Connected word recognition using a level building dynamic time warping algorithm

The technique of dynamic time warping has proven itself reliable and robust for a wide variety of isolated word recognition tasks. Recently extensions of the algorithm have been investigated for application to the problem of connected word recognition. In this paper a level building technique is proposed for optimally aligning a test pattern, consisting of a sequence of connected words, with a sequence of isolated word reference patterns. This algorithm is shown to be significantly more efficient than the one proposed by Sakoe while solving the exact same problem. Implementation parameters for the level building algorithm are presented and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for connected digit recognition is experimentally verified.