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The production system represents an implementation of a hierarchical search approach to speech recognition, as described in:
To alleviate this burden, we have recently released a configuration tool: isip_network_builder. Network Builder is a powerful GUI based tool that automates building language models and designing acoustic models. This tutorial will give you a basic overview of how to use Network Builder. It is structured as follows: Installation To use network builder, a user first needs to install our latest release of the Production System (r00_n10). Let's suppose the production system is installed at $isip_r00_n10 on the user's environment. There are two ways to install this software:
Interface The basic idea of network builder is to represent knowledge sources for speech recognizers in a generalized hierarchy. These knowledge sources include the language model, pronunciation model and HMM topologies. The following figure shows a typical hierarchy for a continuous digit speech recognizer. At the top level (referred to as the word level), the language model for sentences is represented as a digraph with loop back arcs which allows any digit to follow any other digit (often referred to as a null grammar). In such a generalized hierarchical structure, each level can be conceptually considered as the same. Phrases, words or phones are simply symbols at different levels. Each level contains a list of symbols, Sij, and a list of graphs, Gik, where, i is the index of the level, j is the index of the symbol and k is the index of the graph. Each graph has at least two dummy vertices: the start vertex and the terminal vertex, indicating, respectively, the start and the end points of the graph in a search space. 
The main frame of isip_network_builder is divided into three panels. The top-left panel labeled Hierarchy shows the generalized hierarchical structure of the hierarchy. The bottom-left panel labeled Graph List shows the list of graphs at the current level. The right panel is the drawing area which allows users to construct graphs by inserting nodes and arcs. Here are the explanations of the menu options:
In this section, we provide a step-by-step example with three levels. By the end of this example, you will be able to build a simple network using isip_network_builder. Let's start from the beginning with an empty screen, as shown below. 
To create a new level, select Hierarchy --> Add Level from the menu option. The result is shown below. 
To change the level name, click on the level name shown in the tree. 
Change the level name to word. The result is shown below. 
To add a start node to the graph, select Graph --> Insert Start from the menu option. 
Place the start node by clicking on the drawing area. The node will be inserted into the graph. 
Similarly, insert another node and a stop node into the graph. 
To insert an arc from the vertex Start to the vertex Node, click on the vertex Start first. A selection box will appear around the vertex. 
Click on the vertex Node and an arc will be inserted into the graph. The result is shown below. 
Click on the vertex Node and the vertex Stop to insert another arc. 
To change the symbols represented by a vertex in a graph, right-click the vertex. Right-click the vertex Node to change the symbols represented by this vertex. The dialog window appears to let you configure the symbols on the node. 
Change the node name to one and add a symbol called one to this node. 
Click on the Add button. The symbol one is inserted into the symbol list. 
Click the OK button. You will see the node name is changed in the graph. 
Add the second level called phone. 
Construct the pronunciation model as follows for the word one. 
Add the second level called state. 
Construct the HMM models for the phones w as follows. 
After constructing all the models, you can save the model in a file. You can save the model file in three different formats. Now, you have successfully constructed a simple three-level model. 
Support For more information about this tool, please refer to the FAQ section of the user's guide or direct your questions to ies_help@cavs.msstate.edu. |