| Authors |
Yong-Ju Lee (Speech
Information Technology & Industry Promotion Center Wonkwang
University, 344-2, Sinyong-dong, Iksan, Chonbuk, Korea)
Bong-Wan Kim (Speech
Information Technology & Industry Promotion Center Wonkwang
University, 344-2, Sinyong-dong, Iksan, Chonbuk, Korea)
Yongnam Um (Speech
Information Technology & Industry Promotion Center Wonkwang
University, 344-2, Sinyong-dong, Iksan, Chonbuk, Korea) |
| Abstract |
We will introduce current developments of language
resources and efforts to promote the systematic creation and sharing of
speech corpora in Korea. Recently speech information technology has
developed substantially through the research and development of
academia, industry and institute in Korea. However, in the country there was no national organization to manage language resources systematically and communicate with related overseas organizations. As practical uses of speech information technologies such as
speech recognition and synthesis increase, difficulties arise in academic and industrial areas with respect to speech information technology, such as speech corpora and
assessment for speech recognition and synthesis. Thus, in May 2001 SITEC (Speech Information Technology & Industry Promotion Center) was founded at Wonkwang
University, funded by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the concerned companies, modeling after LDC (Linguistic Data Consortium) in the U. S, and ELRA
(European Language Resources Association) in Europe. It was founded to help solve the common difficulties in the field and to manage systematic creation and distribution of
speech resources in Korea. Up to now organizations and companies have constructed
speech corpora individually for their own use, but now a publicly recognized
organization has been founded to coordinate the activities for speech resources. This will contribute to economic management of speech corpora and application development as well as to active speech research in Korea.
In our presentation we will show how the Center works to achieve its goal.
We will introduce plans to create and provide speech corpora for research and development to solve the common difficulties experienced by industries, institutes, and academia. SITEC will create speech corpora efficiently in cooperation with local sites. The local sites are located on the campuses of the affiliated universities across the country to collect
varieties of the language and they are led by speech scientists and professors. They are funded by the Center. It is also planned to establish local sites in North Korea and China. Meetings are assembled frequently to coordinate the activities of the local sites. Currently the sites are collecting speech data. In order to discover types of speech corpora
promising for future industrial application, the Center will also provide the facilities and technological environments for phoneticians, linguists, and cognitive psychologists as well as engineering researchers to find topics for speech research in their fields, and will implement programs to create large corpora if they suggest ideas.
The ongoing and planned activities of the Center which we will deal with in detail in our presentation are described below:
(1) Creating and distributing standardized speech corpora and standardization of the products: Constant prediction of demands and consistent production and distribution in accordance with the stages of development of industrial technologies; Encouraging
common use of individually constructed speech corpora; Acquisition and domestic
distribution of speech corpora of foreign languages in affiliation with LDC (U.S.A.),
ELRA (Europe), GSK (Japan); Effective and stable acquisition or collection of domestic and foreign speech corpora through domestic and overseas cooperative sites; Attaining and distributing standards for evaluation of capability; Objective evaluation of speech information technologies and performances of applications
(2) Encouraging standardization of products: Encouraging standardization of products and supporting activities for standardization of application technologies in cooperation with the forum for standardization; Encouraging joint development and partnership among the companies through standardizing the products
(3) Database on information about technologies: Creating database on overseas trends concerning speech information technologies through constant survey; Creating database on market trends concerning speech information technologies through constant survey
(4) Database on the companies: database on the companies specialized in speech
information technologies
(5) Database on persons specialized in speech: database on persons with masters or higher degree working in the companies, schools or institutions
(6) On-line remote training about technologies: Developing the textbooks about advanced technologies; Developing educational contents based on the textbooks; On-line training; Common use of the equipments for speech analysis, etc. in the Center
(7) Seminars and training sessions: Co-hosting of seminars and training sessions based on the textbooks about advanced technologies; Training sessions; Co-hosting of seminars and training sessions more than two times in a year
(8) Supporting joint researches among companies, schools and institutions: Enhancing
synergic effects among the companies by encouraging and supporting meetings among
them; Contributing to the dissemination of speech information technologies by supporting meetings among the companies; Encouraging meetings among the companies, schools and institutions to find topics for joint researches and to exchange technologies, supporting the researches
(9) Supporting the academic activities of affiliated societies and special interest groups
(10) Supporting the development of policies which support the industries: Assistance to
the Council for the Development of Speech Information Technology Industry of the
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy to advise on the policies of the Ministry
(11) Supporting the publicity of industrial information: Supporting various events for the purpose of increasing consumers' understanding
- Assistance to SpeechTech Expo in collaboration with the associations
- Co-hosting of the contest for speech information technologies with the associations
- Supporting joint advertisements of the companies that are concerned with speech information technologies
(12) Supporting participation in overseas expos and exhibitions: Distributing information on overseas expos and exhibitions to the concerned companies, encouraging them to
participate, and describing reports on the events through the webzine for common use
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