SHACHI - Language Resource Metadata Database

Desktop/Microphone
The Flemish/Dutch SpeechDat-Car contains the recordings of 302 speakers (154 males, 148 females) from Flanders and The Netherlands, recorded over the mobile telephone network and in a car. The database contains recordings both in Flemish and in Dutch as spoken in Flanders (about 1/3 of the speakers), as well as recordings in Dutch as spoken in The Netherlands (about 2/3 of the speakers).
This database is partitioned into 162 CDs.
The speech data files are in two formats. Four of the microphones were recorded on the computer in the boot of the car. The speech data are stored as sequences of 16 kHz, 16 bit and uncompressed. The fifth microphone was connected to the GSM phone, and was recorded on a remote machine, with compressed data stored as sequences of 8 bit A-law 8.kHz. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.
This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat-Car format and content specifications.
Each speaker uttered the following items:
- 2 voice activation keywords
- 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
- 7 connected digits (1 sheet number -5 digits, 1 spontaneous telephone number, 3 read telephone numbers, 1 credit card number ?14/16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
- 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 relative or general date expression)
- 2 word spotting phrases using an embedded application word
- 4 isolated digits
- 7 spelled words (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 directory city name, 4 real word/name, 1 artificial name for coverage)
- 1 money amount
- 1 natural number
- 7 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 city of birth/growing up, 2 most frequent cities, 2 most frequent company/agency, 1 ?forename surname?)
- 9 phonetically rich sentences
- 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1word style time phrase)
- 4 phonetically rich words
- 67 application words (13 mobile phone application words, 22 IVR function keywords, 32 car products keywords)
- 2 additional language dependent keywords
- Prompts for spontaneous speech
The following age distribution has been obtained: 107 speakers are between 16 and 30, 127 speakers are between 31 and 45, 66 speakers are between 46 and 60, and 2 speakers are over 60.
A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Desktop/Microphone
The Spanish SpeechDat-Car database contains the recordings of 306 Spanish speakers from 4 different regions (156 males, 150 females), recorded over the Spanish GSM telephone network, and in a car. This database is partitioned into 89 CDs (DVDs are also available).
The speech data files are in two formats. Four of the 5 microphones were recorded on the computer in the boot of the car. The speech data are stored as sequences of 16 kHz, 16 bit and uncompressed. The fifth microphone was connected to the cell phone, and was recorded on a remote machine. The data are stored as sequences of 8 kHz 8 bit A-law. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.
This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat-Car format and content specifications.
Each speaker uttered the following items:
- 2 voice activation keywords
- 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
- 7 connected digits (1 sheet number -5 digits, 1 spontaneous telephone number, 3 read telephone numbers, 1 credit card number ?14/16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
- 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 relative or general date expression)
- 2 word spotting phrases using an embedded application word
- 4 isolated digits
- 7 spelled words (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 directory city name, 4 real word/name, 1 artificial name for coverage)
- 1 money amount
- 1 natural number
- 7 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 city of birth/growing up, 2 most frequent cities, 2 most frequent company/agency, 1 ?forename surname?)
- 9 phonetically rich sentences
- 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1word style time phrase)
- 4 phonetically rich words
- 67 application words (13 mobile phone application words, 22 IVR function keywords, 32 car products keywords)
- 2 additional language dependent keywords
- Prompts for spontaneous speech
The following age distribution has been obtained: 160 speakers are between 18 and 30, 80 speakers are between 31 and 45, 65 speakers are between 46 and 60, and 1speaker is over 60.
A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Desktop/Microphone
The Italian SpeechDat-Car database contains the recordings of 300 Italian speakers (149 females, 151 males) recorded over the GSM telephone network, in a car. This database is partitioned into 14 DVDs. The speech data files are in two formats. Four of the 5 microphones were recorded on the computer in the boot of the car. The speech data are stored as sequences of 16 kHz, 16 bit and uncompressed. The fifth microphone was connected to the cell phone, and was recorded on a remote machine. The data are stored as sequences of 8 kHz 8 bit A-law. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.
This speech databases was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat-Car format and content specifications.
Each speaker uttered the following items:
- 2 voice activation keywords
- 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
- 7 connected digits (1 sheet number -4+ digits, 1 spontaneous telephone number ?9/11 digits, 3 read telephone numbers, 1 credit card number -16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
- 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 relative or general date expression)
- 2 word spotting phrases using an embedded application word
- 4 isolated digits
- 7 spelled words (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 directory city name, 4 real word/name, 1 artificial name for coverage)
- 1 money amount
- 1 natural number
- 7 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 city of birth/growing up, 2 most frequent cities, 2 most frequent company/agency, 1 ?forename surname?)
- 9 phonetically rich sentences
- 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1word style time phrase)
- 4 phonetically rich words
- 67 application words (13 mobile phone application words, 22 IVR function keywords, 32 car products keywords)
- 2 additional language dependent keywords
- Prompts for spontaneous sentences
The following age distribution has been obtained: 134 speakers are between 16 and 30, 117 speakers are between 31 and 45, 46 speakers are between 46 and 60, and 3 speakers are over 60.
A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Telephone
The Belgian-French SpeechDat(II) FDB-1000 database contains the recordings of 1,011 Belgian-French speakers (493 Males, 518 Females) recorded over the Belgian fixed telephone network. This database is partitioned into 4 CDs, which comprise 250 speakers’ sessions each.

Speech samples are stored as sequences of 8-bit 8 kHz A-law. Each prompted utterance is stored in a separate file. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file, which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items. Each phrase or word was repeated about 2 times.

7 application words
4 isolated digits
1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
5 connected digits (1 area code, 1 spontaneous phone number, 1 credit card number –15/16 digits, etc.
3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 general and relative date expression)
1 embedded application word
4 spelled words
1 currency money amount
1 natural number
6 directory assistance names (1 forename, 1 city of birth, 1 most frequent city, 1 city name, 1 company name, 1 "forename surname")
2 yes/no questions (1 predominantly "yes" question, 1 predominantly "no" question)
10 phonetically rich sentences
2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1 time phrase)
6 phonetically rich words
The following age distribution has been obtained: 13 speakers are under 16, 257 speakers are between 16 and 30, 425 speakers are between 31 and 45, 229 speakers are between 46 and 60 and 87 are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Telephone
The Luxembourgish-French SpeechDat(II) FDB-500 database contains the recordings of 614 Luxembourgish-French speakers (246 Males, 368 Females) recorded over the Luxembourgish fixed telephone network. This database is partitioned into 3 CDs, which comprise 200 speakers’ sessions each.

Speech samples are stored as sequences of 8-bit 8 kHz A-law. Each prompted utterance is stored in a separate file. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file, which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items. Each phrase or word was repeated about 3 times.

- 7 application words
- 4 isolated digits
- 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
- 5 connected digits (1 area code, 1 spontaneous phone number, 1 credit card number –15/16 digits, etc.
- 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 general and relative date expression)
- 1 embedded application word
- 4 spelled words
- 1 currency money amount
- 1 natural number
- 6 directory assistance names (1 forename, 1 city of birth, 1 most frequent city, 1 city name, 1 company name, 1 "forename surname")
- 2 yes/no questions (1 predominantly "yes" question, 1 predominantly "no" question)
- 10 phonetically rich sentences
- 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1 time phrase)
- 6 phonetically rich words
The following age distribution has been obtained: 28 speakers are under 16, 129 speakers are between 16 and 30, 196 speakers are between 31 and 45, 165 speakers are between 46 and 60 and 96 are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Telephone
The Luxembourgish-German SpeechDat(II) FDB-500 database contains the recordings of 560 Luxembourgish-German speakers (247 Males, 313 Females) recorded over the Luxembourgish fixed telephone network. This database is partitioned into 3 CDs, which comprise 160 to 200 speakers’ sessions each.

Speech samples are stored as sequences of 8-bit 8 kHz A-law. Each prompted utterance is stored in a separate file. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file, which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items:

- 7 application words
- 4 isolated digits
- 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
- 5 connected digits (1 area code, 1 spontaneous phone number, 1 credit card number –15/16 digits, etc.
- 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 general and relative date expression)
- 1 embedded application word
- 4 spelled words
- 1 currency money amount
- 1 natural number
- 6 directory assistance names (1 forename, 1 city of birth, 1 most frequent city, 1 city name, 1 company name, 1 "forename surname")
- 2 yes/no questions (1 predominantly "yes" question, 1 predominantly "no" question)
- 10 phonetically rich sentences
- 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1 time phrase)
- 6 phonetically rich words
The following age distribution has been obtained: 5 speakers are under 16, 113 speakers are between 16 and 30, 174 speakers are between 31 and 45, 184 speakers are between 46 and 60 and 84 are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Desktop/Microphone
The American English SpeechDat-Car database contains the recordings of 314 American English speakers (150 males, 164 females) recorded over the mobile telephone network. This database is partitioned into 94 CDs (or 13 DVDs).

The speech data files are in two formats. Four of the microphones were recorded on the computer in the trunk of the car. These are stored as 16 kHz, 16 bit and uncompressed. The fifth microphone was connected to the cell phone, and was recorded on a remote machine. The U.S. telephone network uses a digital encoding of 8bit, 8kHz, with Mu-law compression. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat-Car format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items:

* 2 voice activation keywords
* 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
* 7 connected digits (1 sheet number -5 digits, 1 spontaneous telephone number, 3 read telephone numbers, 1 credit card number –14/16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
* 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 relative or general date expression)
* 2 word spotting phrases using an embedded application word
* 4 isolated digits
* 7 spelled words (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 directory city name, 4 real word/name, 1 artificial name for coverage)
* 1 money amount
* 1 natural number
* 7 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 city of birth/growing up, 2 most frequent cities, 2 most frequent company/agency, 1 "forename surname")
* 9 phonetically rich sentences
* 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1 word style time phrase)
* 4 phonetically rich words
* 67 application words (13 mobile phone application words, 22 IVR function keywords, 32 car products keywords)
* 2 additional language dependent keywords
* spontaneous sentences for the last 100 speakers

The following age distribution has been obtained: 130 speakers are between 16 and 30, 101 speakers are between 31 and 45, 79 speakers are between 46 and 60, and 4 speakers are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Desktop/Microphone
The British English SpeechDat-Car database contains the recordings of 300 British English speakers from 6 different regions (170 males, 130 females), recorded over the GSM telephone network, in a car. This database is partitioned into 115 CDs (DVDs are also available).

The speech data files are in two formats. Four of the 5 microphones were recorded on the computer in the boot of the car. The speech data are stored as sequences of 16 kHz, 16 bit and uncompressed. The fifth microphone was connected to the cell phone, and was recorded on a remote machine. The data are stored as sequences of 8 kHz 8 bit A-law. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat-Car format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items:

* 2 voice activation keywords
* 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
* 7 connected digits (1 sheet number -5 digits, 1 spontaneous telephone number, 3 read telephone numbers, 1 credit card number –14/16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
* 3 dates (1 spontaneous date e.g. birthday, 1 prompted date, 1 relative or general date expression)
* 2 word spotting phrases using an embedded application word
* 4 isolated digits
* 7 spelled words (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 directory city name, 4 real word/name, 1 artificial name for coverage)
* 1 money amount
* 1 natural number
* 7 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename or surname, 1 city of birth/growing up, 2 most frequent cities, 2 most frequent company/agency, 1 "forename surname")
* 9 phonetically rich sentences
* 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1word style time phrase)
* 4 phonetically rich words
* 67 application words (13 mobile phone application words, 22 IVR function keywords, 32 car products keywords)
* 2 additional language dependent keywords
* Prompts for spontaneous speech

The following age distribution has been obtained: 119 speakers are between 16 and 30, 109 speakers are between 31 and 45, 57 speakers are between 46 and 60, and 15 speakers are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Telephone
The Austrian SpeechDat(AT) MDB-1000 database contains the recordings of 1,000 Austrian speakers (543 males, 457 females) recorded over the Austrian mobile telephone network. The database is partitioned into 5 CD-ROMs, in ISO 9660 format.

Speech samples are stored as sequences of 8-bit 8 kHz A-law, uncompressed. Each prompted utterance is stored in a separate file, and each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This speech database, was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items:

* 3 isolated digits
* 4 connected digits (prompt sheet number -5 digits, telephone number –9/11 digits, credit card number –15/16 digits, PIN code –6 digits)
* 1 natural number
* 2 money amounts (currency amount, mixed size and units)
* 2 yes/no questions (predominantly "yes", predominantly "no")
* 3 dates (spontaneous date e.g. birthday, prompted date, relative and general date expression)
* 2 times (spontaneous time of day, prompted mixed/analogue digital)
* 6 application words
* 1 word spotting phrase using embedded application words
* 7 directory assistance names (spontaneous names e.g. forenames, city of birth, a name out of a set of 150 SDB full names, most frequent cities, most frequent companies)
* 3 spellings (spontaneous e.g. forename, directory city name, real/artificial city name)
* 4 isolated words
* 12 phonetically rich sentences
* 7 speaker specific material (speaker gender question, call from fixed or mobile network, speaker region question, today’s date, environment of call, native language, educational level)

The following age distribution has been obtained: 18 speakers are under 16, 550 are between 16 and 30, 262 are between 31 and 45, 157 are between 46 and 60, and 13 speakers are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.

Multimodal/Multimedia Resources
The Multi Modal Verification for Teleservices and Security applications project (M2VTS), running under the European ACTS programme, has produced a database designed to facilitate access control using multimodal identification of human faces. This technique improves recognition efficiency by combining individual modalities (i.e. face and voice). Its relative novelty means that new test material had to be created, since no existing database could offer all modalities needed.

The M2VTS database comprises 37 different faces, with 5 shots of each being taken at one-week intervals, or when drastic face changes occurred in the mean time. During each shot, subjects were asked to count from 0 to 9 in their native language (generally French), and to move their heads from left to right, both with and without glasses. The data were then used to create three sequences, for voice, motion and "glasses off". The first sequence can be used for speech verification, 2-D dynamic face verification and speech/lips movement correlation, while the second and third provide information on 3-D face recognition, and may also be used to compare other recognition techniques.

For more information: http://www.tele.ucl.ac.be/PROJECTS/M2VTS