Improving Sequence-to-Sequence Acoustic Modeling by Adding Text-Supervision

This paper presents methods of making using of text supervision to improve the performance of sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) voice conversion. Compared with conventional frame-to-frame voice conversion approaches, the seq2seq acoustic modeling method proposed in our previous work achieved higher naturalness and similarity. In this paper, we further improve its performance by utilizing the text transcriptions of parallel training data. First, a multi-task learning structure is designed which adds auxiliary classifiers to the middle layers of the seq2seq model and predicts linguistic labels as a secondary task. Second, a data-augmentation method is proposed which utilizes text alignment to produce extra parallel sequences for model training. Experiments are conducted to evaluate our proposed method with training sets at different sizes. Experimental results show that the multi-task learning with linguistic labels is effective at reducing the errors of seq2seq voice conversion. The data-augmentation method can further improve the performance of seq2seq voice conversion when only 50 or 100 training utterances are available.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to IEEE ICASSP 201

Engineering data compendium. Human perception and performance. User's guide

The concept underlying the Engineering Data Compendium was the product of a research and development program (Integrated Perceptual Information for Designers project) aimed at facilitating the application of basic research findings in human performance to the design and military crew systems. The principal objective was to develop a workable strategy for: (1) identifying and distilling information of potential value to system design from the existing research literature, and (2) presenting this technical information in a way that would aid its accessibility, interpretability, and applicability by systems designers. The present four volumes of the Engineering Data Compendium represent the first implementation of this strategy. This is the first volume, the User's Guide, containing a description of the program and instructions for its use

Towards trustworthy phoneme boundary detection with autoregressive model and improved evaluation metric

Phoneme boundary detection has been studied due to its central role in various speech applications. In this work, we point out that this task needs to be addressed not only by algorithmic way, but also by evaluation metric. To this end, we first propose a state-of-the-art phoneme boundary detector that operates in an autoregressive manner, dubbed SuperSeg. Experiments on the TIMIT and Buckeye corpora demonstrates that SuperSeg identifies phoneme boundaries with significant margin compared to existing models. Furthermore, we note that there is a limitation on the popular evaluation metric, R-value, and propose new evaluation metrics that prevent each boundary from contributing to evaluation multiple times. The proposed metrics reveal the weaknesses of non-autoregressive baselines and establishes a reliable criterion that suits for evaluating phoneme boundary detection.Comment: 5 pages, submitted to ICASSP 202

Whether using encryption in SCADA systems, the services performance requirements are still met in OT IT environment over an MPLS core network?

A Research Project Abstract submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Science in Engineering [Electrical]: Telecommunications at the University Of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 07 June 2016Utilities use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems as their industrial control system. The architecture of these systems in the past was based on them being isolated from other networks. Now with recent ever changing requirements of capabilities from these systems there is a need to converge with information technology systems and with the need to have these industrial networks communicating on packet switched networks there are cyber security concerns that come up. This research project looks at the whether using encryption in an IP/MPLS core network for SCADA in an OT IT environment has an effect on the performance requirements. This was done through an experimental simulation with the results recorded. The research project also looks at the key literature study considerations. The key research question for the research project of this MSc 50/50 mini-thesis is “whether using encryption in SCADA systems, the services performance requirements are still met in OT/ IT environment over an MPLS core network”? The research project seeks to determine if SCADA performance requirements are met over an encrypted MPLS/IP core network in an OT/IT environment. The key focus area of the research project is only encryption in the whole cyber security value chain versus SCADA services performances. This means that the research project only focused on the encryption portion of the whole cyber security value chain and the scope did not focus on other aspects of the value chain. This suffices for an MSc 50/50 mini-thesis research project as a focus on the whole value chain would require a full MSc thesis. Thus the primary objective for the research project is to research and demonstrate that encryption is essential for secure SCADA communication over a MPLS/IP core network. As aforementioned encryption forms an essential part of the Cyber Security value chain which has to achieve the following objectives. Confidentiality: ensuring that the information source is really from that source. Integrity: ensuring that the information has not been altered in any way. Availability: ensuring that system is not comprised but that it is available. These objectives of encryption should be met with SCADA service performance requirements not violated which is the objective of the research project.M T 201

Technology for the Future: In-Space Technology Experiments Program, part 2

The purpose of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) In-Space Technology Experiments Program In-STEP 1988 Workshop was to identify and prioritize technologies that are critical for future national space programs and require validation in the space environment, and review current NASA (In-Reach) and industry/ university (Out-Reach) experiments. A prioritized list of the critical technology needs was developed for the following eight disciplines: structures; environmental effects; power systems and thermal management; fluid management and propulsion systems; automation and robotics; sensors and information systems; in-space systems; and humans in space. This is part two of two parts and contains the critical technology presentations for the eight theme elements and a summary listing of critical space technology needs for each theme

On the proposed integrated services digital network

The ultimate aim of this dissertation is neither to increase the state of the art in networking technology nor to predict the future structure of telecommunications networks. It is an attempt to raise the awareness of both the author and the reader as to the evolutionary forces driving vast changes in the telecommunications field. The impact of these changes will significantly alter the way we live and conduct business in the Information Age. For those involved with the communications field, the ability to make sound business decisions will require an in-depth knowledge of the technology and services that compose ISDN. Therefore this paper will explore the motivating forces, the potential services, and the technical components in the emerging Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). My interest in data communications was kindled at RIT and has continued in my work, both as a systems programmer in the telecommunications division at the Travelers Insurance Company and as a printing systems analyst for Xerox Corporation. This thesis has helped me answer both personal and professional questions about the future of telecommunications and to share this information with others

Interaction Analytics of Software Factory Recordings

abstract: A human communications research project at Arizona State University aurally recorded the daily interactions of aware and consenting employees and their visiting clients at the Software Factory, a software engineering consulting team, over a three year period. The resulting dataset contains valuable insights on the communication networks that the participants formed however it is far too vast to be processed manually by researchers. In this work, digital signal processing techniques are employed to develop a software toolkit that can aid in estimating the observable networks contained in the Software Factory recordings. A four-step process is employed that starts with parsing available metadata to initially align the recordings followed by alignment estimation and correction. Once aligned, the recordings are processed for common signals that are detected across multiple participants’ recordings which serve as a proxy for conversations. Lastly, visualization tools are developed to graphically encode the estimated similarity measures to efficiently convey the observable network relationships to assist in future human communications research.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Electrical Engineering 201