Connected Speech Recognition

A form of automatic speech recognition in which users speak words naturally, with normal coarticulation and minimal pauses, rather than pausing between each word as required by older 'discrete' or 'isolated-word' recognisers. Connected-speech recognition was a significant technical milestone in the late 1970s and early 1980s because it made conversational voice interfaces feasible — Schmandt and Hulteen (1982) considered it a precondition for the natural interaction of 'Put That There.' For accessibility, connected-speech recognition underlies modern voice assistants, dictation tools, and voice-based AAC, all of which would be infeasible if users had to pause between every word.