Hardware implementation of distributed speech recognition system front end

Modern speech recognition applications are heading towards embedded systems and hand-held devices. Distributed speech recognition (DSR) system architecture emerged to address this kind of applications. Most of the existing implementations of this system are presented in software fashion, with little consideration to the end product platform in which the system will be deployed. In this paper, an optimized hardware implementation of the front end part of the DSR specified in the basic ETSI Aurora standard ETSI ES 201 108 is presented in FPGA platform prototype, with consideration of migration to structured ASIC in case of mass-production. Main design issues and tips are highlighted. Results are presented in terms of hardware resources utilization, comparison of some basic system components to third party reference designs and compliance to the Aurora standard.