Importance

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Abstract

The method for providing information in response to a question in one of a plurality of natural spoken languages begins by recognizing a detected utterance with a speech recognition engine equipped with a plurality of small dictionaries. Each of the small dictionaries is for respective one of the plurality of languages. Each small dictionary including speech data for a selected few common words in the respective language. Next, the method selects one of the plurality of languages as the language of the detected utterance based on a number of recognized words for each language from the small dictionaries. Next, a more thorough recognition of the detected utterance using a large dictionary for the language of the detected utterance which contains information on a much larger vocabulary. Finally, the method responds to the user in the selected language, i.e. the language of the detected utterance, either aurally or visually. Once the language of a first utterance is identified, a timer is started. Responsive to detecting a new utterance within a predetermined period, the method continues using the large dictionary to recognize the new detected utterance and responding to the user in the language of the detected utterance. If the timer times out, the method reinitializes and a new utterance is tested by all of the small dictionaries.

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First Claim