VOICE RECOGNITION APPARATUS

A voice recognition apparatus 10 includes a voice recognition means 12 for performing voice recognition, and a control means for controlling receipt of a voice input to the voice recognition means, and for performing recognition according to a result of the voice recognition acquired by the voice recognition means. In this voice recognition apparatus, the control means controls the receipt of a voice according to a timeout time which defines the end of the receipt of a voice. The voice recognition apparatus further includes an environmental condition detecting means 18 for detecting an environmental condition, and a timeout time control means 16 for changing the timeout time according to the environmental condition detected by the environmental condition detection means.