摘要 |
The present invention relates to the management of voice data. Voice messages left on a recipient's answerphone or delivered via a voicemail system are a popular form of person-to-person communication. Such voice messages are quick to generate for the sender but are relatively difficult to review for the recipient; speech is slow to listen to and, unlike inherently visual forms of messages such as electronic mail or handwritten notes, cannot be quickly scanned for the relevant information. The present invention aims to make it easier for users to find relevant information in voice messages, and other kinds of voice record, such as recordings of meetings and recorded dictation. According to the present invention we provide a method of speech segmentation comprising processing speech data so as to detect putative pauses and characterised by forming speech block boundaries at a selected subset of the pauses, said selection being based on a preselected target speech block length. The invention may be applied in an application where speech is represented visually.
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