Keyword recognition with phone confusion networks and phonological features based keyword threshold detection

In this study, a new keyword spotting system (KWS) that utilizes phone confusion networks (PCNs) is presented. The new system exploits the compactness and accuracy of phone confusion networks to deliver fast and accurate results. Special design considerations are provided within the new algorithm to account for phone recognizer induced insertion and deletion errors. Furthermore, this study proposes a new threshold estimation technique that uses the keyword constituent phones and phonological features (PFs) for threshold computation. The new threshold estimation technique is able to deliver thresholds that improves the overall F-score for keyword detection. The final integrated system is able to achieve a better balance between precision and recall.