Is there a way to force Google Speech api to return only words as response?

Question

I am using Googles this api :-

https://www.google.com/speech-api/v2/recognize?output=json&lang="+ language_code+"&key="My key"

for speech recognition and it's working very well.

The issue is with numbers i.e, if I say one two three four the result will be 1234 and if I say one thousand two hundred thirty four the result is still 1234.

Another issue is that with other languages i.e. the word elf in German is eleven. If you say elf the result is 11, instead of elf.

I know we have no control over the api but is there any parameters or hacks we can add to this api to force it to return only words.

The response some times have the correct result but not always.

These are sample responses

1) When I say "one two three four"

{"result":[{"alternative":[{"transcript":"1234","confidence":0.47215959},{"transcript":"1 2 3 4","confidence":0.25},{"transcript":"one two three four","confidence":0.25},{"transcript":"1 2 34","confidence":0.33333334},{"transcript":"1 to 34","confidence":1}],"final":true}],"result_index":0}

2) When I say "one thousand two hundred thirty four"

{"result":[{"alternative":[{"transcript":"1234","confidence":0.94247383},{"transcript":"1.254","confidence":1},{"transcript":"1284","confidence":1},{"transcript":"1244","confidence":1},{"transcript":"1230 4","confidence":1}],"final":true}],"result_index":0}

What I have done.

Check if the result is a number, Then split each number by space and check if there is same sequence in the result array. In this e.g. Result 1234 becomes 1 2 3 4 and will search if there is a similar sequence in the result array and then convert it to words.In 2nd case there is no 1 2 3 4 so will stick with the original result.

This is the code.

 String numberPattern = "[0-9]";
  Pattern r1 = Pattern.compile(numberPattern);
  Matcher m2 = r1.matcher(output);
  if (m2.find()) {
      char[] digits2 = output.toCharArray();
      String digit = "";
      for (char c: digits2) {
          digit += c + " ";
      }

      for (int i = 1; i < jsonArray2.length(); i++) {
          String value = jsonArray2.getJSONObject(i).getString("transcript");
          if (digit.trim().equals(value.trim())) {
              output = digit + " ";
          }
      }
  }

So the issue is when I "say thirteen four eight" this method will split 13 as one three and hence not a reliable solution.

Update

I tried the new cloud vision api (https://cloud.google.com/speech/) and it's little better than the v2. The result for one two three four is in words itself for which my workaround is working as well. But when I say thirteen four eight it's still the same result as in v2.

And also elf is still 11 in German.

Also tried speech_context that also didn't worked.

Answer 1

Take a look at this question and answer.

You can give the API "speech context" hints, like this:

"speech_context": {
  "phrases":["zero", "one", "two", ... "nine", "ten", "eleven", ... "twenty", "thirty,..., "ninety"]
 }

I imagine this could work for other languages too, like German.

"speech_context": {
  "phrases":["eins", "zwei", "drei", ..., "elf", "zwölf" ... ]
 }

Answer 2

You may have to convert numbers (not digits) to words by yourself. As there is some logic in most languages (e.g. English, German), you can do this with an algorithmic approach.

See How to convert number to words in java