HOARSE Mid Term ReviewCoordinator’s Report

Phil Green

University of Sheffield, UK

HOARSE Science

• HOARSE provides research training in – Hearing, – Auditory Perception, – Speech Production – Speech Technology

• These topics are richly-related, • Traditionally they have been studied by

disparate communities• HOARSE is attempting to change that• Scientific Importance: understanding human

competence • Commercial Importance: inform and improve

speech technology

HOARSE Science: Objectives

Overall objectives: – better understanding of speech production and

hearing – explain the perceptual organisation of sound – improve speech technology

Themes1. Auditory Scene analysis

2. Reverberation

3. Speech Production

4. Automatic Speech Recognition

5. ASR Applications

HOARSE Science: Highlights• Binaural cues in auditory scenes with multiple

sources and reverberation (Merimaa, Worley) • Perception of reverberation and sound spaces

(Worley)• Signal processing techniques in auditory scenes:

blind source separation and microphone array beamforming (Bourgeois, Latoud)

• Studies of the singing voice (Bjorkner)• Auditory Scene analysis in Music (Eggink)• Classifying frequency-localised patterns for ASR –

(Maier, Svojanovsky)• How do listeners model simultaneous sound

sources? (Perez, Adank)

HOARSE Networking• 2-day workshops every 6 months

– All YRs give update talks– Academics give overview talks as appropriate– Overview of the industrial scene by non-executive director – Steering committee meets during the workshop

• www.hoarsenet.org• Methodology is multidisciplinary

– Phonetics– Perceptual experiments– Acoustics– Instrumentation– Signal Processing– Mathematical Modelling

• Broad-brush work plan for each of 5 themes: progress against work plan is good but the plan itself is out-of-date

• Industrial links– Daimler-Chrysler– Non-executive director (Jordan Cohen, VoiceSignal)

• Other funded collaborations between HOARSE partners

HOARSE Training

• Each YR has a supervisor in her/his host lab and an advisor in a different lab

• YRs are encouraged to visit other HOARSE labs: at least 1 week in each lab is the norm

• Doctoral YRs take advantage of training programmes at their host institutions

Budget & Forecast to date

% spent (to 31.8.04)

USFD 1 209,195 209,195 111,060 53% 49,068 160,128

RUB 2 224,400 224,400 141,047 63% 27,784 168,831

DCAG 3 180,000 180,000 78,175 43% 50,913 129,088

HUT 4 180,000 180,000 77,130 43% 51,435 128,565

IDIAP 5 235,600 0 63,756 27% 85,922 149,678

UNILIV 6 207,000 207,000 88,523 43% 59,239 147,762

PATRAS 7 163,900 163,900 35,220 21% 85,787 121,007

1,400,095 1,164,495 594,911 410,147 1,005,058

1,400,095

1,164,495

Expenditure to 31.8.04 594,911Budget remaining 569,584

Total 1,164,495

Total Cost of Project

Total Expenditure (to 31.8.04) Y3 Forecast

Expected Expenditure (end

31.8.05)

Estimated eligible cost

in euro

Maximum Community contribution

in EURO

Total EU contribution

Participant

Principal Contractor

No