operation | movement, description may be abbreviate | omitted again.
(Embodiment 1)

  In this embodiment, a speech translation system that acquires a phoneme string by speech recognition processing for input speech, searches for a similar sentence from a corpus using the phoneme string, translates the similar sentence, and outputs a synthesized speech explain. Also, in the present embodiment, a speech translation system that outputs one or more speech recognition processing results and one or more search similar sentences, receives an instruction from a user, translates the instructed sentence, and outputs a synthesized speech. explain. Further, in the present embodiment, a speech translation system that outputs two or more search similar sentences, accepts an instruction from a user, translates the instructed sentence, and outputs a synthesized speech is described.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a speech translation system 1 in the present embodiment. The speech translation system 1 includes one or more terminal devices 11 and a server device 12 and can communicate with each other via a network 13. The terminal device 11 is a so-called personal computer, a portable terminal, a cellular phone, a so-called smart phone, or the like. The network 13 may be the Internet, a telephone line, a dedicated line, or the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the speech translation system 1 in the present embodiment.
The terminal device 11 includes a voice reception unit 111, a voice related information acquisition unit 112, a voice related information transmission unit 113, a candidate character string reception unit 114, a candidate character string output unit 115, an instruction reception unit 116, and a candidate character string specifying information transmission unit. 117, a speech synthesis result receiving unit 118, and a synthesized speech output unit 119.

  The server device 12 includes a unique expression information storage unit 120, a speech related information reception unit 121, a speech recognition unit 122, a similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123, a similar character string acquisition unit 124, a candidate character string transmission unit 125, and candidate character string specifying information. A receiving unit 126, a machine translation unit 127, a speech synthesis unit 128, a speech synthesis result transmission unit 129, and a control unit 130 are provided.

  The voice reception unit 111 normally receives voice from the user. However, reception is a concept including reception of audio transmitted via a wired or wireless communication line, reception of audio read from a recording medium such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a semiconductor memory.

  The voice related information acquisition unit 112 acquires voice related information that is one or more feature amounts related to the voice received by the voice reception unit 111 or acquires the voice received by the voice reception unit 111. That is, the voice related information acquisition unit 112 may or may not have a function of extracting one or more feature amounts from the voice. The voice-related information is voice or one or more feature quantities, and a technique for acquiring one or more feature quantities from the voice is a known technique. Here, the feature amount is a feature amount of speech. The one or more feature amounts are, for example, MFCC obtained by discrete cosine transform of the filter bank output of 24 channels using a triangular filter, and the static parameter, the delta parameter, and the delta delta parameter are further normalized to 12 dimensions, respectively. Power and delta power and delta delta power (39th dimension). However, the content of one or more feature values is not limited.

  The voice related information transmission unit 113 transmits the voice related information acquired by the voice related information acquisition unit 112 to the server device 12.

  The candidate character string receiving unit 114 receives two or more candidate character strings from the server device 12 in response to the transmission of the voice related information.

  The candidate character string output unit 115 outputs two or more candidate character strings received by the candidate character string receiving unit 114. Here, output refers to display on a display, projection using a projector, printing on a printer, sound output, transmission to an external device, storage in a recording medium, output to another processing device or other program, etc. It is a concept that includes delivery of processing results.

  The instruction receiving unit 116 receives an instruction for one candidate character string from the two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit 115. The instruction input means may be anything such as a numeric keypad, a keyboard, a mouse, or a menu screen.

  The candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 transmits candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit 116 to the server device 12. The candidate character string specifying information may be any information that specifies a candidate character string, such as an ID of the candidate character string and the candidate character string itself.

  The speech synthesis result receiving unit 118 receives the speech synthesis result from the server device 12. Here, the speech synthesis result may be speech data, data that is the basis of speech synthesis, data immediately before the speech output, or the like.

  The synthesized speech output unit 119 outputs a speech using the speech synthesis result received by the speech synthesis result receiving unit 118. The voice output using the voice synthesis result is simply outputting the voice when the voice synthesis result is voice. When the voice synthesis result is data that is the basis of voice synthesis, voice output using the voice synthesis result is voice synthesis from the data and voice output.

  The specific expression information storage unit 120 of the server apparatus 12 can store two or more specific expression information having a phoneme string and a character string. Here, the phoneme string is a phoneme string corresponding to a character string. That is, the phoneme string is a sequence of phonemes when a character string is pronounced. The character string is a character string that constitutes a sentence, phrase, or word in the source language.

  The voice related information receiving unit 121 receives voice related information from the terminal device 11.

  The speech recognition unit 122 recognizes speech using the speech related information received by the speech related information reception unit 121 and acquires a phoneme string. Since the voice recognition unit 122 is a known technique, a detailed description thereof is omitted. The speech recognition unit 122 recognizes speech using the speech related information received by the speech related information reception unit 121 and performs one or more phoneme strings and one or more character strings that are speech recognition results. A voice recognition character string may be acquired. The speech recognition unit 122 may perform speech recognition processing from one or more feature amounts, or extract one or more feature amounts from speech that is speech related information, and perform speech recognition from the one or more feature amounts. Also good. A phoneme string is usually a set of two or more phonemes.

  The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123 acquires a phoneme sequence similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 from the specific expression information storage unit 120. The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123 has a similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 and two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more pieces of specific expression information stored in the specific expression information storage unit 120 ( Score) is calculated, and one or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other as the degree of similarity satisfies a predetermined condition are acquired from the unique expression information storage unit 120. A phoneme string that is similar enough to satisfy a predetermined condition is, for example, a phoneme string having the maximum similarity, a phoneme string having a similarity greater than or greater than a threshold, or descending in order of similarity. Is the top n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 1) phoneme string.

  Note that an algorithm for calculating the similarity between two phoneme strings is, for example, BLEU or Word Error Rate (WER). The algorithm for calculating the similarity between two phoneme strings may be, for example, “similarity = number of phonemes that match / number of longer phonemes”. That is, the algorithm of the similar judgment is not ask | required. Note that BLEU and WER are representative evaluation scales for machine translation results. In addition, BLEU and WER are usually scales for calculating scores for natural language sentences and words that are machine translation results. In the speech translation system 1, phoneme strings are used as targets.

When BLEU is used, the similarity is calculated by the following formula 1.

In Equation 1, _pn is a ratio at which the n gram in the phoneme string acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 matches the n gram of the phoneme string in the specific expression information storage unit 120. Further, r is the length of the phoneme string acquired by the speech recognition unit 122, and c is the length of the phoneme string included in the unique expression information in the specific expression information storage unit 120. In the experiment described later, N is 4, the _{w n} is 1 / N, and the.

Further, when WER is used, the similarity is calculated by the following formula 2.

  In Equation 2, I is the number of inserted words, D is the number of deleted words, S is the number of replacement words, and N is the number of reference translation words. Here, the word is read as phoneme. That is, in Equation 2, the number of inserted words is the number of phonemes that are inserted. The number of deleted words is the number of phonemes that have been deleted. The number of replacement words is the number of phonemes that are replaced. Further, the number of words in the reference translation is the number of phonemes in the reference translation.

  Further, the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123 may acquire one or more phoneme sequences similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 from the specific expression information storage unit 120, or the speech recognition unit 122 acquires the phoneme sequence. Two or more phoneme sequences similar to the phoneme sequence may be acquired from the specific expression information storage unit 120.

  The similar character string acquisition unit 124 acquires a similar character string that is a character string corresponding to the phoneme string acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 from the specific expression information storage unit 120. Further, the similar character string acquisition unit 124 may acquire one or more similar character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123. Further, the similar character string acquisition unit 124 may acquire two or more similar character strings corresponding to the two or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123.

  The candidate character string transmission unit 125 transmits two or more candidate character strings to the terminal device 11. The two or more candidate character strings may be one or more speech recognition character strings acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 and one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124, or a similar character string acquisition unit Two or more similar character strings acquired by 124 may be used. That is, the two or more candidate character strings usually include a voice recognition character string, but may not include a voice recognition character string.

  The candidate character string specifying information receiving unit 126 receives candidate character string specifying information, which is information for specifying one candidate character string, from the terminal device 11 in response to transmission of two or more candidate character strings. The candidate character string specifying information may be information for identifying the candidate character string or the candidate character string itself.

  The machine translation unit 127 translates the similar character string acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124 and acquires a translation result. The machine translation unit 127 may translate the speech recognition character string or the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information and obtain a translation result, or may translate the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information. The translation result may be acquired. The machine translation unit 127 is a known technique.

  The voice synthesizer 128 synthesizes the translation result obtained by the machine translation unit 127 and obtains the voice synthesis result. The voice synthesis result is, for example, voice data. However, the speech synthesis result may be data from which speech synthesis is performed. The voice synthesizer 128 is a known technique.

  The speech synthesis result transmission unit 129 transmits the speech synthesis result acquired by the speech synthesis unit 128 to the terminal device 11.

  The control unit 130 compares the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit 122 with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124, and matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit 122. It is determined whether (including generally matching character strings) is present in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124. If there is a matching character string, the candidate character string transmission unit 125 does not transmit the candidate character string. If there is a matching character string, the machine translation unit 127 machine translates the character string acquired by the speech recognition unit 122. The control unit 130 compares the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit 122 with one or more similar phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123, and matches the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit 122. It may be determined whether or not a phoneme string (including substantially matching phoneme strings) is present in one or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123. Note that the phoneme string comparison is equivalent to the character string comparison.

  The voice reception unit 111 can be realized by, for example, a microphone and its driver software.

  The speech related information acquisition unit 112, the speech recognition unit 122, the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123, the similar character string acquisition unit 124, the machine translation unit 127, and the speech synthesis unit 128 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the audio related information acquisition unit 112 and the like is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The voice related information transmission unit 113, the candidate character string specifying information transmission unit 117, the candidate character string transmission unit 125, and the voice synthesis result transmission unit 129 are usually realized by wireless or wired communication means, but are realized by broadcasting means. May be.

  The candidate character string receiving unit 114, the voice synthesis result receiving unit 118, the voice related information receiving unit 121, and the candidate character string specifying information receiving unit 126 are usually realized by wireless or wired communication means, but receive broadcasts. It may be realized by means.

  The candidate character string output unit 115 may or may not include an output device such as a display or a speaker. The candidate character string output unit 115 can be realized by driver software of an output device, driver software of an output device, an output device, or the like.

  The instruction receiving unit 116 can be realized by a device driver for input means such as a numeric keypad or a keyboard, control software for a menu screen, or the like.

  The synthesized voice output unit 119 may be considered as including or not including an output device such as a speaker. The synthesized voice output unit 119 can be realized by driver software of an output device or driver software of an output device and an output device.

The specific expression information storage unit 120 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium. The process of storing the unique expression information in the specific expression information storage unit 120 is not limited. For example, the unique expression information may be stored in the specific expression information storage unit 120 via a recording medium, and the unique expression information transmitted via a communication line or the like is stored in the specific expression information storage unit 120. Alternatively, the unique expression information input via the input device may be stored in the specific expression information storage unit 120.
Next, the operation of the speech translation system 1 will be described. First, operation | movement of the terminal device 11 is demonstrated using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S301) The voice reception unit 111 determines whether a voice is received. If a voice is accepted, the process goes to step S302, and if no voice is accepted, the process returns to step S301.

  (Step S302) The voice related information acquisition unit 112 acquires voice related information that is one or more feature amounts related to the voice received in step S301.

  (Step S303) The voice related information transmission unit 113 transmits the voice related information acquired in step S302 to the server device 12.

  (Step S304) The candidate character string receiving unit 114 determines whether or not two or more candidate character strings have been received from the server device 12. If two or more candidate character strings are received, the process proceeds to step S305, and if not received, the process proceeds to step S309.

  (Step S305) The candidate character string output unit 115 outputs two or more candidate character strings received in step S304.

  (Step S306) The instruction receiving unit 116 determines whether or not an instruction (instruction from the user) for one candidate character string has been received from the two or more candidate character strings output in step S305. If the instruction is accepted, the process goes to Step S307, and if not, the process goes to Step S306.

  (Step S307) The candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 transmits candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit 116 to the server device 12.

  (Step S308) The speech synthesis result receiving unit 118 determines whether or not a speech synthesis result has been received from the server device 12 in response to the transmission of the candidate character string specifying information in step S307. If the speech synthesis result is received, the process goes to step S310, and if not received, the process returns to step S308.

  (Step S309) The speech synthesis result receiving unit 118 determines whether or not a speech synthesis result has been received from the server device 12. If the speech synthesis result is received, the process goes to step S310, and if not received, the process returns to step S304.

  (Step S310) The synthesized speech output unit 119 outputs speech using the speech synthesis result received in Step S308 or Step S309, and returns to Step S301.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 3, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process is terminated.

  Next, operation | movement of the server apparatus 12 is demonstrated using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S <b> 401) The voice related information receiving unit 121 determines whether voice related information is received from the terminal device 11. If the voice related information is received, the process goes to step S402, and if the voice related information is not received, the process returns to step S401.

  (Step S402) The voice recognition unit 122 performs voice recognition processing using the voice related information received in step S401. Then, the voice recognition unit 122 acquires one or more phoneme strings and one or more voice recognition character strings. The voice recognition character string is a voice recognition result.

  (Step S403) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires one or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired in step S402 from the specific expression information storage unit 120. Such a process is called a similar phoneme string acquisition process. Similar phoneme sequence acquisition processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S404) The similar character string acquisition unit 124 acquires one or more similar character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme strings acquired in step S403 from the specific expression information storage unit 120.

  (Step S405) The control unit 130 compares the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit 122 in step S402 with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124 in step S404. Then, the control unit 130 determines whether there is a similar character string that matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit 122. If there is a similar character string that matches the character string acquired by the speech recognition unit 122, the process goes to step S409, and if not, the process goes to step S406.

  (Step S406) The candidate character string transmission unit 125 configures two or more candidate character strings using the character string acquired in step S402 and one or more similar character strings acquired in step S404.

  (Step S407) The candidate character string transmission unit 125 transmits the two or more candidate character strings configured in step S406 to the terminal device 11.

  (Step S408) The candidate character string specifying information receiving unit 126 corresponds to the transmission of two or more candidate character strings in Step S407, and displays candidate character string specifying information that is information for specifying one candidate character string. 11 is received or not. If the candidate character string specifying information is received, the process goes to step S409, and if not received, the process returns to step S408.

  (Step S409) When the process proceeds from Step S408, the machine translation unit 127 acquires a speech recognition character string or a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information. If the process proceeds from step S405, the machine translation unit 127 acquires the character string acquired by the speech recognition unit 122.

  (Step S410) The machine translation unit 127 translates the character string acquired in step S409, and acquires a translation result.

  (Step S411) The speech synthesizer 128 synthesizes the translation result acquired in step S410, and acquires the speech synthesis result.

  (Step S412) The speech synthesis result transmission unit 129 transmits the speech synthesis result acquired in Step S411 to the terminal device 11, and returns to Step S401.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 4, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process ends.

  Next, the similar phoneme string acquisition process in step S403 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S501) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires a voice recognition character string (referred to as a first phoneme string) obtained by the voice recognition process in Step S402.

  (Step S502) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 substitutes 1 for a counter i.

  (Step S503) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 determines whether or not the i-th phoneme string (referred to as a second phoneme string) exists in the specific expression information storage unit 120. If the i-th second phoneme string exists, the process goes to step S504, and if the i-th second phoneme string does not exist, the process goes to step S507.

  (Step S504) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 calculates the similarity between the first phoneme string acquired in step S501 and the i-th second phoneme string.

  (Step S505) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 temporarily stores the similarity calculated in step S504 in a recording medium (not shown) in association with the i-th second phoneme string.

  (Step S506) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 increments the counter i by 1, and returns to step S503.

  (Step S507) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 sorts the second phoneme string using the similarity temporarily stored in step S505 as a key.

  (Step S508) The similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires one or more phoneme strings (similar phoneme strings) that are similar enough to satisfy a predetermined condition from the specific expression information storage unit 120, and returns to the upper process. .

  Hereinafter, a specific operation (performed experiment) of the speech translation system 1 in the present embodiment will be described.

  In this experiment, the specific expression information storage unit 120 of the server device 12 holds the specific expression management table shown in FIG. The specific expression management table stores one or more records (specific expression information) having “ID”, “character string”, and “phoneme string”. Here, there is 5095 specific expression information. Also, a technique called “Ximera” is used as a method for encoding a phoneme string included in the phonetic information. The algorithm for calculating the similarity used by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 is BLEU (Equation 1). Further, the predetermined condition used by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 is “phoneme string having the maximum similarity”.

  In the experiment, the user inputs 300 sentences by voice. Hereinafter, specific operations of the speech translation system 1 will be described using two examples.

  For example, the user inputs a voice to the terminal device 11 “Where is the magazine store”? Next, the voice reception unit 111 of the terminal device 11 receives voice. Then, the voice related information acquisition unit 112 acquires voice related information that is one or more feature amounts related to the received voice. The voice related information transmission unit 113 transmits the acquired voice related information to the server device 12.

  Next, the voice related information receiving unit 121 of the server device 12 receives voice related information that is one or more feature quantities from the terminal device 11.

  Next, the speech recognition unit 122 performs speech recognition processing using the received speech related information. Then, the speech recognition unit 122 acquires the phoneme string “z a ng sh i n u r i b a w a d o k o k e d e s u k a” and the voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter”?

  Next, the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123 searches for one or more phoneme sequences similar to the acquired phoneme sequence “z a ng sh i ng u r i b a w a d o k o d e s u k a” using BLUE. Then, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires the similar phoneme string “z a q sh i u r i b a w a d k o k e d e u k a” from the specific expression management table shown in FIG. 6.

  Next, the similar character string acquisition unit 124 acquires the similar character string “Where is the magazine department” corresponding to the acquired phoneme string “z a q sh i u r i b a w a k o d o k e d e u k a” from the specific expression management table.

  Next, the control unit 130 compares the voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter” with the similar character string “Where is the magazine counter”? Then, the control unit 130 determines that both character strings do not match.

  Next, the candidate character string transmission unit 125 configures two candidate character strings using the voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter” and the similar character string “Where is the magazine counter”? For example, the constructed candidate character string is “1: where is the magazine department, 2: where is the novel department”. Here, the term “configuration” refers to a data structure to be transmitted.

  Next, the candidate character string transmission unit 125 transmits the two configured candidate character strings “1: Where is the magazine department, 2: Where is the novel department” to the terminal device 11.

  Next, the candidate character string receiving unit 114 of the terminal device 11 receives two candidate character strings “1: Where is the magazine section, 2: Where is the novel section” from the server apparatus 12.

  Next, the candidate character string output unit 115 outputs the received candidate character string. An output example of the candidate character string is shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that the user checks the sentence “Where is the magazine store” and presses the “Send” button.

  Next, the instruction receiving unit 116 receives an instruction (an instruction from the user) of one candidate character string “Where is the magazine store” from the two output candidate character strings.

  Then, the candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 acquires candidate character string specifying information “1” for specifying the candidate character string “Where is the magazine section” corresponding to the received instruction. Then, the candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 transmits the candidate character string specifying information “1” to the server device 12.

  Next, the candidate character string specifying information receiving unit 126 of the server device 12 receives candidate character string specifying information “1”, which is information for specifying one candidate character string, in response to the transmission of the candidate character string, 11 is received.

  Next, the machine translation unit 127 acquires a similar character string “Where is the magazine department” corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information “1”.

  Next, the machine translation unit 127 translates the acquired character string “Where is the magazine counter”, and acquires the translation result “Where is the magazine counter?”.

  Next, the speech synthesizer 128 synthesizes the acquired translation result “Where is the magazine counter?” To obtain a speech synthesis result.

  Then, the speech synthesis result transmitting unit 129 transmits the acquired speech synthesis result to the terminal device 11.

  Next, the speech synthesis result receiving unit 118 receives the speech synthesis result from the server device 12 in response to the transmission of the candidate character string specifying information.

  Then, the synthesized voice output unit 119 outputs a voice using the received voice synthesis result.

  Next, the user inputs a voice to the terminal device 11 saying “Front is extension number 9”. Then, by the same operation as described above, the speech recognition unit 122 of the server device 12 acquires the phoneme string “j o ng t o w a n i e s e n k k u u b a ng d e s u” and the voice recognition character string “night is extension number 9”.

  Next, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 searches for one or more phoneme strings that are similar to the acquired phoneme string “j o ng t o w a nai se kng u u b ang d e su” using BLUE. Then, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires the similar phoneme string “f u r o n t o w a n a i s e n k k u u b ang d e s u” from the specific expression management table shown in FIG.

  Next, the similar character string acquisition unit 124 acquires the similar character string “front is extension number 9” corresponding to the acquired phoneme string “f u r o ng t o w a n a i s e ng k j u u b a ng d e su” from the specific expression management table.

  Next, the control unit 130 compares the voice recognition character string “night is extension number 9” with the similar character string “front is extension number 9.” Then, the control unit 130 determines that both character strings do not match.

  Next, the candidate character string transmission unit 125 uses the voice recognition character string “night is extension number 9” and the similar character string “front is extension number 9” to generate two candidate character strings “1”. : Front is extension number 9, 2: Night is extension number 9.

  Next, the candidate character string transmission unit 125 transmits the two candidate character strings “1: Front is extension number 9 and 2: Night is extension number 9” to the terminal device 11.

  Next, the candidate character string receiving unit 114 of the terminal device 11 receives two candidate character strings “1: Front is extension number 9; 2: Night is extension number 9” from the server device 12.

  Next, the candidate character string output unit 115 outputs the received candidate character string.

  The user checks the sentence “Front is extension number 9” and presses the “Send” button.

  Next, the instruction receiving unit 116 receives an instruction (instruction from the user) of one candidate character string “front is extension number 9” from the two output candidate character strings.

  Then, the candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 acquires candidate character string specifying information “1” for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the received instruction. Then, the candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit 117 transmits the candidate character string specifying information “1” to the server device 12.

  Next, the candidate character string specifying information receiving unit 126 of the server device 12 receives candidate character string specifying information “1”, which is information for specifying one candidate character string, in response to the transmission of the candidate character string, 11 is received.

  Next, the machine translation unit 127 acquires a similar character string “front is extension number 9” corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information “1”.

  Next, the machine translation unit 127 translates the acquired character string “front is extension number 9” and acquires a translation result “Extension because of the connection to the reception desk is the ninth.”.

  Next, the speech synthesizer 128 synthesizes the obtained translation result “Extension because of the connection to the reception desk is the ninth.” To obtain a speech synthesis result.

  Then, the speech synthesis result transmitting unit 129 transmits the acquired speech synthesis result to the terminal device 11.

  Next, the speech synthesis result receiving unit 118 receives the speech synthesis result from the server device 12 in response to the transmission of the candidate character string specifying information.

  Then, the synthesized voice output unit 119 outputs a voice using the received voice synthesis result.

  In the above experiment, the number of successful recognitions was 235 and the number of failures was 65 in the speech recognition stage. As a result of further similar sentence search of the sentence that failed to be recognized, the number of sentences with the highest score (similarity) that was the intended sentence (search success) was 53, and the sentence that was not intended (search failure) The number was 12.

  That is, “recognition success: 235 (78.3%), recognition failure: 65 (21.7%)”, “search success: 53, search failure: 12”.

  That is, by presenting the recognition success sentence and the search success sentence at the same time and allowing the user to select, the number of spoken sentences passed to the machine translation unit 127 as intended becomes 235 + 53 = 288 (96.0%). From the above, it can be seen that in this experiment, the accuracy of speech translation could be greatly improved.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to obtain a good translation result even when there is an error in the speech recognition result by performing a similar sentence search using a phoneme symbol string representing a sound as a search key. .

  Note that the processing in the present embodiment may be realized by software. Then, this software may be distributed by software download or the like. Further, this software may be recorded and distributed on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. This also applies to other embodiments in this specification. The software that realizes the terminal device in the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, this program causes the computer to acquire voice-related information that is a voice reception unit that receives voice and the voice received by the voice reception unit or one or more feature quantities related to the voice received by the voice reception unit. A related information acquisition unit; a speech related information transmission unit that transmits the speech related information to the server device; a speech synthesis result reception unit that receives a speech synthesis result from the server device; and a speech output using the speech synthesis result A program for functioning as a synthesized voice output unit.

  Moreover, in the above program, the computer causes the candidate character string receiving unit to receive two or more candidate character strings from the server device, and the candidate character to output the two or more candidate character strings received by the candidate character string receiving unit. A column output unit; an instruction receiving unit that receives an instruction for one candidate character string from among two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit; and a candidate corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit It is preferable to further function candidate character string specifying information for specifying a character string as a candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit that transmits the character string to the server device.

  Moreover, the software which implement | achieves the server apparatus in this Embodiment is the following programs. That is, the storage medium stores two or more pieces of unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string, and the computer uses the voice related information receiving unit that receives the voice related information and the voice related information. A speech recognition unit that performs speech recognition and acquires a phoneme sequence, a similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit that acquires a phoneme sequence similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit from the storage medium, and the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit Translates a similar character string that is a character string corresponding to the phoneme string acquired from the storage medium and a similar character string acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and acquires a translation result And a speech synthesis result transmitting unit for synthesizing the translation result acquired by the machine translation unit, acquiring the speech synthesis result, and transmitting the speech synthesis result to the terminal device. That It is suitable.

  In the above program, the speech recognition unit recognizes speech using the speech related information, and outputs one or more phoneme strings and one or more speech recognition character strings that are one or more character strings that are speech recognition results. The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit acquires one or more phoneme sequences similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, and the similar character string acquisition unit One or more similar character strings corresponding to one or more phoneme strings acquired by the phoneme string acquisition unit are acquired, and one or more speech recognition character strings acquired by the voice recognition unit and the similar character string acquisition unit are One candidate character string corresponding to the candidate character string transmitting unit that transmits the two or more candidate character strings that are the one or more similar character strings acquired to the terminal device and the transmission of the two or more candidate character strings Candidate characters that are information for identifying The specific information further functions as a candidate character string specifying information receiving unit that receives from the terminal device, and the machine translation unit translates a speech recognition character string or a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information, and translates It is preferable to make a computer function as a result acquisition.

  In the above program, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit acquires two or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired by the speech recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, and the similar character string acquisition unit includes: , Two or more similar character strings that are two or more character strings corresponding to the two or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit are acquired, and two or more similar character strings are acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. A candidate character string transmitting unit that transmits two or more candidate character strings that are similar character strings to the terminal device, and information that identifies one candidate character string corresponding to the transmission of the two or more candidate character strings The candidate character string specifying information is further functioned as a candidate character string specifying information receiving unit that receives from the terminal device, the machine translation unit translates a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information, and a translation result With what to get Te, it is preferred to cause a computer to function.

In the above program, the computer compares the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit The candidate character string transmission unit further functions as a control unit that determines whether or not a matching character string exists in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. It is preferable to make the computer function as not transmitting the sequence.
(Embodiment 2)

  In this embodiment, a stand-alone speech translation apparatus will be described. The function of the speech translation apparatus in the present embodiment is the same as the function of the speech translation system 1 of the first embodiment.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the speech translation apparatus 2 in the present embodiment. The speech translation apparatus 2 includes a unique expression information storage unit 120, a speech reception unit 111, a speech recognition unit 201, a similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123, a similar character string acquisition unit 124, a candidate character string output unit 202, an instruction reception unit 116, a machine A translation unit 203, a speech synthesis unit 128, a synthesized speech output unit 204, and a control unit 130 are provided.

  The voice recognition unit 201 recognizes the voice received by the voice reception unit 111 and acquires a phoneme string. The voice recognition unit 201 may recognize the voice received by the voice reception unit 111 and acquire a phoneme string and a voice recognition character string. In addition, the voice recognition unit 201 acquires voice related information that is one or more feature amounts related to the voice received by the voice receiving unit 111, performs voice recognition using the voice related information, and one or more phoneme strings or One or more phoneme strings and one or more speech recognition character strings may be acquired.

  The candidate character string output unit 202 outputs two or more candidate character strings. The two or more candidate character strings are usually one or more speech recognition character strings acquired by the speech recognition unit 201 and one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124. However, the two or more candidate character strings may be two or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124.

  The machine translation unit 203 translates the similar character string acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit 124 and acquires a translation result. The machine translation unit 203 may translate the speech recognition character string or the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit 116, and acquire the translation result. good. The machine translation unit 203 may translate a similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information and obtain a translation result.

  The synthesized speech output unit 204 outputs speech using the speech synthesis result acquired by the speech synthesizer 128.

  The speech recognition unit 201 and the machine translation unit 203 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the voice recognition unit 201 and the like is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

The synthesized voice output unit 204 may be considered as including or not including an output device such as a speaker. The synthesized voice output unit 204 can be realized by driver software of an output device or driver software of an output device and an output device.
Next, the operation of the speech translation apparatus 2 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 9, the description of the same steps as those in the flowchart of FIG. 3 or 4 is omitted. Note that the flowchart of FIG. 9 is configured by the same steps as the flowchart of FIG. 3 or FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 9, the process is terminated by power-off or a process termination interrupt.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the speech translation apparatus 2 in the present embodiment will be described.

  This specific example is the same as the environment of the experiment in the first embodiment. That is, the specific expression information storage unit 120 of the speech translation apparatus 2 holds the specific expression management table shown in FIG. Also, a technique called “Ximera” is used as a method for encoding a phoneme string included in the phonetic information. The algorithm for calculating the similarity used by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 is BLEU (Equation 1). Further, the predetermined condition used by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 is “phoneme string having the maximum similarity”.

  For example, the user inputs a voice to the speech translation apparatus 2 “Where is the magazine store?” Next, the speech reception unit 111 of the speech translation apparatus 2 receives speech. Then, the voice recognition unit 201 performs voice recognition processing on the received voice. Then, the speech recognition unit 201 acquires a phoneme string “z a ng sh i ng u r i b a w a d o k o k e d e s u k a” and a voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter”?

  Next, the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 123 searches for one or more phoneme sequences similar to the acquired phoneme sequence “z a ng sh i ng u r i b a w a d o k o d e s u k a” using BLUE. Then, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit 123 acquires the similar phoneme string “z a q sh i u r i b a w a d k o k e d e u k a” from the specific expression management table shown in FIG. 6.

  Next, the similar character string acquisition unit 124 acquires the similar character string “Where is the magazine department” corresponding to the acquired phoneme string “z a q sh i u r i b a w a k o d o k e d e u k a” from the specific expression management table.

  Next, the control unit 130 compares the voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter” with the similar character string “Where is the magazine counter”? Then, the control unit 130 determines that both character strings do not match.

  Next, the candidate character string output unit 202 configures two candidate character strings using the voice recognition character string “Where is the novel counter” and the similar character string “Where is the magazine counter”? For example, the constructed candidate character string is “1: where is the magazine department, 2: where is the novel department”.

  Next, the candidate character string output unit 202 outputs the candidate character string. An output example of the candidate character string is shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that the user checks the sentence “Where is the magazine store” and presses the “Send” button.

  Next, the instruction receiving unit 116 receives an instruction (an instruction from the user) of one candidate character string “Where is the magazine store” from the two output candidate character strings.

  Next, the machine translation unit 203 acquires a similar character string “Where is the magazine department” corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information “1”.

  Next, the machine translation unit 203 translates the acquired character string “Where is the magazine counter?” And acquires the translation result “Where is the magazine counter?”.

  Next, the speech synthesizer 128 synthesizes the acquired translation result “Where is the magazine counter?” To obtain a speech synthesis result.

  The synthesized speech output unit 204 outputs speech using the speech synthesis result.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to obtain a good translation result even when there is an error in the speech recognition result by performing a similar sentence search using a phoneme symbol string representing a sound as a search key. .

  Note that the software that implements the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, this program stores two or more unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string in a storage medium, and the computer receives a voice receiving unit that receives voice and a voice received by the voice receiving unit. A speech recognition unit that performs speech recognition and acquires a phoneme sequence, a similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit that acquires a phoneme sequence similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit from the storage medium, and the similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit A character string acquisition unit that acquires a character string corresponding to the acquired phoneme string, a machine translation unit that translates the character string acquired by the character string acquisition unit and acquires a translation result, and a translation acquired by the machine translation unit A program for functioning as a speech synthesizer that synthesizes a result and a synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result.

  In the above program, the speech recognition unit recognizes speech using the speech related information, and outputs one or more phoneme strings and one or more speech recognition character strings that are one or more character strings that are speech recognition results. The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit acquires one or more phoneme sequences similar to the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, and the similar character string acquisition unit One or more similar character strings that are one or more character strings corresponding to one or more phoneme strings acquired by the phoneme string acquisition unit, and the one or more speech recognition character strings and the similar characters acquired by the voice recognition unit A candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings that are one or more similar character strings acquired by the column acquisition unit, and one or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit, To accept instructions for candidate character strings The machine translation unit translates the speech recognition character string or the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit. It is preferable to make the computer function as the one that obtains the translation result.

  In the above program, the similar phoneme string acquisition unit acquires two or more phoneme strings similar to the phoneme string acquired by the speech recognition unit from the specific expression information storage unit, and the similar character string acquisition unit includes: , Two or more similar character strings corresponding to two or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit, and two or more candidate characters that are two or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit A candidate character string output unit for outputting a string; and an instruction receiving unit for receiving an instruction for one candidate character string from two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit, The translation unit translates the speech recognition character string or the similar character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information for specifying the candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit, and acquires the translation result as a computer. Function Rukoto is preferred.

  In the above program, the computer compares the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit The candidate character string output unit further functions as a control unit that determines whether or not a matching character string exists in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. It is preferable to make the computer function as not outputting columns.

  FIG. 10 shows the external appearance of a computer that executes the program described in this specification to realize the speech translation apparatus and the like of the above-described embodiment. The above-described embodiments can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed thereon. FIG. 10 is an overview diagram of the computer system 340, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the computer system 340.

  In FIG. 10, the computer system 340 includes a computer 341 including an FD drive 3411 and a CD-ROM drive 3412, a keyboard 342, a mouse 343, a monitor 344, and a microphone 345.

  In FIG. 11, in addition to the FD drive 3411 and the CD-ROM drive 3412, the computer 341 stores an MPU 3413, a bus 3414 connected to the CD-ROM drive 3412 and the FD drive 3411, and a program such as a bootup program. A RAM 3416 for temporarily storing application program instructions and providing a temporary storage space; and a hard disk 3417 for storing application programs, system programs, and data. Although not shown here, the computer 341 may further include a network card that provides connection to the LAN.

  A program that causes the computer system 340 to execute the functions of the speech translation apparatus or the like of the above-described embodiment is stored in the CD-ROM 3501 or FD 3502, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 3412 or FD drive 3411, and further the hard disk 3417. May be transferred to. Alternatively, the program may be transmitted to the computer 341 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 3417. The program is loaded into the RAM 3416 at the time of execution. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 3501, the FD 3502, or the network.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 341 to execute the functions of the speech translation apparatus according to the above-described embodiment. The program only needs to include an instruction portion that calls an appropriate function (module) in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 340 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  In the above program, in a step of transmitting information, a step of receiving information, etc., processing performed by hardware, for example, processing performed by a modem or an interface card (processing performed only by hardware) is performed. Not included.

  Further, the computer that executes the program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  Further, in each of the above embodiments, it goes without saying that two or more communication units existing in one apparatus may be physically realized by one medium.

In each of the above embodiments, each process (each function) may be realized by centralized processing by a single device (system), or by distributed processing by a plurality of devices. May be.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, the speech translation system according to the present invention has an effect that a good translation result can be obtained even when the speech recognition result has an error, and is useful as a speech translation system or the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Speech translation system 2 Speech translation apparatus 11 Terminal device 12 Server apparatus 111 Speech reception part 112 Speech-related information acquisition part 113 Speech-related information transmission part 114 Candidate character string reception part 115,202 Candidate character string output part 116 Instruction reception part 117 Candidate Character string identification information transmission unit 118 Speech synthesis result reception unit 119, 204 Synthetic speech output unit 120 Specific expression information storage unit 121 Speech related information reception unit 122, 201 Speech recognition unit 123 Similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit 124 Similar character string acquisition unit 125 Candidate character string transmission unit 126 Candidate character string specifying information reception unit 127, 203 Machine translation unit 128 Speech synthesis unit 129 Speech synthesis result transmission unit 130 Control unit

Claims (8)

A speech translation system comprising a terminal device and a server device,
The terminal device
A voice reception unit for receiving voice;
A voice-related information acquisition unit that acquires voice-related information that is one or more feature quantities related to the voice received by the voice reception unit or the voice received by the voice reception unit;
A voice-related information transmitting unit that transmits the voice-related information to the server device;
A candidate character string receiving unit for receiving two or more candidate character strings from the server device;
A candidate character string output unit that outputs two or more candidate character strings received by the candidate character string receiver;
An instruction receiving unit for receiving an instruction for one candidate character string from among two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit;
A candidate character string specifying information transmitting unit for transmitting candidate character string specifying information for specifying a candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction receiving unit to the server device;
A speech synthesis result receiving unit for receiving a speech synthesis result from the server device;
A synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result,
The server device
A unique expression information storage unit capable of storing two or more unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string;
A voice related information receiving unit for receiving the voice related information;
A speech recognition unit that recognizes speech using the speech related information and obtains a speech recognition character string that is a phoneme sequence and a character string of a speech recognition result ;
The similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and the two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique expression information stored in the specific expression information storage unit is calculated, and the similarity is a predetermined condition A similar phoneme string acquisition unit that acquires one or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other from the specific expression information storage unit;
A similar character string acquisition unit that acquires one or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit;
The voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit is compared with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and a character string that matches the voice recognition character string is the one or more similar characters. A control unit that determines whether or not it exists in the character string;
A candidate character string transmission unit that transmits to the terminal device two or more candidate character strings that are the voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit and the one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit;
In response to the transmission of the two or more candidate character strings, a candidate character string specifying information receiving unit that receives candidate character string specifying information that is information for specifying one candidate character string from the terminal device;
A machine translation unit that translates a candidate character string corresponding to the candidate character string specifying information and obtains a translation result;
A speech synthesizer that synthesizes a speech obtained by the machine translation unit and obtains a speech synthesis result; and
A speech synthesis result transmission unit for transmitting the speech synthesis result to the terminal device ;
The candidate character string transmitter is
When the control unit determines that a character string that matches the voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit exists in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, the candidate character string Do not send voice translation system. The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit includes:
The similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and the two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique expression information stored in the specific expression information storage unit is calculated, and the similarity is a predetermined condition Two or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other are acquired from the specific expression information storage unit,
The similar character string acquisition unit
Two or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to two or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit are acquired from the specific expression information storage unit,
The candidate character string transmitter is
The speech translation according to claim 1, wherein the speech recognition character string acquired by the speech recognition unit and three or more candidate character strings that are two or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit are transmitted to the terminal device. system. A unique expression information storage unit capable of storing two or more unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string;
A voice reception unit for receiving voice;
A speech recognition unit that recognizes speech received by the speech reception unit and obtains a speech recognition character string that is a phoneme sequence and a character string of a speech recognition result ;
The similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and the two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique expression information stored in the specific expression information storage unit is calculated, and the similarity is a predetermined condition A similar phoneme string acquisition unit that acquires one or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other from the specific expression information storage unit;
A similar character string acquisition unit that acquires one or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme sequences acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit;
The voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit is compared with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and a character string that matches the voice recognition character string is the one or more similar characters. A control unit that determines whether or not it exists in the character string;
A candidate character string output unit for outputting two or more candidate character strings that are the voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit and the one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit;
An instruction receiving unit for receiving an instruction for one candidate character string from among two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit;
A machine translation unit that translates one candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction reception unit and obtains a translation result;
A speech synthesizer that synthesizes a speech obtained by the machine translation unit and obtains a speech synthesis result; and
A synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result ,
The candidate character string output unit includes:
When the control unit determines that a character string that matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit is present in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, the candidate character string is output. Not a speech translation device. The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit includes:
The similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and the two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique expression information stored in the specific expression information storage unit is calculated, and the similarity is a predetermined condition Two or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other are acquired from the specific expression information storage unit,
The similar character string acquisition unit
Two or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to two or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit are acquired from the specific expression information storage unit,
The candidate character string output unit includes:
The speech translation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the speech recognition apparatus outputs the speech recognition character string acquired by the speech recognition unit and three or more candidate character strings that are two or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. On the storage medium,
Two or more unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string is stored,
Realized by a speech reception unit, a speech recognition unit, a similar phoneme string acquisition unit, a similar character string acquisition unit, a control unit, a candidate character string output unit, an instruction reception unit, a machine translation unit, a speech synthesis unit, and a synthesized speech output unit A speech translation method,
A voice receiving step in which the voice receiving unit receives voice;
A voice recognition step in which the voice recognition unit recognizes the voice received in the voice reception step, and acquires a phoneme string and a voice recognition character string that is a character string of a voice recognition result ;
The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit calculates a similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired in the speech recognition step and two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique representation information stored in the storage medium, A similar phoneme string acquisition step of acquiring from the storage medium one or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other such that the degree of similarity satisfies a predetermined condition ;
The similar character string obtaining section, one or more similar string is a character string corresponding to one or more phoneme string obtained by the similar phoneme string obtaining step, a similar character string obtaining step for obtaining from said storage medium ,
The control unit compares the voice recognition character string acquired in the voice recognition step with one or more similar character strings acquired in the similar character string acquisition step, and matches the voice recognition character string. Is a control step for determining whether or not exists in the one or more similar character strings;
Candidate characters that the candidate character string output unit outputs two or more candidate character strings that are the voice recognition character string acquired in the voice recognition step and one or more similar character strings acquired in the similar character string acquisition step A column output step;
An instruction receiving step in which the instruction receiving unit receives an instruction of one candidate character string from two or more candidate character strings output in the candidate character string output step;
The machine translation unit translates one candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received in the instruction reception step, and obtains a translation result; and
The speech synthesizer speech synthesizes the translation result obtained in the machine translation step, and obtains the speech synthesis result;
The synthesized speech output unit comprises a synthesized speech output step for outputting speech using the speech synthesis result ,
In the candidate character string output step,
If it is determined in the control step that the character string that matches the character string acquired in the voice recognition step exists in one or more similar character strings acquired in the similar character string acquisition step, the candidate character A speech translation method that does not output columns . In the similar phoneme sequence acquisition step,
A similarity between the phoneme string acquired in the speech recognition step and two or more phoneme strings included in each of the two or more unique expression information stored in the storage medium is calculated, and the similarity satisfies a predetermined condition Two or more phoneme strings that are similar to each other are acquired from the storage medium,
In the similar character string acquisition step,
Acquiring two or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to two or more phoneme strings acquired in the similar phoneme string acquiring step from the storage medium;
In the candidate character string output step,
6. The speech translation method according to claim 5, wherein three or more candidate character strings that are the voice recognition character string acquired in the voice recognition step and the two or more similar character strings acquired in the similar character string acquisition step are output. On the storage medium,
Two or more unique expression information having a phoneme string and a character string is stored,
Computer
A voice reception unit for receiving voice;
A speech recognition unit that recognizes speech received by the speech reception unit and acquires a phoneme sequence;
The degree of similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique representation information stored in the storage medium is calculated, and the degree of similarity satisfies a predetermined condition. A similar phoneme string acquisition unit that acquires one or more similar phoneme strings from the storage medium;
A similar character string acquisition unit that acquires, from the storage medium, one or more similar character strings that are character strings corresponding to the one or more phoneme strings acquired by the similar phoneme string acquisition unit;
The voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit is compared with one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, and a character string that matches the voice recognition character string is the one or more similar characters. A control unit that determines whether or not it exists in the character string;
A candidate character string output unit for outputting two or more candidate character strings that are the voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit and the one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit;
An instruction receiving unit for receiving an instruction for one candidate character string from among two or more candidate character strings output by the candidate character string output unit;
A machine translation unit that translates one candidate character string corresponding to the instruction received by the instruction reception unit and obtains a translation result;
A speech synthesizer that synthesizes a speech obtained by the machine translation unit and obtains a speech synthesis result ; and
A program for functioning as a synthesized speech output unit that outputs speech using the speech synthesis result ,
The candidate character string output unit includes:
When the control unit determines that a character string that matches the character string acquired by the voice recognition unit is present in one or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit, the candidate character string is output. A program that allows a computer to function as if not . The similar phoneme sequence acquisition unit includes:
The degree of similarity between the phoneme sequence acquired by the speech recognition unit and two or more phoneme sequences included in each of the two or more unique representation information stored in the storage medium is calculated, and the degree of similarity satisfies a predetermined condition. Obtaining two or more similar phoneme strings from the storage medium;
The similar character string acquisition unit
Obtaining two or more similar character strings, which are character strings corresponding to the two or more phoneme strings obtained by the similar phoneme string obtaining unit, from the storage medium;
The candidate character string output unit includes:
8. The computer for functioning as a voice recognition character string acquired by the voice recognition unit and three or more candidate character strings that are two or more similar character strings acquired by the similar character string acquisition unit. The program described.

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