SLR Validation: procedures and prospects Eric Sanders Henk van den Heuvel

WHAT WHY WHEN WHO HOW WHERE is validation? validate databases? validates databases? do we validate databases? do we go from here?

WHAT is validation? 1.checking a SLR against a fixed set of requirements 2.putting a quality stamp on a SLR as a result of this check 3.the evaluation of a SLR in a field test

WHY validate databases? increasing number of databases high costs and price of databases fair trade (SpeechDat)

WHO validates databases for SpeechDat? for ELRA? in general?

WHO validates databases and WHEN? Validator Validation scheduling during production after production internal12 external34

HOW do we validate databases? procedure check points rank order quality values

Validation procedure SLR 1.Prevalidation (10 spk) 2. Validation Ready for distribution OK? 3. Revalidation yes no

Check points  documentation  database format  design  speech files  label files  phonemic lexicon  speaker & environment distributions  orthographic transcriptions

Rank order 1.indispensable: speech signals, orthographic transcription, documentation 2.some flaws allowed: design, speaker and environment distributions 3.not very important: label files, database format, lexicon

Quality values OK Not OK, but acceptable Not acceptable

WHERE do we go from here? validate databases from ELRA’s catalogue bug report SPEECON NETWORK-DC exchange ideas

References H. vd Heuvel et al., SLR Validation: present state of affairs and prospects, LREC 2000 H. vd Heuvel, The Art of Validation, to appear in ELRA News oct