Web-based experiments for introducing speech recognition basics in a DSP course

In this paper, we describe Web-based educational software tools tailored to expose students in an undergraduate DSP course to the basics of hidden Markov model (HMM)-based speech recognition. In particular, we developed Java software that enables on-line computer laboratories on the essential preprocessing, HMM, and Viterbi algorithms as used in a basic speech recognition task. The software is complemented by streaming lectures, a set of on-line demonstrations with animation, and exercises that take the student through HMM training and recognition. The software is being made available to students in the Fall of 2003 and we expect to present assessment results at the conference.