CONTINUOUS SPEECH RECOGNITION METHOD FOR IMPROVING FALSE ALARM RATES

A speech recognition method for detecting and recognizing one or more keywords in a continuous audio signal is disclosed. Each keyword is represented by a keyword template representing one or more target patterns, and each target pattern comprises statistics of each of at least one spectrum selected from plural short-term spectra generated according to a predetermined system for processing of the incoming audio. The incoming audio spectra are compared with the target patterns of the keyword templates and candidate keywords are selected according to a predetermined decision process. In post-decision processing, concatentation techniques, based upon a likelihood ratio test, for rejecting false alarms are disclosed. Post-decision processing can include also a prosodic test to enhance the effectiveness of the recognition apparatus.