Grad F: OK . So , uh uh , IBM transcription status ,
Professor D: IBM transcription . Uh , what else ?
Grad F :
Professor D: What 's SmartKom ? SmartKom ?
Grad F: Uh , we wanna talk about if w if we wanna add the data to the mar Meeting Recorder corpus .
PhD E: The data . The data which we are collecting here .
Professor D: What what what are we collecting here ?
PhD E: Data ?
Grad F: So why don't we have that on the agenda and we 'll we 'll get to it and talk about it ?
PhD E: The SmartKom data ?
Professor D: Yeah , right .
PhD E: Yeah .
Professor D: Uh , right . Uh .
Grad F: Uh , reorganization status .
Professor D: Reorganization status .
Postdoc A: Oh . Files and directories ?
Professor D: Files and directories .
Grad F: Yep . Uh - huh . Absinthe , which is the multiprocessor UNIX Linux . I think it was Andreas wanted to talk about segmentation and recognition , and update on SRI recognition experiments .
Professor D: Um Grad F: And then if ti if there 's time I wanted to talk about digits , but it looked like we were pretty full , so I can wait till next week .
Professor D: Right . OK . Well , let 's see . I think the a certainly the segmentation and recognition we wanna maybe focus on when An - Andreas is here since that was particularly his thing .
PhD E: And also the SmartKom thing should b
Professor D: SmartKom also , Andreas . Absinthe , I think also he has sort of been involved in a lot of those things .
Grad F: At least ,
Professor D: Yeah .
Grad F: yeah , he 'll t he 'll probably be interested .
Professor D: Yeah .
Grad F: But .
Professor D: Um So , I mean , I think they 'll be inter I 'll be interested in all this , but but , uh , probably , if we had to pick something that we would talk on for ten minutes or so while they 're coming here . Or I guess it would be , you think , reorganization status , or ?
Grad F: Yeah . I mean , I think , Chuck was the one who added out the agenda item . I don't really have anything to say other than that we still haven't done it .
PhD B: Well , I mean , I uh  just basically that Grad F: So .
PhD B: maybe I said maybe we said this before just that we met and we talked about it and we sort of have a plan for getting things organized and Postdoc A: And I and I think a crucial part of that is the idea of of not wanting to do it until right before the next level zero back - up so that there won't be huge number of of added ,
PhD B: Right .
Postdoc A: uh Grad F: Right .
PhD B: That that was basically it . Not not much @ @ Grad F: Although Dave basically said that if we wanna do it , just tell him and he 'll do a d level zero then .
Postdoc A: Yeah . Uh - huh . Oh , excellent .
Grad F: So .
Postdoc A: Oh , good .
PhD B: Oh , so maybe we should just go ahead and get everything ready , and Grad F: Yep . So , I think we do need to talk a little bit about Well , we don't need to do it during this meeting .
PhD B: Yeah .
Grad F: We have a little more to discuss . But , uh , we 're we 're basically ready to do it . And , uh , I have some web pages on ts {comment} more of the background . So , naming conventions and things like that , that I 've been trying to keep actually up to date . So . And I 've been sharing them with U - d UW folks also .
Postdoc A: I 'm sorry , you 've been what ? Showing them ?
Professor D: OK .
Postdoc A: Sharing them .
Grad F: Sharing them with the UW folks .
Postdoc A: OK . OK .
Professor D: OK . Well , maybe uh , since that that was a pretty short one , maybe we should talk about the IBM transcription status . Someone can fill in Liz and Andreas later . Uh
Grad F: OK . So , we , uh we did another version of the beeps , where we separated each beeps with a spoken digit . Chuck came up here and recorded some di himself speaking some digits , and so it just goes " beep one beep " and then the phrase , and then " beep two beep " and then the phrase . And that seems pretty good . Um , I think they 'll have a b easier time keeping track of where they are in the file .
PhD E: And we have done that on the automatic segmentations .
Grad F: And we did it with the automatic segmentation , and I don't think We ne we didn't look at it in detail . We just sent it to IBM . We we sorta spot - checked it .
PhD B: I listened to probably , uh , five or ten minutes of it from the beginning .
PhD E: Yeah .
Grad F: Oh , really ?
PhD B: Yeah .
Grad F: OK .
PhD B: And Grad F: I sorta spot - checked here and there and it sounded pretty good . So . I think it 'll work .
Professor D: OK .
Grad F: And , uh , we 'll just hafta see what we get back from them . Uh PhD B: And the main thing will be if we can align what they give us with what we sent them . I mean , that 's the crucial part .
Grad F: Right .
PhD B: And I think we 'll be able to do that at with this new beep format .
Grad F: Yep . Well , I think it 's also they are much less likely to d have errors .
PhD B: Mm - hmm .
Grad F: I mean , so the problem wi last time is that there were errors in the transcripts where they put beeps where there weren't any , or and they put in extraneous beeps .
PhD B: Right . Yeah .
Grad F: And with the numbers there , it 's much less likely .
PhD B: Yeah , one interesting note is uh , or problem I dunno if this was just because of how I play it back , I say , uh , SND - play and then the file , every once in a while , @ @ {comment} uh , like a beep sounds like it 's cut into two beeps .
PhD E: Yeah . Into two pieces .
PhD B: Yeah , and I I dunno if that 's an , uh , artifact of playback PhD E: Yeah . Yep .
PhD B: bu uh , I don't think it 's probably in the original file . Um , but , uh PhD E: I recognize that , too . Yeah .
Grad F: Ha . That 's interesting . I didn't hear that .
PhD B: Yeah . But with this new format , um , that hopefully they 're not hearing that , and if they are , it shouldn't throw them .
PhD E: Yep .
PhD B: So .
Grad F: Well , maybe we better listen to it again , make sure , but , I mean , certainly the software shouldn't do that ,
PhD B: Yeah . That 's what I thought .
Grad F: so .
Postdoc A: Mm - hmm .
PhD B: I it 's probably just , you know , mmm , somehow the audio device gets hung for a second ,
PhD E: Yeah . Some latency or something .
Grad F: Hiccups .
PhD E: Yeah ?
Postdoc A: As long as they have one number , and they know that there 's only one beep maximum that goes with that number .
PhD B: or PhD E: Yeah .
PhD B: Yeah . Right .
Grad F: Yeah . The only the only part that might be confusing is when Chuck is reading digits .
PhD B: Right .
PhD E: Yep .
Postdoc A: Well , you know , actually , are we having them PhD B: So th
Grad F: " Seven four eight beep seven beep eight three two " .
Postdoc A: Yeah , but are we having them do digits ?
Grad F: Yes . Because , uh , we don't we didn't In order to cut them out we 'd have to listen to it .
PhD B: We we didn't cut those out .
PhD E: Yeah . They are not transcribed yet . So . Yeah .
Postdoc A: OK .
PhD E: Yeah .
Grad F: And we wanted to avoid doing that ,
Postdoc A: OK .
Grad F: so we they are transcribing the digits .
Postdoc A: OK .
PhD B: We can we can ignore it when we get it back ,
Grad F: Although we could tell them {comment} we could tell them , if you hear someone reading a digits string just say " bracket digit bracket "
PhD B: huh .
Grad F: and don't bother actually computing the di writing down the digits .
PhD B: Yeah .
Postdoc A: That 'd be great . That 'd be what I 'm having the transcribers here do , cuz it can be extracted later .
Grad F: Yep . And then I wanted to talk about but as I said I we may not have time what we should do about digits . We have a whole pile of digits that haven't been transcribed .
Professor D: Le - let 's talk about it , because that 's that 's something that I I know Andreas is less interested in than Liz is ,
Grad F: OK .
Professor D: so , you know . It 's good Grad F: Do we have anything else to say about transcription ? About IBM stuff ?
PhD B: Uh , Brian I I sent bresset   sent Brian a message about  the meeting and I haven't heard back yet . So . I g hope he got it and hopefully he 's Grad F: OK .
Postdoc A: Hmm .
PhD B: maybe he 's gone , I dunno . He didn't even reply to my message . So . I should probably ping him just to make sure that he got it .
Grad F: Alright . So , we have a whole bunch of digits , if we wanna move on to digits .
Professor D: Actually , maybe I One one relate more related thing in transcription . So that 's the IBM stuff . We 've got that sorted out . Um , how 're we doing on the on the rest of it ?
Postdoc A: We 're doing well . I I hire I 've hired two extra people already , expect to hire two more .
Grad F: Hmm .
Postdoc A: And , um , I 've prepared , um , uh , a set of five which I 'm which I 'm calling set two , which are now being edited by my head transcriber , in terms of spelling errors and all that . She 's also checking through and mar and  and monitoring , um , the transcription of another transcriber . You know , I mean , she 's going through and doing these kinds of checks .
Professor D: Uh - huh .
Postdoc A: And , I 've moved on now to what I 'm calling set three . I sort of thought if I do it in sets groups of five , then I can have , like , sort of a a parallel processing through through the the current .
Professor D: Uh - huh .
Postdoc A: And and you indicated to me that we have a g a goal now , for the for the , um , {nonvocalsound} the , uh , DARPA demo , of twenty hours . So , I 'm gonna go up to twenty hours , be sure that everything gets processed , and released , and  {comment} and that 's that 's what my goal is . Package of twenty hours right now , and then once that 's done , move on to the next .
Professor D: Yeah , uh , so twenty hours . But I guess the other thing is that , um , that that 's kinda twenty hours ASAP because the longer before the demo we actually have the twenty hours , the more time it 'll be for people to actually do cool things with it .
Postdoc A: Mm - hmm . Good . I 'm I 'm hiring people who , uh , really are Professor D: So . OK .
Postdoc A: They would like to do it full - time , several of these people . And and I don't think it 's possible , really , to do this full - time , but , that what it shows is motivation to do as many hours as possible .
Professor D: Mm - hmm .
Grad F: It 'll keep your accuracy up . Yep .
Professor D: Yeah .
Postdoc A: And they 're really excellent .
Professor D: Yeah . Well , that 's good .
Postdoc A: Yeah . Got a good core group now .
Professor D: Yeah , I mean , I guess the So the difference if if , um , if the IBM stuff works out , the difference in the job would be that they p primarily would be checking through things that were already done by someone else ?
Postdoc A: Again . Mm - hmm .
Professor D: Is that most of what it ?
Grad F: And correcting .
Professor D: I mean Correcting .
Grad F: Correcting . We 'll we 'll expect that they 'll have to move some time bins and do some corrections .
Postdoc A: And I you know , I 've also d uh , discovered So with the new transcriber I 'm um So Uh , lemme say that my , uh So , um At present , um , the people have been doing these transcriptions a channel at a time . And , that sort of , um , is useful , and t you know , and then once in a while they 'll have to refer to the other channels to clear something up . OK . Well , I realize that , um , w i we we 're using the pre - segmented version , and , um , the pre - segmented version is extremely useful , and wouldn't it be , useful also to have the visual representation of those segments ? And so I 've  uh , I , uh , uh , I 've {comment} trained the new one uh , the new the newest one , to , um , use the visual from the channel that is gonna be transcribed at any given time . And that 's just amazingly helpful . Because what happens then , is you scan across the signal and once in a while you 'll find a blip that didn't show up in the pre - segmentation .
Grad F: Oh , right .
Postdoc A: And that 'll be something like  I it 's ver it 's interesting .
Grad F: I see what you mean . A backchannel , or Postdoc A: Once in a while it 's a backchannel .
PhD E: Yep .
Postdoc A: Sometimes it seems to be , um , similar to the ones that are being picked up .
Grad F: Mm - hmm .
Postdoc A: And they 're rare events , but you can really go through a meeting very quickly . You just you just , you know , yo you s you scroll from screen to screen , looking for blips . And , I think that we 're gonna end up with , uh better coverage of the backchannels ,
Professor D: Yeah .
Postdoc A: but at the same time we 're benefitting tremendously from the pre - segmentation because there are huge places where there is just absolutely no activity at all . And , uh , the audio quality is so good Professor D: Mm - hmm .
PhD B: So they can they can , um , scroll through that pretty quick ?
Postdoc A: Yeah . Mm - hmm .
PhD B: That 's great .
Postdoc A: Yeah . So I think that that 's gonna , also eh , {comment} you know , speed the efficiency of this part of the process .
Professor D: Hmm . OK . Uh , yeah . So , uh Yeah . So let 's talk about the digits , since they 're not here yet .
Grad F: Uh , so , we have a whole bunch of digits that we 've read and we have the forms and so on , um , but only a small number of that ha well , not a small number only a subset of that has been transcribed . And so we need to decide what we wanna do . And , uh , Liz and Andreas actually they 're not here , but , they did say at one point that they thought they could do a pretty good job of just doing a forced alignment . And , again , I don't think we 'll be able to do with that alone , because , um , sometimes people correct themselves and things like that . But so , I was just wondering what people thought about how automated can we make the process of finding where the people read the digits , doing a forced alignment , and doing the timing .
Professor D: Well , forced alignment would be one thing . What about just actually doing recognition ?
Grad F: Well , we we know what they read , because we have the forms .
Professor D: No , they make mistakes .
Grad F: Right . But , the point is that we wanna get a set of clean digits .
PhD B: You 're talking about as a pre - processing step .
Professor D: Right .
PhD B: Right , Morgan ?
Professor D: Um PhD B: Is that what you 're ?
Professor D: Yeah , I 'm I 'm not quite sure what I 'm talking about . I mean I I mean , uh , we 're talking about digits now . And and so , um , there 's a bunch of stuff that hasn't been marked yet . Uh . And , um , there 's the issue that that they we know what what was said , but do we ?
Grad F: I mean , so one option i
Professor D: Because people make mistakes and stuff . I was just asking , just out of curiosity , if if with , uh uh , the SRI recognizer getting one percent word error , uh , would we would we do better ? So , if you do a forced alignment but the force but the but the transcription you have is wrong because they actually made mistakes , uh , or false starts , it 's it 's much less c it 's much less common than one percent ?
Grad F: But that 's pretty uncommon . Um , if we could really get one percent on Professor D: We should be able to .
Grad F: Well , I guess yeah , I guess if we segmented it , we could get one percent on digits .
Professor D: Right ?
PhD B: Yeah .
Professor D: Yeah . So that 's just my question . I 'm not saying it should be one way or the other , but it 's If Grad F: But , Well , there there 're a couple different of doing it . We could use the tools I 've already developed and transcribe it . Hire some people , or use the transcribers to do it . We could let IBM transcribe it . You know , they 're doing it anyway , and unless we tell them different , they 're gonna transcribe it . Um , or we could try some automated methods .
Professor D: Well Grad F: And my my tendency right now is , well , if IBM comes back with this meeting and the transcript is good , just let them do it .
Professor D: Yeah , it 's Y you raised a point , kind of , uh , euphemistically but , I mean , m maybe it is a serious problem . Ho - what will they do when they go hear " beep seven beep seven three five two " I mean , you think they 'll we 'll get ?
Grad F: It 's pretty distinct .
Professor D: Yeah ?
Grad F: The beeps are pre - recorded .
PhD B: It 'll {comment} only be a problem for m for mine .
PhD E: Yeah .
Postdoc A: Well it it well , it 'd be preceded by " I 'm reading transcript so - and - so " ?
PhD B: Yeah .
Grad F: Yes .
Postdoc A: So , I think if they 're processing it at Grad F: I mean , it 'll be it will be in the midst of a digit string .
Professor D: Yeah .
Grad F: So I mean it sure , there there might be a place where it 's " beep seven beep eight beep eight beep " . But , you know , they they 're they 're gonna macros for inserting the beep marks . And so , I I don't think it 'll be a problem . We 'll have to see , but I don't think it 's gonna be a problem .
Professor D: OK . Well , I I I dunno , I I think that that 's if they are in fact going to transcribe these things , uh , certainly any process that we 'd have to correct them , or whatever is needs to be much less elaborate for digits than for other stuff .
Grad F: Right .
Professor D: So , why not ? Sure . That was it ?
Grad F: That was it . Just , what do we do with digits ?
Professor D: OK .
Grad F: We have so many of them , and it 'd be nice to actually do something with them .
Professor D: Well , we we we wanna have them . Yeah , I PhD I: You mean there 're more than ten ?
Grad F: Anything else ? Your mike is a little low there .
Professor D: I in Berkeley , yeah . So , uh You you have to go a little early , right ? At twenty PhD I: Well , I can stay till about , uh , three forty .
Professor D: Alright . So le let 's make sure we do the ones that that , uh , saved you .
PhD I: Yeah . Mm - hmm .
Professor D: So there was some Uh  In in Adam 's agenda list , he had something from you about segmentation this last recognition ?