Patent US 4,811,399

An apparatus for automatic speech recognition includes a plurality of processors, including template processors in which there are stored templates representative of both speech and non-speech sounds. Incoming sounds are continuously converted into digital signals in respective frames representative of speech and non-speech sounds, respectively. Sequences of such frames are compared with both the speech and non-speech templates to determine the closest matches. Endpoints of respective speech utterances are determined in response to the detection of respective non-speech-speech-non-speech sequences, whereupon such speech utterances are processed to recognize the same.