The Present Status of Speech Database in Japan: Development, Management, and Application to Speech Research

The present status of Japanese speech database has been described. The database project in Japan started in early 1980s. The first one was a committee of Japan Electronic Industry Development Association, abbreviated as JEIDA, which aimed at creating a speech database that can commonly evaluate performance of the then existing speech input/output machines and systems. Several database projects have been undertaken since then including the one initiated by the Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute (ATR) and now it has come to the point where an enormous amount of spontaneous speech data is available. A survey has been conducted recently about the usage of the presently existing speech databases among industry and university institutions in Japan where speech research is now actively going on. It has been revealed that the ATR’s continuous speech database is the most frequently used followed by the equivalent version of the Acoustical Society of Japan.