Automatic Speech and Speaker Recognition


Book Description

Research in the field of automatic speech and speaker recognition has made a number of significant advances in the last two decades, influenced by advances in signal processing, algorithms, architectures, and hardware. These advances include: the adoption of a statistical pattern recognition paradigm; the use of the hidden Markov modeling framework to characterize both the spectral and the temporal variations in the speech signal; the use of a large set of speech utterance examples from a large population of speakers to train the hidden Markov models of some fundamental speech units; the organization of speech and language knowledge sources into a structural finite state network; and the use of dynamic, programming based heuristic search methods to find the best word sequence in the lexical network corresponding to the spoken utterance. Automatic Speech and Speaker Recognition: Advanced Topics groups together in a single volume a number of important topics on speech and speaker recognition, topics which are of fundamental importance, but not yet covered in detail in existing textbooks. Although no explicit partition is given, the book is divided into five parts: Chapters 1-2 are devoted to technology overviews; Chapters 3-12 discuss acoustic modeling of fundamental speech units and lexical modeling of words and pronunciations; Chapters 13-15 address the issues related to flexibility and robustness; Chapter 16-18 concern the theoretical and practical issues of search; Chapters 19-20 give two examples of algorithm and implementational aspects for recognition system realization. Audience: A reference book for speech researchers and graduate students interested in pursuing potential research on the topic. May also be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.




Deep Learning for NLP and Speech Recognition


Book Description

This textbook explains Deep Learning Architecture, with applications to various NLP Tasks, including Document Classification, Machine Translation, Language Modeling, and Speech Recognition. With the widespread adoption of deep learning, natural language processing (NLP),and speech applications in many areas (including Finance, Healthcare, and Government) there is a growing need for one comprehensive resource that maps deep learning techniques to NLP and speech and provides insights into using the tools and libraries for real-world applications. Deep Learning for NLP and Speech Recognition explains recent deep learning methods applicable to NLP and speech, provides state-of-the-art approaches, and offers real-world case studies with code to provide hands-on experience. Many books focus on deep learning theory or deep learning for NLP-specific tasks while others are cookbooks for tools and libraries, but the constant flux of new algorithms, tools, frameworks, and libraries in a rapidly evolving landscape means that there are few available texts that offer the material in this book. The book is organized into three parts, aligning to different groups of readers and their expertise. The three parts are: Machine Learning, NLP, and Speech Introduction The first part has three chapters that introduce readers to the fields of NLP, speech recognition, deep learning and machine learning with basic theory and hands-on case studies using Python-based tools and libraries. Deep Learning Basics The five chapters in the second part introduce deep learning and various topics that are crucial for speech and text processing, including word embeddings, convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks and speech recognition basics. Theory, practical tips, state-of-the-art methods, experimentations and analysis in using the methods discussed in theory on real-world tasks. Advanced Deep Learning Techniques for Text and Speech The third part has five chapters that discuss the latest and cutting-edge research in the areas of deep learning that intersect with NLP and speech. Topics including attention mechanisms, memory augmented networks, transfer learning, multi-task learning, domain adaptation, reinforcement learning, and end-to-end deep learning for speech recognition are covered using case studies.




Automatic Speech Recognition


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the recent advancement in the field of automatic speech recognition with a focus on deep learning models including deep neural networks and many of their variants. This is the first automatic speech recognition book dedicated to the deep learning approach. In addition to the rigorous mathematical treatment of the subject, the book also presents insights and theoretical foundation of a series of highly successful deep learning models.




New Era for Robust Speech Recognition


Book Description

This book covers the state-of-the-art in deep neural-network-based methods for noise robustness in distant speech recognition applications. It provides insights and detailed descriptions of some of the new concepts and key technologies in the field, including novel architectures for speech enhancement, microphone arrays, robust features, acoustic model adaptation, training data augmentation, and training criteria. The contributed chapters also include descriptions of real-world applications, benchmark tools and datasets widely used in the field. This book is intended for researchers and practitioners working in the field of speech processing and recognition who are interested in the latest deep learning techniques for noise robustness. It will also be of interest to graduate students in electrical engineering or computer science, who will find it a useful guide to this field of research.




Connectionist Speech Recognition


Book Description

Connectionist Speech Recognition: A Hybrid Approach describes the theory and implementation of a method to incorporate neural network approaches into state of the art continuous speech recognition systems based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) to improve their performance. In this framework, neural networks (and in particular, multilayer perceptrons or MLPs) have been restricted to well-defined subtasks of the whole system, i.e. HMM emission probability estimation and feature extraction. The book describes a successful five-year international collaboration between the authors. The lessons learned form a case study that demonstrates how hybrid systems can be developed to combine neural networks with more traditional statistical approaches. The book illustrates both the advantages and limitations of neural networks in the framework of a statistical systems. Using standard databases and comparison with some conventional approaches, it is shown that MLP probability estimation can improve recognition performance. Other approaches are discussed, though there is no such unequivocal experimental result for these methods. Connectionist Speech Recognition is of use to anyone intending to use neural networks for speech recognition or within the framework provided by an existing successful statistical approach. This includes research and development groups working in the field of speech recognition, both with standard and neural network approaches, as well as other pattern recognition and/or neural network researchers. The book is also suitable as a text for advanced courses on neural networks or speech processing.




Robust Speech Recognition of Uncertain or Missing Data


Book Description

Automatic speech recognition suffers from a lack of robustness with respect to noise, reverberation and interfering speech. The growing field of speech recognition in the presence of missing or uncertain input data seeks to ameliorate those problems by using not only a preprocessed speech signal but also an estimate of its reliability to selectively focus on those segments and features that are most reliable for recognition. This book presents the state of the art in recognition in the presence of uncertainty, offering examples that utilize uncertainty information for noise robustness, reverberation robustness, simultaneous recognition of multiple speech signals, and audiovisual speech recognition. The book is appropriate for scientists and researchers in the field of speech recognition who will find an overview of the state of the art in robust speech recognition, professionals working in speech recognition who will find strategies for improving recognition results in various conditions of mismatch, and lecturers of advanced courses on speech processing or speech recognition who will find a reference and a comprehensive introduction to the field. The book assumes an understanding of the fundamentals of speech recognition using Hidden Markov Models.




Speech & Language Processing


Book Description




Advances in Speech Recognition


Book Description

Two Top Industry Leaders Speak Out Judith Markowitz When Amy asked me to co-author the foreword to her new book on advances in speech recognition, I was honored. Amy’s work has always been infused with c- ative intensity, so I knew the book would be as interesting for established speech professionals as for readers new to the speech-processing industry. The fact that I would be writing the foreward with Bill Scholz made the job even more enjoyable. Bill and I have known each other since he was at UNISYS directing projects that had a profound impact on speech-recognition tools and applications. Bill Scholz The opportunity to prepare this foreword with Judith provides me with a rare oppor- nity to collaborate with a seasoned speech professional to identify numerous signi- cant contributions to the field offered by the contributors whom Amy has recruited. Judith and I have had our eyes opened by the ideas and analyses offered by this collection of authors. Speech recognition no longer needs be relegated to the ca- gory of an experimental future technology; it is here today with sufficient capability to address the most challenging of tasks. And the point-click-type approach to GUI control is no longer sufficient, especially in the context of limitations of mode- day hand held devices. Instead, VUI and GUI are being integrated into unified multimodal solutions that are maturing into the fundamental paradigm for comput- human interaction in the future.




Distant Speech Recognition


Book Description

A complete overview of distant automatic speech recognition The performance of conventional Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems degrades dramatically as soon as the microphone is moved away from the mouth of the speaker. This is due to a broad variety of effects such as background noise, overlapping speech from other speakers, and reverberation. While traditional ASR systems underperform for speech captured with far-field sensors, there are a number of novel techniques within the recognition system as well as techniques developed in other areas of signal processing that can mitigate the deleterious effects of noise and reverberation, as well as separating speech from overlapping speakers. Distant Speech Recognitionpresents a contemporary and comprehensive description of both theoretic abstraction and practical issues inherent in the distant ASR problem. Key Features: Covers the entire topic of distant ASR and offers practical solutions to overcome the problems related to it Provides documentation and sample scripts to enable readers to construct state-of-the-art distant speech recognition systems Gives relevant background information in acoustics and filter techniques, Explains the extraction and enhancement of classification relevant speech features Describes maximum likelihood as well as discriminative parameter estimation, and maximum likelihood normalization techniques Discusses the use of multi-microphone configurations for speaker tracking and channel combination Presents several applications of the methods and technologies described in this book Accompanying website with open source software and tools to construct state-of-the-art distant speech recognition systems This reference will be an invaluable resource for researchers, developers, engineers and other professionals, as well as advanced students in speech technology, signal processing, acoustics, statistics and artificial intelligence fields.




Robust Automatic Speech Recognition


Book Description

Robust Automatic Speech Recognition: A Bridge to Practical Applications establishes a solid foundation for automatic speech recognition that is robust against acoustic environmental distortion. It provides a thorough overview of classical and modern noise-and reverberation robust techniques that have been developed over the past thirty years, with an emphasis on practical methods that have been proven to be successful and which are likely to be further developed for future applications.The strengths and weaknesses of robustness-enhancing speech recognition techniques are carefully analyzed. The book covers noise-robust techniques designed for acoustic models which are based on both Gaussian mixture models and deep neural networks. In addition, a guide to selecting the best methods for practical applications is provided.The reader will: - Gain a unified, deep and systematic understanding of the state-of-the-art technologies for robust speech recognition - Learn the links and relationship between alternative technologies for robust speech recognition - Be able to use the technology analysis and categorization detailed in the book to guide future technology development - Be able to develop new noise-robust methods in the current era of deep learning for acoustic modeling in speech recognition - The first book that provides a comprehensive review on noise and reverberation robust speech recognition methods in the era of deep neural networks - Connects robust speech recognition techniques to machine learning paradigms with rigorous mathematical treatment - Provides elegant and structural ways to categorize and analyze noise-robust speech recognition techniques - Written by leading researchers who have been actively working on the subject matter in both industrial and academic organizations for many years