Computers and Speech Recognition: Techniques and Applications Abstract Speech is the most natural and common way of communication between people. It would seem only natural that computer development would eventually progress to the point where people would want to extend the human-computer interface to include speech. Once this happened, numerous techniques were explored. The goals of speech recognition became more and more ambitious, and researchers today continue to push the limits of what computers can do with the spoken word. This paper examines the problem of computer speech recognition by looking at the steps involved in getting from a spoken word to the word's recognition by the machine. The difficulties of continuous speech recognition will be enumerated and examined, as will the most popular recognition technique used today. The analysis ends with a brief description of some of the applications of speech recognition. Introduction Simply put, speech recognition is difficult. A computer does not have a useful thing called an ear that enables it to hear sounds, or a brain to process those sounds into recognizable words and phrases. There are three main stages involved in speech recognition: preprocessing, recognition, and communication. Preprocessing involves taking the speech input and converting it into something the computer can use. During the recognition stage, the computer must identify what has been said. Finally, in the communication stage, the computer acts upon the translated input (Markowitz). There are many inherent difficulties involved in speech recognition. For example, human speech can span more than 20,000 frequencies. A computer would quickly become overwhelmed by data if it was supplied with eve... ... middle of paper ... ...e applications where they could be useful. For many people in the past few years, speech recognition has moved from just being a novelty to becoming an important tool used in their everyday lives. References Books 1. Markowitz, Judith A. Using Speech Recognition. Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1996. 2. Keller, Eric. Fundamentals of Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition. John Wiley & Sons, 1994. 3. Hollingum, Jack and Cassford, Graham. Speech Technology at Work. IFS Publications, Ltd, 1988. WWW Sites 1. http://www.linfield.edu/~dbrewer/speech/spchi.html College student's informative summary paper on speech recognition 2. http://www.speech.usyd.edu.au/comp.speech/FAQ6.html One of many speech recognition questions answered. FOR MORE INFORMATION http://www.speech.usyd.edu.au/comp.speech/SpeechLinks.html A large list of Speech Recognition links on the web.
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech,
The documentary “Only God Could Hear Me” was interesting and beneficial in the same time. It showed me the life of non-speakers who use AAC devices, and how their lives become after use them. In the past, their communications were about saying yes or no by moving their heads or eyebrows. They did not have the ability to communicate as normal people. They were not able to express themselves and their feelings. They also could not say what they want to say. They were isolated and did not engage with others. However, after they used the AAC, every aspect in their lives changed. They are now able to interact with other people and making relationships. They also can talk about different topics and participate in any discussion. Moreover, they can play and enjoy
Automatic speech recognition is the most successful and accurate of these applications. It is currently making a use of a technique called “shadowing” or sometimes called “voicewriting.” Rather than have the speaker’s speech directly transcribed by the system, a hearing person whose speech is well-trained to an ASR system repeats the words being spoken.
Imagine living during the 1960’s when the nation was divided by segregation. The only way to express your ideas, beliefs, and thoughts during that time was through words. Famous Civil Rights activists such as, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., inspired many with his wise words and empowering speeches. Times when many felt unheard or invisible, words were there as tranquilness and an ataraxia. Words have the power to provoke, calm, or inspire by motivating others to take action in what they believe in.
Hearing loss is often overlooked because our hearing is an invisible sense that is always expected to be in action. Yet, there are people everywhere that suffer from the effects of hearing loss. It is important to study and understand all aspects of the many different types and reasons for hearing loss. The loss of this particular sense can be socially debilitating. It can affect the communication skills of the person, not only in receiving information, but also in giving the correct response. This paper focuses primarily on hearing loss in the elderly. One thing that affects older individuals' communication is the difficulty they often experience when recognizing time compressed speech. Time compressed speech involves fast and unclear conversational speech. Many older listeners can detect the sound of the speech being spoken, but it is still unclear (Pichora-Fuller, 2000). In order to help with diagnosis and rehabilitation, we need to understand why speech is unclear even when it is audible. The answer to that question would also help in the development of hearing aids and other communication devices. Also, as we come to understand the reasoning behind this question and as we become more knowledgeable about what older adults can and cannot hear, we can better accommodate them in our day to day interactions.
...speaker and the listener. The student can store often used responses, and prepare anticipated answers prior to situations where he will be meeting with those less familiar with his speech capabilities. By implementing this type of device, the student has become more confident and can communicate appropriately for a student his age. In this instance, the integration of technology into the learning environment may make a difference as to whether the student is employable or overlooked due to the inability to communicate well on the job.
For the informative speech I chose to inform my audience about Muncie Indiana. I did this topic to get the attention of ball state students, and make them realize what an awesome place Muncie Indiana really is. I informed them on the history of Muncie to hopefully encourage them to get more involved in the community outside of classes. I feel that the students learned a lot about Muncie they would have never known. I do believe could have done a better job at making in more intriguing and kept their attention all the way through my speech. If I would have done this better I would have been able to sale the idea getting more involved with the city that brought thousands of students their college education.
Speech is the common basic way we communication with each other. The development of voice biometrics is one that emerged to allow a user to input their voice into a computer system. It is a growing technology which provides security in computers. A speech recognition system is designed to assist the user to complete what that person wants to say versus having a person transcribe it. The first step in voice recognition is for the user to be trained and produce an actual voice sample. Through this process sounds, words or phrases are converted in electrical signals and then they are turned into a coding process by the system. The goal of voice recognition is to understand the human spoken voice.
Delgado, R & Kobayashi, T 2011. Proceedings of the Paralinguistic Information and its Integration in Spoken Dialogue Systems Workshop. 1st ed. Springer.
Simultaneous communication, also known as Sim-com is a form of communication process that utilizes both signs and sound. Quite often Sim-com has been referred to as a sign supported speech; these signs are usually in English in order to ensure that there is fluency in the language. In this, it is noted that some other non-verbal cues like the use of finger spelling and visual aids which rhyme to the spoken language can be used. Simultaneous communication has always been known to be a form of communication that is intended to help people who have hearing problems (deaf) understand what is being said. In this, it is realized that over the years, Sim-com has been able to utilize other systems of communication like seeing essential English. Sim-com has proven its advantageous use in both the deaf and hearing people because it presents both the spoken language and also the non-verbal. Simultaneous language is not only used by the deaf, but also used when communicating with students at the preschool level. This is important because these children tend not to understand verbal communication fully (Beginnings, 2014).
This is similar to the life of any computer. Humans gain information through the senses. Computers gain similar information through a video camera, a microphone, a touch pad or screen, and it is even possible for computers to analyze scents and chemicals. Humans also gain information through books, other people, and even computers, all of which computers can access through software, interfacing, and modems. For the past year, speech recognition software products have become mainstream(Lyons,176).
Artificial neural networks are systems implemented on computer systems as specialized hardware or sophisticated software that loosely model the learning and remembering functions of the human brain. They are an attempt to simulate the multiple layers of processing elements in the brain, called neurons. These elements are implemented in such a way so that the layers can learn from prior experience and remember their outputs. In this way, the system can learn to recognize certain patterns and situations and apply these to certain priorities and output appropriate results. These types of neural networks can be used in many important situations such as priority in an emergency room, for financial assistance, and any type of pattern recognition such as handwritten or text-to-speech recognition.
Jurafsky, D. & Martin, J. H. (2009), Speech and Language Processing: International Version: an Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and Speech Recognition, 2nd ed, Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
...orm from which to carry out further research, it is clear that it cannot be accepted as a fully working model of speech perception. Alternative theories have since been proposed, such as the Massaro’s fuzzy logic model, which suggests that speech sounds are considered in terms of how likely they are to belong to a specific category. Thus the final decision of how a sound is perceived can take into account multiple features or sources of information, including visual information. While each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses, they differ fundamentally in whether or not they believe speech to have a “special” module in the brain. As of yet, the body of evidence is not sufficient to conclusively prove or disprove either, and the answer as to how exactly listeners extract the linguistic features of speech sounds from the acoustic signal has yet to be found.
Computers are now being used to help the blind with a voice synthesizer that tells them what they are typing or what they are trying to see on the screen. According to Palmer (1999),"CCS builds and sells complete handicapped accessible packages, as well as individual products like speech synthesizes voice cards and screen enlargement software. The screen enlargement programs increase type size to aid people who are partially impaired. Those with total blindness use synthesizers both hardware and software versions that read what's on the screen. They work by translating ASCI symbols, the series of code each letter and graphic is assigned into voice transmissions.