Patent 7401019 was granted and assigned to Microsoft on July, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method of searching audio data is provided including receiving a query defining multiple phonetic possibilities. The method also includes comparing the query with a lattice of phonetic hypotheses associated with the audio data to identify if at least one of the multiple phonetic possibilities is approximated by at least one phonetic hypothesis in the lattice of phonetic hypotheses.