US Patent 8165880 Speech end-pointer

An end-pointer determines a beginning and an end of a speech segment. The end-pointer includes a voice triggering module that identifies a portion of an audio stream that has an audio speech segment. A rule module communicates with the voice triggering module. The rule module includes a plurality of rules used to analyze a part of the audio stream to detect a beginning and an end of the audio speech segment. A consonant detector detects occurrences of a high frequency consonant in the portion of the audio stream.