We live in a society which is increasingly interconnected, in which communication between individuals is mostly mediated via some electronic platform, and transactions are often carried out remotely. In such a world, traditional notions of trust and confidence in the identity of those with whom we are interacting, taken for granted in the past, can be much less reliable. Biometrics - the scientific discipline of identifying individuals by means of the measurement of unique personal attributes - provides a reliable means of establishing or confirming an individual's identity. These attributes include facial appearance, fingerprints, iris patterning, the voice, the way we write, or even the way we walk. The new technologies of biometrics have a wide range of practical applications, from securing mobile phones and laptops to establishing identity in bank transactions, travel documents, and national identity cards. This Very Short Introduction considers the capabilities of biometrics-based identity checking, from first principles to the practicalities of using different types of identification data. Michael Fairhurst looks at the basic techniques in use today, ongoing developments in system design, and emerging technologies, all aimed at improving precision in identification, and providing solutions to an increasingly wide range of practical problems. Considering how they may continue to develop in the future, Fairhurst explores the benefits and limitations of these pervasive and powerful technologies, and how they can effectively support our increasingly interconnected society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Text-to-Speech Synthesis provides a complete, end-to-end account of the process of generating speech by computer. Giving an in-depth explanation of all aspects of current speech synthesis technology, it assumes no specialized prior knowledge. Introductory chapters on linguistics, phonetics, signal processing and speech signals lay the foundation, with subsequent material explaining how this knowledge is put to use in building practical systems that generate speech. Including coverage of the very latest techniques such as unit selection, hidden Markov model synthesis, and statistical text analysis, explanations of the more traditional techniques such as format synthesis and synthesis by rule are also provided. Weaving together the various strands of this multidisciplinary field, the book is designed for graduate students in electrical engineering, computer science, and linguistics. It is also an ideal reference for practitioners in the fields of human communication interaction and telephony.

Voice biometrics are being implemented globally in large scale applications such as remote banking, government e-services, transportation and building security access, autonomous vehicles, and healthcare. They have been integrated in numerous apps, often coupled with face biometrics and artificial intelligence methods. Voice biometrics products and solutions must meet three key requirements for the success in their deployment: they must be highly trustable regarding privacy protection; easy to use and always be available. This edited book presents the state of the art in voice biometrics research and technologies including implementation and deployment challenges in terms of interoperability, scalability and performance, and security. The team of editors and chapter authors combine a wealth of expertise from academia and the industry. Topics covered include the fundamentals of voice biometrics; design of countermeasures for replay attack; attacker's perspective for voice biometrics; voice biometrics; speaker de-identification; performance evaluation of voice biometrics solutions; standardization of voice biometrics technology; industry perspectives; joining forces of voice and facial biometrics; and future trends and challenges in voice biometrics. Providing comprehensive coverage of the field of voice biometrics, this authoritative volume will be of great interest to researchers, scientists, engineers, practitioners and advanced students involved in the fields of security, biometrics, forensic sciences, human computer interaction, speech processing, acoustics, multimedia, pattern recognition, and privacy-preserving, digital signal processing and speech technologies. It will also be of interest to researchers and professionals working in law and criminology.

Develop intelligent voice-empowered applications and Chatbots that not only understand voice commands but also respond to it Key Features Target multiple platforms by creating voice interactions for your applications Explore real-world examples of how to produce smart and practical virtual assistants Build a virtual assistant for cars using Android Auto in Xamarin Book DescriptionFrom touchscreen and mouse-click, we are moving to voice- and conversation-based user interfaces. By adopting Voice User Interfaces (VUIs), you can create a more compelling and engaging experience for your users. Voice User Interface Projects teaches you how to develop voice-enabled applications for desktop, mobile, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This book explains in detail VUI and its importance, basic design principles of VUI, fundamentals of conversation, and the different voice-enabled applications available in the market. You will learn how to build your first voice-enabled application by utilizing DialogFlow and Alexa's natural language processing (NLP) platform. Once you are comfortable with building voice-enabled applications, you will understand how to dynamically process and respond to the questions by using NodeJS server deployed to the cloud. You will then move on to securing NodeJS RESTful API for DialogFlow and Alexa webhooks, creating unit tests and building voice-enabled podcasts for cars. Last but not the least you will discover advanced topics such as handling sessions, creating custom intents, and extending built-in intents in order to build conversational VUIs that will help engage the users. By the end of the book, you will have grasped a thorough knowledge of how to design and develop interactive VUIs. What you will learn Understand NLP platforms with machine learning Exploit best practices and user experiences in creating VUI Build voice-enabled chatbots Host, secure, and test in a cloud platform Create voice-enabled applications for personal digital assistant devices Develop a virtual assistant for cars Who this book is forVoice User Interface Projects is for you if you are a software engineer who wants to develop voice-enabled applications for your personal digital assistant devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, along with your car's virtual assistant systems. Some experience with JavaScript is required.

Get up and running with the fundamentals of Amazon Alexa and build exciting IoT projects Key Features Gain hands-on experience of working with Amazon Echo and Alexa Build exciting IoT projects using Amazon Echo Learn about voice-enabled smart devices Book DescriptionAmazon Echo is a smart speaker developed by Amazon, which connects to Amazon's Alexa Voice Service and is entirely controlled by voice commands. Amazon Echo is currently being used for a variety of purposes such as home automation, asking generic queries, and even ordering a cab or pizza. Alexa Skills Projects starts with a basic introduction to Amazon Alexa and Echo. You will then deep dive into Alexa Programming concepts such as Intents, Slots, Lambdas and maintaining your skill's state using DynamoDB. You will get a clear understanding of how some of the most popular Alexa Skills work, and gain experience of working with real-world Amazon Echo applications. In the concluding chapters, you will explore the future of voice-enabled applications and their coverage with respect to the Internet of Things. By the end of the book, you will have learned to design Alexa Skills for specific purposes and interact with Amazon Echo to execute these skills. What you will learn Understand how Amazon Echo is already being used in various domains Discover how an Alexa Skill is architected Get a clear understanding of how some of the most popular Alexa Skills work Design Alexa Skills for specific purposes and interact with Amazon Echo to execute them Gain experience of programming for Amazon Echo Explore future applications of Amazon Echo and other voice-activated devices Who this book is forAlexa Skills Projects is for individuals who want to have a deep understanding of the underlying technology that drives Amazon Echo and Alexa, and how it can be integrated with the Internet of Things to develop hands-on projects.

Spoken Dialogue Systems Technology and Design covers key topics in the field of spoken language dialogue interaction from a variety of leading researchers. It brings together several perspectives in the areas of corpus annotation and analysis, dialogue system construction, as well as theoretical perspectives on communicative intention, context-based generation, and modelling of discourse structure. These topics are all part of the general research and development within the area of discourse and dialogue with an emphasis on dialogue systems; corpora and corpus tools and semantic and pragmatic modelling of discourse and dialogue.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking For Dummies, 4E will introduce readers to everything they need to know to get started with this advanced voice recognition software. Readers will get the most up-to-date information on the latest version of the software. PART I: Hatching and Launching Your Dragon Software Chapter 1: Preparing for Dragons Chapter 2: Basic Training Chapter 3: Launching and Controlling Your Dragon PART II: Fire-Breathing 101 Chapter 4: Basic Dictating Chapter 5: Selecting, Editing, and Correcting in the NaturallySpeaking Window Chapter 6: Fonts, Alignment, and All That: Formatting Your Document Chapter 7: Proofreading and Listening to Your Text Chapter 8: Using Recorded Speech Chapter 9: Mobile Edition and NaturallyMobile Recorder PART III: Giving Your Applications Wings Chapter 10: Dictating into Other Applications Chapter 11: Controlling Your Desktop and Windows by Voice Chapter 12: Using NaturalWord for Word and WordPerfect Chapter 13: A Dragon Online Chapter 14: Dragon Your Data Around Chapter 15: Staying Organized on the Move PART IV: Precision Flying Chapter 16: Feeding Your Dragon: RAM, Disk Space, and Speed Chapter 17: Speaking More Clearly to Your Dragon Chapter 18: Additional Training and Vocabulary Building Chapter 19: Improving Audio Input Chapter 20: Dealing with Change Chapter 21: Having Multiple Users or Vocabularies Chapter 22: Creating Your Own Commands Chapter 23: Taking Draconian Measures: Workarounds for Problems PART V: The Part of Tens Chapter 24: Ten Common Problems Chapter 25: Ten Time-and-Sanity-Saving Tips Chapter 26: Ten Mistakes to Avoid Chapter 27: Ten Stupid Dragon Tricks

"Advances in Non-Linear Modeling for Speech Processing" includes advanced topics in non-linear estimation and modeling techniques along with their applications to speaker recognition.
Non-linear aeroacoustic modeling approach is used to estimate the important fine-structure speech events, which are not revealed by the short time Fourier transform (STFT). This aeroacostic modeling approach provides the impetus for the high resolution Teager energy operator (TEO). This operator is characterized by a time resolution that can track rapid signal energy changes within a glottal cycle.
The cepstral features like linear prediction cepstral coefficients (LPCC) and mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) are computed from the magnitude spectrum of the speech frame and the phase spectra is neglected. To overcome the problem of neglecting the phase spectra, the speech production system can be represented as an amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) model. To demodulate the speech signal, to estimation the amplitude envelope and instantaneous frequency components, the energy separation algorithm (ESA) and the Hilbert transform demodulation (HTD) algorithm are discussed.
Different features derived using above non-linear modeling techniques are used to develop a speaker identification system. Finally, it is shown that, the fusion of speech production and speech perception mechanisms can lead to a robust feature set.

This book presents a systematic approach to the automatic recognition of simultaneous speech signals using computational auditory scene analysis. Inspired by human auditory perception, this book investigates a range of algorithms and techniques for decomposing multiple speech signals by integrating a spectro-temporal fragment decoder within a statistical search process. The outcome is a comprehensive insight into the mechanisms required if automatic speech recognition is to approach human levels of performance.

Natural language processing (NLP) is a scientific discipline which is found at the interface of computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. Providing an overview of international work in this interdisciplinary field, this book gives the reader a panoramic view of both early and current research in NLP. Carefully chosen multilingual examples present the state of the art of a mature field which is in a constant state of evolution. In four chapters, this book presents the fundamental concepts of phonetics and phonology and the two most important applications in the field of speech processing: recognition and synthesis. Also presented are the fundamental concepts of corpus linguistics and the basic concepts of morphology and its NLP applications such as stemming and part of speech tagging. The fundamental notions and the most important syntactic theories are presented, as well as the different approaches to syntactic parsing with reference to cognitive models, algorithms and computer applications.

Since 2002, the overall minutes of use and costs for the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) program have grown significantly due to the advent of Internet-based forms of TRS and increased usage by the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. TRS allows persons with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls, often with the help of a communications assistant who acts as a translator or facilitator between the two parties having the conversation. FCC is the steward of the TRS program and the federal TRS Fund, which reimburses TRS providers. This book examines, among other things, changes in TRS services and costs since 2002; FCC's TRS performance goals and measures and how they compare with key characteristics of successful performance goals and measures; and the extent to which the design of the program's internal control system identifies and considers program risks.

Speech recognition in 'adverse conditions' has been a familiar area of research in computer science, engineering, and hearing sciences for several decades. In contrast, most psycholinguistic theories of speech recognition are built upon evidence gathered from tasks performed by healthy listeners on carefully recorded speech, in a quiet environment, and under conditions of undivided attention. Building upon the momentum initiated by the Psycholinguistic Approaches to Speech Recognition in Adverse Conditions workshop held in Bristol, UK, in 2010, the aim of this volume is to promote a multi-disciplinary, yet unified approach to the perceptual, cognitive, and neuro-physiological mechanisms underpinning the recognition of degraded speech, variable speech, speech experienced under cognitive load, and speech experienced by theoretically relevant populations. This collection opens with a review of the literature and a formal classification of adverse conditions. The research articles then highlight those adverse conditions with the greatest potential for constraining theory, showing that some speech phenomena often believed to be immutable can be affected by noise, surface variations, or attentional set in ways that will force researchers to rethink their theory. This volume is essential for those interested in speech recognition outside laboratory constraints.

"Advances in Speaker Recognition" presents a comprehensive analysis of the progress of speaker recognition. The material addresses the technical aspects of voice technology within the framework of societal needs, such as the use of speech recognition software to produce up-to-date electronic health records, not withstanding patients making changes to health plans and physicians. Due to global security concerns, there is a greater need to identify a person's identity from his or her voice. Included will be discussion of speaker biometrics literature, data collection, corpus design, the detection-to-error trade off curve, mono- and multi-lingual speaker detection, as well as research in mimic resistance.