Speech technology for development working towards impact / Etienne Barnard

Abstract

Providind people in under-served communities with information access could be of great social value. I discuss some of our attempts during the past decade to create systems based on speech technology which can be used for that purpose. The trajectory we followed during those attempts from resource creation, through the development of basic technological building blocks, to the eventual deployment of several services aimed at information access has been instructive from various perspectives. On the on hand, we now have a much better set of tools for the development of especially, speech recognition systems in under resourced language. On a more abstract level these efforts underline he need to carefully choose a long term objective which is diligently pursued even if the need for occassional adjustment of the overall plan cannot be denied such a long term strategy seems like a crucial requirement for the attainment of the deep insights that drive innovation.