Speech Recognition HOWTO
Stephen Cook
                <scook@gear21.com>
           Â
Revision History
Revision v2.0 April 19, 2002 Revised by: scc
Changed license information (now GFDL) and added a new publication.
Revision v1.2 February 5, 2002 Revised by: scc
Added more commercial software listings (sent by Mayur Patel).
Revision v1.1 October 5, 2001 Revised by: scc
Added info for Vocalis Speechware. Fixed/Updated various other items.
Revision v1.0 November 20, 2000 Revised by: scc
Added info on L and H and HTK
Revision v0.5 September 13, 2000 Revised by: scc
Initial HOWTO Submission
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) on Linux is becoming easier. Several
packages are available for users as well as developers. This document describes
the basics of speech recognition and describes some of the available software.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Legal_Notices
1.1. Copyright/License
1.2. Disclaimer
1.3. Trademarks
2. Forward
2.1. About_This_Document
2.2. Acknowledgements
2.3. Comments/Updates/Feedback
2.4. ToDo
2.5. Revision_History
3. Introduction
3.1. Speech_Recognition_Basics
3.2. Types_of_Speech_Recognition
3.3. Uses_and_Applications
4. Hardware
4.1. Sound_Cards
4.2. Microphones
4.3. Computers/Processors
5. Speech_Recognition_Software
5.1. Free_Software
5.2. Commercial_Software
6. Inside_Speech_Recognition
6.1. How_Recognizers_Work
6.2. Digital_Audio_Basics
7. Publications
7.1. Books
7.2. Internet
1. Legal Notices
1.1. Copyright/License
Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Stephen C. Cook. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute, and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation.
This document is made available under the terms of the GNU_Free_Documentation
License_(GFDL), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2. Disclaimer
The author disclaims all warranties with regard to this document, including all
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a certain purpose; in no
event shall the author be liable for any special, indirect or consequential
damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits,
whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising
out of or in connection with the use of this document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3. Trademarks
All trademarks contained in this document are copyright/trademark of their
respective owners.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Forward
2.1. About This Document
This document is targeted at the beginner to intermediate level Linux user
interested in learning about Speech Recognition and trying it out. It may also
help the interested developer in explaining the basics of speech recognition
programming.
I started this document when I began researching what speech recognition
software and development libraries were available for Linux. Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR or just SR) on Linux is just starting to come into its own,
and I hope this document gives it a push in the right direction - by supporting
both users and developers of ASR technology.
I have left a variety of SR techniques out of this document, and instead I have
focused on the "HOWTO" aspect (since this is a howto...). I have included a
Publications section so the interested reader can find books and articles on
anything not covered here. This is not meant to be a definitive statement of
ASR on Linux.
For the most recent version of this document, check the LDP archive, or go to:
http://www.gear21.com/speech/index.html.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for the help, reviewing, and support
of this document:
* Jessica Perry Hekman
* Geoff Wexler
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3. Comments/Updates/Feedback
If you have any comments, suggestions, revisions, updates, or just want to chat
about ASR, please send an email to me at scook@gear21.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4. ToDo
The following things are left "to do":
* Add descriptions in the Publications section.
* Add more books to the Publications section.
* Add more links with descriptions.
* Enhance the description of the ASR system steps
* Include descriptions of FFTs and Filters.
* Include descriptions of DSP principles.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5. Revision History
v0.1 first rough draft - August 2000
v0.5 final draft - September 2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Introduction
3.1. Speech Recognition Basics
Speech recognition is the process by which a computer (or other type of
machine) identifies spoken words. Basically, it means talking to your computer,
AND having it correctly recognize what you are saying.
The following definitions are the basics needed for understanding speech
recognition technology.
Utterance
An utterance is the vocalization (speaking) of a word or words that
represent a single meaning to the computer. Utterances can be a single
word, a few words, a sentence, or even multiple sentences.
Speaker Dependance
Speaker dependent systems are designed around a specific speaker. They
generally are more accurate for the correct speaker, but much less
accurate for other speakers. They assume the speaker will speak in a
consistent voice and tempo. Speaker independent systems are designed for
a variety of speakers. Adaptive systems usually start as speaker
independent systems and utilize training techniques to adapt to the
speaker to increase their recognition accuracy.
Vocabularies
Vocabularies (or dictionaries) are lists of words or utterances that can
be recognized by the SR system. Generally, smaller vocabularies are
easier for a computer to recognize, while larger vocabularies are more
difficult. Unlike normal dictionaries, each entry doesn't have to be a
single word. They can be as long as a sentence or two. Smaller
vocabularies can have as few as 1 or 2 recognized utterances (e.g."Wake
Up"), while very large vocabularies can have a hundred thousand or more!
Accuract
The ability of a recognizer can be examined by measuring its accuracy -
or how well it recognizes utterances. This includes not only correctly
identifying an utterance but also identifying if the spoken utterance is
not in its vocabulary. Good ASR systems have an accuracy of 98% or more!
The acceptable accuracy of a system really depends on the application.
Training
Some speech recognizers have the ability to adapt to a speaker. When the
system has this ability, it may allow training to take place. An ASR
system is trained by having the speaker repeat standard or common phrases
and adjusting its comparison algorithms to match that particular speaker.
Training a recognizer usually improves its accuracy.
Training can also be used by speakers that have difficulty speaking, or
pronouncing certain words. As long as the speaker can consistently repeat
an utterance, ASR systems with training should be able to adapt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. Types of Speech Recognition
Speech recognition systems can be separated in several different classes by
describing what types of utterances they have the ability to recognize. These
classes are based on the fact that one of the difficulties of ASR is the
ability to determine when a speaker starts and finishes an utterance. Most
packages can fit into more than one class, depending on which mode they're
using.
Isolated Words
Isolated word recognizers usually require each utterance to have quiet
(lack of an audio signal) on BOTH sides of the sample window. It doesn't
mean that it accepts single words, but does require a single utterance at
a time. Often, these systems have "Listen/Not-Listen" states, where they
require the speaker to wait between utterances (usually doing processing
during the pauses). Isolated Utterance might be a better name for this
class.
Connected Words
Connect word systems (or more correctly 'connected utterances') are
similar to Isolated words, but allow separate utterances to be 'run-
together' with a minimal pause between them.
Continuous Speech
Continuous recognition is the next step. Recognizers with continuous
speech capabilities are some of the most difficult to create because they
must utilize special methods to determine utterance boundaries.
Continuous speech recognizers allow users to speak almost naturally,
while the computer determines the content. Basically, it's computer
dictation.
Spontaneous Speech
There appears to be a variety of definitions for what spontaneous speech
actually is. At a basic level, it can be thought of as speech that is
natural sounding and not rehearsed. An ASR system with spontaneous speech
ability should be able to handle a variety of natural speech features
such as words being run together, "ums" and "ahs", and even slight
stutters.
Voice Verification/Identification
Some ASR systems have the ability to identify specific users. This
document doesn't cover verification or security systems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. Uses and Applications
Although any task that involves interfacing with a computer can potentially use
ASR, the following applications are the most common right now.
Dictation
Dictation is the most common use for ASR systems today. This includes
medical transcriptions, legal and business dictation, as well as general
word processing. In some cases special vocabularies are used to increase
the accuracy of the system.
Command and Control
ASR systems that are designed to perform functions and actions on the
system are defined as Command and Control systems. Utterances like "Open
Netscape" and "Start a new xterm" will do just that.
Telephony
Some PBX/Voice Mail systems allow callers to speak commands instead of
pressing buttons to send specific tones.
Wearables
Because inputs are limited for wearable devices, speaking is a natural
possibility.
Medical/Disabilities
Many people have difficulty typing due to physical limitations such as
repetitive strain injuries (RSI), muscular dystrophy, and many others.
For example, people with difficulty hearing could use a system connected
to their telephone to convert the caller's speech to text.
Embedded Applications
Some newer cellular phones include C&C speech recognition that allow
utterances such as "Call Home". This could be a major factor in the
future of ASR and Linux. Why can't I talk to my television yet?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Hardware
4.1. Sound Cards
Because speech requires a relatively low bandwidth, just about any medium-high
quality 16 bit sound card will get the job done. You must have sound enabled in
your kernel, and you must have correct drivers installed. For more information
on sound cards, please see "The Linux Sound HOWTO" available at: http://
www.LinuxDoc.org/. Sound card quality often starts a heated discussion about
their impact on accuracy and noise.
Sound cards with the 'cleanest' A/D (analog to digital) conversions are
recommended, but most often the clarity of the digital sample is more dependent
on the microphone quality and even more dependent on the environmental noise.
Electrical "noise" from monitors, pci slots, hard-drives, etc. are usually
nothing compared to audible noise from the computer fans, squeaking chairs, or
heavy breathing.
Some ASR software packages may require a specific sound card. It's usually a
good idea to stay away from specific hardware requirements, because it limits
many of your possible future options and decisions. You'll have to weigh the
benefits and costs if you are considering packages that require specific
hardware to function properly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. Microphones
A quality microphone is key when utilizing ASR. In most cases, a desktop
microphone just won't do the job. They tend to pick up more ambient noise that
gives ASR programs a hard time.
Hand held microphones are also not the best choice as they can be cumbersome to
pick up all the time. While they do limit the amount of ambient noise, they are
most useful in applications that require changing speakers often, or when
speaking to the recognizer isn't done frequently (when wearing a headset isn't
an option).
The best choice, and by far the most common is the headset style. It allows the
ambient noise to be minimized, while allowing you to have the microphone at the
tip of your tongue all the time. Headsets are available without earphones and
with earphones (mono or stereo). I recommend the stereo headphones, but it's
just a matter of personal taste.
You can get excellent quality microphone headsets for between $25 $100. A good
place to start looking is http://www.headphones.com or http://
www.speechcontrol.com.
A quick note about levels: Don't forget to turn up your microphone volume. This
can be done with a program such as XMixer or OSS Mixer and care should be used
to avoid feedback noise. If the ASR software includes auto-adjustment programs,
use them instead, as they are optimized for their particular recognition
system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.3. Computers/Processors
ASR applications can be heavily dependent on processing speed. This is because
a large amount of digital filtering and signal processing can take place in
ASR.
As with just about any cpu intensive software, the faster the better. Also, the
more memory the better. It's possible to do some SR with 100MHz and 16M RAM,
but for fast processing (large dictionaries, complex recognition schemes, or
high sample rates), you should shoot for a minimum of a 400MHz and 128M RAM.
Because of the processing required, most software packages list their minimum
requirements.
Using a cluster (Beowulf or otherwise) to perform massive recognition efforts
hasn't yet been undertaken. If you know of any project underway, or in
development please send me a note! scook@gear21.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Speech Recognition Software
5.1. Free Software
Much of the free software listed here is available for download at: http://
sunsite.uio.no/pub/Linux/sound/apps/speech/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.1. XVoice
XVoice is a dictation/continuous speech recognizer that can be used with a
variety of XWindow applications. It allows user-defined macros. This is a fine
program with a definite future. Once setup, it performs with adequate accuracy.
XVoice requires that you download and install IBM's (free) ViaVoice for Linux
(See Commercial Section). It also requires the configuration of ViaVoice to
work correctly. Additionally, Lesstif/Motif (libXm) is required. It is also
important to note that because this program interacts with X windows, you must
leave X resources open on your machine, so caution should be used if you use
this on a networked or multi-user machine.
This software is primarily for users. An RPM is available.
HomePage: http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~tdoris/Xvoice/ http://www.zachary.com/
creemer/xvoice.html
Project: http://xvoice.sourceforge.net
Community: http://www.onelist.com/community/xvoice
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.2. CVoiceControl/kVoiceControl
CVoiceControl (which stands for Console Voice Control) started its life as
KVoiceControl (KDE Voice Control). It is a basic speech recognition system that
allows a user to execute Linux commands by using spoken commands. CVoiceControl
replaces KVoiceControl.
The software includes a microphone level configuration utility, a vocabulary
"model editor" for adding new commands and utterances, and the speech
recognition system.
CVoiceControl is an excellent starting point for experienced users looking to
get started in ASR. It is not the most user friendly, but once it has been
trained correctly, it can be very helpful. Be sure to read the documentation
while setting up.
This software is primarily for users.
Homepage: http://www.kiecza.de/daniel/linux/index.html
Documents: http://www.kiecza.de/daniel/linux/cvoicecontrol/index.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.3. Open Mind Speech
Started in late 1999, Open Mind Speech has changed names several times (was
VoiceControl, then SpeechInput, and then FreeSpeech), and is now part of the
"Open Mind Initiative". This is an open source project. Currently it isn't
completely operational and is primarily for developers.
This software is primarily for developers.
Homepage: http://freespeech.sourceforge.net
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.4. GVoice
GVoice is a speech ASR library that uses IBM's ViaVoice (free) SDK to control
Gtk/GNOME applications. It includes libraries for initialization, recognition
engine, vocabulary manipulation, and panel control. Development on this has
been idle for over a year.
This software is primarily for developers.
Homepage: http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~omega/gnome/gvoice/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.5. ISIP
The Institute for Signal and Information Processing at Mississippi State
University has made its speech recognition engine available. The toolkit
includes a front-end, a decoder, and a training module. It's a functional
toolkit.
This software is primarily for developers.
The toolkit (and more information about ISIP) is available at: http://
www.isip.msstate.edu/project/speech/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.6. CMU Sphinx
Sphinx originally started at CMU and has recently been released as open source.
This is a fairly large program that includes a lot of tools and information. It
is still "in development", but includes trainers, recognizers, acoustic models,
language models, and some limited documentation.
This software is primarily for developers.
Homepage: http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/Sphinx.html
Source: http://download.sourceforge.net/cmusphinx/sphinx2-0.1a.tar.gz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.7. Ears
Although Ears isn't fully developed, it is a good starting point for
programmers wishing to start in ASR.
This software is primarily for developers.
FTP site: ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/comp.speech/recognition/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.8. NICO ANN Toolkit
The NICO Artificial Neural Network toolkit is a flexible back propagation
neural network toolkit optimized for speech recognition applications.
This software is primarily for developers.
Its homepage: http://www.speech.kth.se/NICO/index.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.9. Myers' Hidden Markov Model Software
This software by Richard Myers is HMM algorithms written in C++ code. It
provides an example and learning tool for HMM models described in the L.
Rabiner book "Fundamentals of Speech Recognition".
This software is primarily for developers.
Information is available at: http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/comp.speech/Section6/
Recognition/myers.hmm.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.10. Jialong He's Speech Recognition Research Tool
Although not originally written for Linux, this research tool can be compiled
on Linux. It contains three different types of recognizers: DTW, Dynamic Hidden
Markov Model, and a Continuous Density Hidden Markov Model. This is for
research and development uses, as it is not a fully functional ASR system. The
toolkit contains some very useful tools.
This software is primarily for developers.
More information is available at: http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/comp.speech/
Section6/Recognition/jialong.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.11. More Free Software?
If you know of free software that isn't included in the above list, please send
me a note at: scook@gear21.com. If you're in the mood, you can also send me
where to get a copy of the software, and any impressions you may have about it.
Thanks!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2. Commercial Software
5.2.1. IBM ViaVoice
IBM has made true on their promise to support Linux with their series of
ViaVoice products for Linux, though the future of their SDKs aren't set in
stone (their licensing agreement for developers isn't officially released as of
this date - more to come).
Their commercial (not-free) product, IBM ViaVoice Dictation for Linux
(available at http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/linux/dictation.html)
performs very well, but has some sizeable system requirements compared to the
more basic ASR systems (64M RAM and 233MHz Pentium). For the $59.95US price tag
you also get an Andrea NC-8 microphone. It also allows multiple users (but I
haven't tried it with multiple users, so if anyone has any experience please
give me a shout). The package includes: documentation (PDF), Trainer, dictation
system, and installation scripts. Support for additional Linux Distributions
based on 2.2 kernels is also available in the latest release.
The ASR SDK is available for free, and includes IBM's SMAPI, grammar API,
documentation, and a variety of sample programs. The ViaVoice Run Time Kit
provides an ASR engine and data files for dictation functions, and user
utilities. The ViaVoice Command & Control Run Time Kit includes the ASR engine
and data files for command and control functions, and user utilities. The SDK
and Kits require 128M RAM and a Linux 2.2 or better kernel)
The SDKs and Kits are available for free at: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/
speech/dev/sdk_linux.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.2. Vocalis Speechware
More information on Vocalis and Vocalis Speechware is available at: http://
www.vocalisspeechware.com and http://www.vocalis.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.3. Babel Technologies
Babel Technologies has a Linux SDK available called Babear. It is a speaker-
independent system based on Hybrid Markov Models and Artificial Neural Networks
technology. They also have a variety of products for Text-to-speech, speaker
verification, and phoneme analysis. More information is available at: http://
www.babeltech.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.4. SpeechWorks
I didn't see anything on their website that specifically mentioned Linux, but
their "OpenSpeech Recognizer" uses VoiceXML, which is an open standard. More
information is available at: http://www.speechworks.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.5. Nuance
Nuance offers a speech recognition/natural language product (currently Nuance
8.0) for a variety of *nix platforms. It can handle very large vocabularies and
uses a unqiue distributed architecture for scalability and fault tolerance.
More information is available at: http://www.nuance.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.6. Abbot/AbbotDemo
Abbot is a very large vocabulary, speaker independent ASR system. It was
originally developed by the Connectionist Speech Group at Cambridge University.
It was transferred (commercialized) to SoftSound. More information is available
at: http://www.softsound.com.
AbbotDemo is a demonstration package of Abbot. This demo system has a
vocabulary of about 5000 words and uses the connectionist/HMM continuous speech
algorithm. This is a demonstration program with no source code.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.7. Entropic
The fine people over at Entropic have been bought out by Micro$oft... Their
products and support services have all but disappeared. Their support for HTK
and ESPS/waves+ is gone, and their future is in the hands of M$. Their old
website as http://www.entropic.com has more information.
K.K. Chin advised me that the original developers of the HTK (the Speech Vision
and Robotic Group at Cambridge) are still providing support for it. There is
also a "free" version available at: http://htk.eng.cam.ac.uk. Also note that
Microsoft still owns the copyright to the current HTK code...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.8. More Commercial Products
There are rumors of more commercial ASR products becoming available in the near
future (including L&H). I talked with a couple of L&H representatives at Comdex
2000 (Vegas) and none of them could give me any information on a Linux release,
or even if they planned on releasing any products for Linux. If you have any
further information, please send any details to me at scook@gear21.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Inside Speech Recognition
6.1. How Recognizers Work
Recognition systems can be broken down into two main types. Pattern Recognition
systems compare patterns to known/trained patterns to determine a match.
Acoustic Phonetic systems use knowledge of the human body (speech production,
and hearing) to compare speech features (phonetics such as vowel sounds). Most
modern systems focus on the pattern recognition approach because it combines
nicely with current computing techniques and tends to have higher accuracy.
Most recognizers can be broken down into the following steps:
1. Audio recording and Utterance detection
2. Pre-Filtering (pre-emphasis, normalization, banding, etc.)
3. Framing and Windowing (chopping the data into a usable format)
4. Filtering (further filtering of each window/frame/freq. band)
5. Comparison and Matching (recognizing the utterance)
6. Action (Perform function associated with the recognized pattern)
Although each step seems simple, each one can involve a multitude of different
(and sometimes completely opposite) techniques.
(1) Audio/Utterance Recording: can be accomplished in a number of ways.
Starting points can be found by comparing ambient audio levels (acoustic energy
in some cases) with the sample just recorded. Endpoint detection is harder
because speakers tend to leave "artifacts" including breathing/sighing,teeth
chatters, and echoes.
(2) Pre-Filtering: is accomplished in a variety of ways, depending on other
features of the recognition system. The most common methods are the "Bank-of-
Filters" method which utilizes a series of audio filters to prepare the sample,
and the Linear Predictive Coding method which uses a prediction function to
calculate differences (errors). Different forms of spectral analysis are also
used.
(3) Framing/Windowing involves separating the sample data into specific sizes.
This is often rolled into step 2 or step 4. This step also involves preparing
the sample boundaries for analysis (removing edge clicks, etc.)
(4) Additional Filtering is not always present. It is the final preparation for
each window before comparison and matching. Often this consists of time
alignment and normalization.
There are a huge number of techniques available for (5), Comparison and
Matching. Most involve comparing the current window with known samples. There
are methods that use Hidden Markov Models (HMM), frequency analysis,
differential analysis, linear algebra techniques/shortcuts, spectral
distortion, and time distortion methods. All these methods are used to generate
a probability and accuracy match.
(6) Actions can be just about anything the developer wants. *GRIN*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Digital Audio Basics
Audio is inherently an analog phenomenon. Recording a digital sample is done by
converting the analog signal from the microphone to an digital signal through
the A/D converter in the sound card. When a microphone is operating, sound
waves vibrate the magnetic element in the microphone, causing an electrical
current to the sound card (think of a speaker working in reverse). Basically,
the A/D converter records the value of the electrical voltage at specific
intervals.
There are two important factors during this process. First is the "sample
rate", or how often to record the voltage values. Second, is the "bits per
sample", or how accurate the value is recorded. A third item is the number of
channels (mono or stereo), but for most ASR applications mono is sufficient.
Most applications use pre-set values for these parameters and user's shouldn't
change them unless the documentation suggests it. Developers should experiment
with different values to determine what works best with their algorithms.
So what is a good sample rate for ASR? Because speech is relatively low
bandwidth (mostly between 100Hz-8kHz), 8000 samples/sec (8kHz) is sufficient
for most basic ASR. But, some people prefer 16000 samples/sec (16kHz) because
it provides more accurate high frequency information. If you have the
processing power, use 16kHz. For most ASR applications, sampling rates higher
than about 22kHz is a waste.
And what is a good value for "bits per sample"? 8 bits per sample will record
values between 0 and 255, which means that the position of the microphone
element is in one of 256 positions. 16 bits per sample divides the element
position into 65536 possible values. Similar to sample rate, if you have enough
processing power and memory, go with 16 bits per sample. For comparison, an
audio Compact Disc is encoded with 16 bits per sample at about 44kHz.
The encoding format used should be simple - linear signed or unsigned. Using a
U-Law/A-Law algorithm or some other compression scheme is usually not worth it,
as it will cost you in computing power, and not gain you much.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Publications
If there is a publication that is not on this list, that you think should be,
please send the information to me at: scook@gear21.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. Books
* "Fundamentals of Speech Recognition". L. Rabiner & B. Juang. 1993. ISBN:
0130151572.
* "How to Build a Speech Recognition Application". B. Balentine, D. Morgan, and
W. Meisel. 1999. ISBN: 0967127815.
* "Speech Recognition : Theory and C++ Implementation". C. Becchetti and L.P.
Ricotti. 1999. ISBN: 0471977306.
* "Applied Speech Technology". A. Syrdal, R. Bennett, S. Greenspan. 1994. ISBN:
0849394562.
* "Speech Recognition : The Complete Practical Reference Guide". P. Foster, T.
Schalk. 1993. ISBN: 0936648392.
* "Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language
Processing, Computational Linguistics and Speech Recognition". D. Jurafsky,
J. Martin. 2000. ISBN: 0130950696.
* "Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals (IEEE Press Classic Reissue)". J.
Deller, J. Hansen, J. Proakis. 1999. ISBN: 0780353862.
* "Statistical Methods for Speech Recognition (Language, Speech, and
Communication)". F. Jelinek. 1999. ISBN: 0262100665.
* "Digital Processing of Speech Signals" L. Rabiner, R. Schafer. 1978. ISBN:
0132136031
* "Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing". C. Manning, H.
Schutze. 1999. ISBN: 0262133601.
* "Designing Effective Speech Interfaces". S. Weinschenk, D. T. Barker. 2000.
ISBN: 0471375454.
For a very LARGE online biography, check the Institut Fur Phonetik: http://
www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~ifb/bib_engl.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. Internet
Linux Software Repository for speech applications
http://sunsite.uio.no/pub/linux/sound/apps/speech/
Russ Wilcox's List of Speech Recognition Links
(excellent) http://www.tiac.net/users/rwilcox/speech.html
Online Bibliography
Online Bibliography of Phonetics and Speech Technology Publications.
http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~ifb/bib_engl.html
MIT's Spoken Language Systems Homepage
http://www.sls.lcs.mit.edu/sls/
Oregon Graduate Institute
Center for Spoken Language Understanding at Oregon Graduate Institute. An
excellent location for developers and researchers. http://
cslu.cse.ogi.edu/
IBM's ViaVoice Linux SDK
http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/dev/sdk_linux.html
Mississippi State
Mississippi State Institute for Signal and Information Processing
homepage with a large amount of useful information for developers. http:/
/www.isip.msstate.edu/projects/speech/
Speech Technology
ASR software and accessories. http://www.speechtechnology.com
Speech Control
Speech Controlled Computer Systems. Microphones, headsets, and wireless
products for ASR. http://www.speechcontrol.com
Microphones.com
Microphones and accessories for ASR. http://www.microphones.com
21st Century Eloquence
"Speech Recognition Specialists." http://voicerecognition.com
Computing Out Loud
Primarily for Windows users, but good info. http://www.out-loud.com
Say I Can.com
"The Speech Recognition Information Source." http://www.sayican.com