Secure Data Communication via Lingual Transformation

This paper proposes a new form of data communication that is similar to slang in human language. Using the context of the conversation instead of an encryption key, nodes in a network develop a unique alternative language to disguise the real meaning of the communication between them. Implementation of such a system, and its potential benefits and challenges are discussed

Language engineering - a champion for European culture

Language is key to culture. It is a direct cultural medium as well as a means of recording and providing access to non-lingual elements of culture. Language is also fundamental to a sense of cultural identity. For this reason, it is vital, in a changing Europe, that we preserve the multi-lingual character of our society in order to move successfully towards closer co-operation at a political, economic, and social level. Language engineering is the application of knowledge of language to the development of computer software which can recognise, understand, interpret, and generate human language in all its forms. The paper provides a high level view of the ‘state of the art’ in language engineering and indicates ways in which it will have a profound impact on our culture in the future. It shows how advances in language engineering are an important aid in maintaining cultural diversity in a multi-lingual European society, while enabling the development of social cohesion across cultural and national divides. It addresses issues raised by the prospect of the Multi-lingual Information Society, including education, human communication with technology and information management, as well as aspects of digital cities such as tele-presence in digital libraries, virtual art galleries and electronic museums. The paper raises the issue of language as a factor in cultural domination, showing the contribution that language engineering can make towards countering it. The paper also raises a number of controversial issues concerning the likely benefits arising from the ways in which language is likely to influence the culture of Europe

Deep Transfer Learning for Automatic Speech Recognition: Towards Better Generalization

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has recently become an important challenge when using deep learning (DL). It requires large-scale training datasets and high computational and storage resources. Moreover, DL techniques and machine learning (ML) approaches in general, hypothesize that training and testing data come from the same domain, with the same input feature space and data distribution characteristics. This assumption, however, is not applicable in some real-world artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Moreover, there are situations where gathering real data is challenging, expensive, or rarely occurring, which can not meet the data requirements of DL models. deep transfer learning (DTL) has been introduced to overcome these issues, which helps develop high-performing models using real datasets that are small or slightly different but related to the training data. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of DTL-based ASR frameworks to shed light on the latest developments and helps academics and professionals understand current challenges. Specifically, after presenting the DTL background, a well-designed taxonomy is adopted to inform the state-of-the-art. A critical analysis is then conducted to identify the limitations and advantages of each framework. Moving on, a comparative study is introduced to highlight the current challenges before deriving opportunities for future research

Civil society, cosmopolitics and the net: the legacy of 15 February 2003

The global demonstrations on 15 February 2003 against the impending invasion of Iraq were on an unprecedented scale, and generated a great deal of commentary and debate. One response was that of Jrgen Habermas, supported by Jacques Derrida, who in an article entitled, 'February 15, or What Binds Europeans Together: A Plea for a Common European Foreign Policy, Beginning in the Core of Europe', suggests the events may be a 'sign of the birth of a European public sphere' and used the occasion to launch a call for a common European foreign and defence policy. In response to that piece this article questions whether the events of 15 February can really be seen as such a birth date, and argues that what the demonstrations indicate is rather the maturing of a global civil society. The role of technology, specifically the Internet, in the organization and form of the protests is ignored by Habermas in his analysis, and results in a blind spot concerning the events, which misses some of its most important elements. Rather than calling for a common European foreign and defence policy we should be looking towards a 'double democratization' on a global scale that reflects the significance of global civil society in the formal structures of a global parliament, and that must address technology as an important element in generating participation and deliberation amongst a global citizenry