SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM BASED ON WORD

A low cost, speaker independent, limited vocabulary, word recognizing microcomputer. The microcomputer divides each spoken word into a series of word states, determines the length of each state and classifies each state as fricative, vowel-like, or silent. The incoming speech pattern, in the form of two arrays: an array of classified word states and an array of associated word lengths is then compared sequentially with a series of templates, defining the limited vocabulary stored in the microcomputer's memory. Where the states match, an error score is generated based on the difference in lengths between the template lengths and the word state lengths. Provision is made for recognizing a spoken word as a template word even when the array of states representing the spoken word is not identical to an array of states in any of the template words. This permits recognition of the same word by the microcomputer even when the word is spoken in substantially different ways.