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Design of an Interactive Web-based User Interface for Speech Database Query Formation

This paper presents the design of an advanced experimental system currently under development that allows speech database queries to be defined in a high-level manner both intuitively and interactively. Queries are graphically specified by creating matching template units that are instances of classes, e.g., phones, phonemes, syllables, and words. Also, the features and properties of these instances are defined, e.g., voicing, part-of-speech tags, etc. Types, features, and properties of each unit can be made as specific or general as required, enabling different degrees of query selectivity. Relations between template units are used to specify query contexts and are indicated through links. Template units can be named symbolically, enabling the formation of reusable libraries of queries. Interaction is promoted since formed queries can be applied to object-oriented speech databases with immediate feedback. Databases can be located on a central server or on a local machine. Being html-compliant, the system is accessible from different web-browsers and platforms making it a portable tool for speech processing.