US Patent 11676625 Unified endpointer using multitask and multidomain learning

A method for training an endpointer model includes short-form speech utterances and long-form speech utterances. The method also includes providing a short-form speech utterance as input to a shared neural network, the shared neural network configured to learn shared hidden representations suitable for both voice activity detection (VAD) and end-of-query (EOQ) detection. The method also includes generating, using a VAD classifier, a sequence of predicted VAD labels and determining a VAD loss by comparing the sequence of predicted VAD labels to a corresponding sequence of reference VAD labels. The method also includes, generating, using an EOQ classifier, a sequence of predicted EOQ labels and determining an EOQ loss by comparing the sequence of predicted EOQ labels to a corresponding sequence of reference EOQ labels. The method also includes training, using a cross-entropy criterion, the endpointer model based on the VAD loss and the EOQ loss.