A speaker of encoded speech data recorded in a semiconductor storage
device in an IC recorder is to be retrieved easily. An information
receiving unit 10 in a speaker retrieval apparatus 1 reads out the
encoded speech data recorded in a semiconductor storage device 107 in an
IC recorder 100. A speech decoding unit 12 decodes the encoded speech
data. A speaker frequency detection unit 13 discriminates the speaker
based on a feature of the speech waveform decoded to find the frequency
of conversation (frequency of occurrence) of the speaker in a preset time
interval. A speaker frequency graph displaying unit 14 displays the
speaker frequency on a picture as a two-dimensional graph having time and
the frequency as two axes. A speech reproducing unit 16 reads out the
portion of the encoded speech data corresponding to a time position or a
time range specified by a reproducing position input unit 15 based on
this two-dimensional graph from the storage device 11 and decodes the
read-out data to output the decoded data to a speech outputting unit 17.