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EUROPEC recording tool

 

EUROPEC
[European Program d'Enregistrement de Corpus]
License
non-commercial
Author
J. Zeiliger
Task

Description
This is a corpus prompting/recording software making easier the recording of speech databases. It ensures constant recording conditions for various speakers and/or corpus. The recording session is driven by a protocol file (user-made) which describes the way items (components of the corpus) will be displayed on the screen.
Components

Modularity
Extensibility
Size
Version 4.11: 170 kbytes.
( data: examples of speaker, corpus, protocol and label files provided.)
Implementation
MICROSOFT C (v5.1)
TMS code for the I/O board
Platform
SESAM workstation (PC-DOS based), with OROS AU21/22 I/O board.
Languages
All.
Retargetability
Orthography
Labelling via ASCII.
Examples
The program is used in laboratories all over Europe.
Status

Documentation
User's guide (30 Pages) SAM-ICP-O45, March 31st, 1991
Upgrades
No foreseen upgrade. Windows implementation under consideration.
SourceCode
Provided to members of ESPRIT projects only
Consulting
Format
1.4 Mb HD floppy disk
Price
One floppy and mailing costs.
Restrictions

Contact
Address
Institut de la Communication Parlée, Grenoble, France.

The EUROPEC prompting/recording tool has been clearly designed to make easier the recordings in large recording campaigns for the constitution of speech databases. However, it provides also simple and basic functionalities. Some particular points must be developed here:

DATA AUTHENTIFICATION

The EUROPEC software ensures automatic and consistant filenaming of the files it produces. The uniqueness of a filename during a recording campaign is ensured by an incremental serial number. For each recording session, the components: speaker, corpus to be recorded, recording conditions, protocol to be used, have to be registered in the relevant DB files.

PROTOCOL OF CORPUS

The protocol-based approach uses a protocol file that contains instructions to be executed by the program during the recording session. These instructions address the prompting of items on the screen and the design of the session. They define how and when items will be displayed, and allow training phases before the recordings. Here are some examples of the relevant codes implemented:

In a research environment a prompting/recording tool can easily be extended or retargeted with useful functionalities to cover other experiments and researchers needs. For instance, local variants of the EUROPEC software have been successfully produced to perform adequate experiments in the following domains:

Perception:
The acoustic prompt can be used to perform perception tests. Stimuli are played to the listener that is then presented menu options to indicate his answer. The answers are stored in the label file (results of the test).
Prosody:
Online listening facility is provided when the recordings aim at matching a particular (`spontaneous') prosodic profile. The session is a sequence of record, listen/accept/reject (menu options), record, listen/.. phases.
Acoustic:
The acoustic prompt can be used to play blank noise during articulatory positioning then simultaneous I/O is used to record the production of the vocal tract excitated by a blank noise.

All these examples demonstrate that prompting, recording and playback facilities can appear in different ways in various experiments. The protocol-based approach as initiated in EUROPEC is adapted to the definition of the experiment session by the user. This approach must be clearly enhanced: a recording tool should be better considered as a software platform providing basic functionalities as signal input/output, acoustic or text prompts, storage of labels or results, mouse driven menu. The modularity of these functions would allow the user to design his experiment and write the corresponding protocol file in a high level language; the protocol being then interpreted by the program all along the session.


next up previous contents index
Next: Digital storage media Up: Spoken language reference materials Previous: PTM (Parametric Test Manager)

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