论文标题
端到端的口语理解：在低资源设置中，语音命令任务的性能分析
End-to-End Spoken Language Understanding: Performance analyses of a voice command task in a low resource setting
论文作者
论文摘要
口语理解（SLU）是大多数人机相互作用系统中的核心任务。随着智能家居，智能手机和智能扬声器的出现，SLU已成为该行业的关键技术。在经典的SLU方法中，自动语音识别（ASR）模块将语音信号转录为文本表示，自然语言理解（NLU）模块从中提取语义信息。最近，基于深神经网络的端到端SLU（E2E SLU）已经获得了动力，因为它受益于ASR和NLU部分的联合优化，因此限制了管道架构的误差效应的级联反应。但是，对于E2E模型用于预测语音输入的概念和意图的实际语言特性知之甚少。在本文中，我们提出了一项研究，以确定E2E模型执行SLU任务的信号特征和其他语言特性。该研究是在必须处理非英语（此处法语）语音命令的智能房屋的应用领域进行的。结果表明，良好的E2E SLU性能并不总是需要完美的ASR功能。此外，结果表明，与管道模型相比，E2E模型在处理背景噪声和句法变化方面具有出色的功能。最后，更细粒度的分析表明，E2E模型使用输入信号的音调信息来识别语音命令概念。本文概述的结果和方法提供了一个跳板，以进一步分析语音处理中的E2E模型。
Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) is a core task in most human-machine interaction systems. With the emergence of smart homes, smart phones and smart speakers, SLU has become a key technology for the industry. In a classical SLU approach, an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) module transcribes the speech signal into a textual representation from which a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) module extracts semantic information. Recently End-to-End SLU (E2E SLU) based on Deep Neural Networks has gained momentum since it benefits from the joint optimization of the ASR and the NLU parts, hence limiting the cascade of error effect of the pipeline architecture. However, little is known about the actual linguistic properties used by E2E models to predict concepts and intents from speech input. In this paper, we present a study identifying the signal features and other linguistic properties used by an E2E model to perform the SLU task. The study is carried out in the application domain of a smart home that has to handle non-English (here French) voice commands. The results show that a good E2E SLU performance does not always require a perfect ASR capability. Furthermore, the results show the superior capabilities of the E2E model in handling background noise and syntactic variation compared to the pipeline model. Finally, a finer-grained analysis suggests that the E2E model uses the pitch information of the input signal to identify voice command concepts. The results and methodology outlined in this paper provide a springboard for further analyses of E2E models in speech processing.
