using htk for non-digit recognizing

Question

I have been trying to use HTk coupled with sphinx4 for a speech recognition application. I am providing my input as a wav file and i am using the sphinx provided "Transcriber demo' and the 'Lattice Demo" however the output was pretty much unacceptable. So i decided to introduce HTK with Sphinx4. But the resultant output seems miles away. i am sure the configuration can be tweaked further.. than what i am doing. I have searched well for finding out if there is a ny tutorial related using htk and sphinx4 . Apart from this amazing blog (http://nsh.nexiwave.com/2009/09/using-htk-models-in-sphinx4.html) i have not found out anything else. Can anyone please help me out over here to improve my recognition accuracy..

My config file is sphinx is as follows :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!--
   Sphinx-4 Configuration file
-->

<!-- ******************************************************** -->
<!--  an4 configuration file                             -->
<!-- ******************************************************** -->

<config>        

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- frequently tuned properties                              -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** --> 

    <property name="logLevel" value="WARNING"/>

    <property name="absoluteBeamWidth"  value="-1"/>
    <property name="relativeBeamWidth"  value="1E-80"/>
    <property name="wordInsertionProbability" value="1E-36"/>
    <property name="languageWeight"     value="8"/>

    <property name="frontend" value="epFrontEnd"/>
    <property name="recognizer" value="recognizer"/>
    <property name="showCreations" value="false"/>


    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- word recognizer configuration                            -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** --> 

    <component name="recognizer" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.recognizer.Recognizer">
        <property name="decoder" value="decoder"/>
        <propertylist name="monitors">
            <item>accuracyTracker </item>
            <item>speedTracker </item>
            <item>memoryTracker </item>
        </propertylist>
   </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The Decoder   configuration                              -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** --> 

    <component name="decoder" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.Decoder">
        <property name="searchManager" value="searchManager"/>
    </component>

  <!--   <component name="searchManager" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.SimpleBreadthFirstSearchManager">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="linguist" value="lexTreeLinguist"/>
        <property name="pruner" value="trivialPruner"/>
        <property name="scorer" value="threadedScorer"/>
        <property name="activeListFactory" value="activeList"/>
    </component>

        <component name="activeList" 
             type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.PartitionActiveListFactory">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="absoluteBeamWidth" value="${absoluteBeamWidth}"/>
        <property name="relativeBeamWidth" value="${relativeBeamWidth}"/>
    </component>

    -->

    <component name="searchManager" 
              type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.WordPruningBreadthFirstSearchManager">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="linguist" value="lexTreeLinguist"/>
        <property name="pruner" value="trivialPruner"/>
        <property name="scorer" value="threadedScorer"/>
         <property name="activeListManager" value="activeListManager"/> 
        <property name="activeListFactory" value="activeList"/>
        <property name="growSkipInterval" value="0"/>
        <property name="checkStateOrder" value="false"/>
        <property name="buildWordLattice" value="false"/>
        <property name="acousticLookaheadFrames" value="1.7"/>
        <property name="relativeBeamWidth" value="${relativeBeamWidth}"/>
    </component>


    <component name="trivialPruner" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.pruner.SimplePruner"/>

    <component name="threadedScorer" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.scorer.ThreadedAcousticScorer">
        <property name="frontend" value="${frontend}"/>
    </component>

    <component name="activeListManager" 
             type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.SimpleActiveListManager">
        <propertylist name="activeListFactories">
            <item>standardActiveListFactory</item>
            <item>wordActiveListFactory</item>
            <item>wordActiveListFactory</item>
            <item>standardActiveListFactory</item>
            <item>standardActiveListFactory</item>
            <item>standardActiveListFactory</item>
        </propertylist>
    </component>

    <component name="standardActiveListFactory" 
             type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.PartitionActiveListFactory">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="absoluteBeamWidth" value="${absoluteBeamWidth}"/>
        <property name="relativeBeamWidth" value="${relativeBeamWidth}"/>
    </component>

    <component name="wordActiveListFactory" 
             type="edu.cmu.sphinx.decoder.search.PartitionActiveListFactory">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="absoluteBeamWidth" value="${absoluteWordBeamWidth}"/>
        <property name="relativeBeamWidth" value="${relativeWordBeamWidth}"/>
    </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The linguist  configuration                              -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->

    <component name="flatLinguist"
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.flat.FlatLinguist">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="grammar" value="jsgfGrammar"/>
        <property name="acousticModel" value="wsj"/>
        <property name="wordInsertionProbability"
                value="${wordInsertionProbability}"/>
        <property name="languageWeight" value="${languageWeight}"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>


    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The Grammar  configuration                               -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->

    <component name="jsgfGrammar" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.jsgf.JSGFGrammar">
        <property name="dictionary" value="dictionary"/>
        <property name="grammarLocation" 
             value="resource:/edu/cmu/sphinx/demo/transcriber/"/>
        <property name="grammarName" value="digits"/>
    <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
    </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The Dictionary configuration               
        <component name="dictionary" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.dictionary.FastDictionary">
        <property name="dictionaryPath"
                  value="resource:/WSJ_8gau_13dCep_16k_40mel_130Hz_6800Hz/dict/cmudict.0.6d"/>
        <property name="fillerPath" 
              value="resource:/WSJ_8gau_13dCep_16k_40mel_130Hz_6800Hz/noisedict"/>
        <property name="addSilEndingPronunciation" value="false"/>
        <property name="wordReplacement" value="&lt;sil&gt;"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>             -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->



         <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The Dictionary configuration                            -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <component name="dictionary" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.dictionary.FastDictionary">
        <property name="dictionaryPath"
                  value="file:C:\Raveesh\Softwares\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin\models\language\wsj\5100.dic"/>
        <property name="fillerPath" 
              value="resource:/WSJ_8gau_13dCep_16k_40mel_130Hz_6800Hz/noisedict"/>
        <property name="addSilEndingPronunciation" value="false"/>
        <property name="wordReplacement" value="&lt;sil&gt;"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The acoustic model configuration                         -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <component name="wsj"
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.acoustic.tiedstate.TiedStateAcousticModel">
        <property name="loader" value="wsjLoader"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>



        <component name="wsjLoader" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.acoustic.tiedstate.HTKLoader">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="modelDefinition" value="hmmdefs"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>

<!-- 

    <component name="wsjLoader" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.acoustic.tiedstate.Sphinx3Loader">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
        <property name="location" value="resource:/WSJ_8gau_13dCep_16k_40mel_130Hz_6800Hz"/>
    </component>

 -->    

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The unit manager configuration                           -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->

    <component name="unitManager" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.acoustic.UnitManager"/>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The live frontend configuration                          -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
        <!--  
    <component name="epFrontEnd" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.FrontEnd">
        <propertylist name="pipeline">
            <item>audioFileDataSource </item>
            <item>dataBlocker </item>
            <item>speechClassifier </item>
            <item>speechMarker </item>
            <item>nonSpeechDataFilter </item>
            <item>preemphasizer </item>
            <item>windower </item>
            <item>fft </item>
            <item>melFilterBank </item>
            <item>dct </item>
            <item>liveCMN </item>
            <item>featureExtraction </item>
        </propertylist>
    </component>



-->

 <!-- the front end configuration using the HTK loader..     -->

     <component name="epFrontEnd" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.FrontEnd">
        <propertylist name="pipeline">
        <item>streamHTKSource</item>
        </propertylist>
    </component>

    <component name="streamHTKSource" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.util.StreamHTKCepstrum">
        <property name="cepstrumLength" value="39"/>
    </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The frontend pipelines                                   -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->

    <component name="audioFileDataSource" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.util.AudioFileDataSource"/>

    <component name="dataBlocker" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.DataBlocker"/>

    <component name="speechClassifier" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.endpoint.SpeechClassifier"/>

    <component name="nonSpeechDataFilter" 
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.endpoint.NonSpeechDataFilter"/>

    <component name="speechMarker" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.endpoint.SpeechMarker" />

    <component name="preemphasizer"
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.filter.Preemphasizer"/>

    <component name="windower" 
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.window.RaisedCosineWindower">
    </component>

    <component name="fft" 
            type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.transform.DiscreteFourierTransform">
    </component>

    <component name="melFilterBank" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.frequencywarp.MelFrequencyFilterBank">
    </component>

    <component name="dct" 
            type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.transform.DiscreteCosineTransform"/>

    <component name="liveCMN" 
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.feature.LiveCMN"/>

    <component name="featureExtraction" 
               type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.feature.DeltasFeatureExtractor"/>

               <!-- Newly Added..   -->
    <component name="streamDataSource"
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.frontend.util.StreamDataSource">
        <property name="sampleRate" value="16000"/>
        <property name="bigEndianData" value="false"/>
    </component>


    <!-- ******************************************************* -->
    <!--  monitors                                               -->
    <!-- ******************************************************* -->

    <component name="accuracyTracker" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.instrumentation.BestPathAccuracyTracker">
        <property name="recognizer" value="${recognizer}"/>
        <property name="showAlignedResults" value="true"/>
        <property name="showRawResults" value="true"/>
    </component>

    <component name="memoryTracker" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.instrumentation.MemoryTracker">
        <property name="recognizer" value="${recognizer}"/>
    <property name="showSummary" value="false"/>
    <property name="showDetails" value="false"/>
    </component>

    <component name="speedTracker" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.instrumentation.SpeedTracker">
        <property name="recognizer" value="${recognizer}"/>
        <property name="frontend" value="${frontend}"/>
    <property name="showSummary" value="true"/>
    <property name="showDetails" value="false"/>
    </component>


    <!-- ******************************************************* -->
    <!--  Miscellaneous components                               -->
    <!-- ******************************************************* -->

    <component name="logMath" type="edu.cmu.sphinx.util.LogMath">
        <property name="logBase" value="1.0001"/>
        <property name="useAddTable" value="true"/>
    </component>

    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The linguist  configuration                              -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->

    <component name="lexTreeLinguist" 
                type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.lextree.LexTreeLinguist">
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="acousticModel" value="wsj"/>
        <property name="languageModel" value="trigramModel"/>
        <property name="dictionary" value="dictionary"/>
        <property name="addFillerWords" value="false"/>
        <property name="fillerInsertionProbability" value="1E-10"/>
        <property name="generateUnitStates" value="false"/>
        <property name="wantUnigramSmear" value="true"/>
        <property name="unigramSmearWeight" value="1"/>
        <property name="wordInsertionProbability" 
                value="${wordInsertionProbability}"/>
        <property name="silenceInsertionProbability" 
                value="${silenceInsertionProbability}"/>
        <property name="languageWeight" value="${languageWeight}"/>
        <property name="unitManager" value="unitManager"/>
    </component>    

     <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <!-- The Language Model configuration                         -->
    <!-- ******************************************************** -->
    <component name="trigramModel" 
        type="edu.cmu.sphinx.linguist.language.ngram.SimpleNGramModel">
        <property name="location" 
            value="file:C:\Raveesh\Softwares\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin\models\language\wsj\5100.lm"/>
        <property name="logMath" value="logMath"/>
        <property name="dictionary" value="dictionary"/>
        <property name="maxDepth" value="3"/>
        <property name="unigramWeight" value=".7"/>
    </component>    
</config>

Any help would be really appreciated

Answer 1

Decoding from audio streams with HTK models is not supported yet in sphinx4. The HTK frontend configuration needs to be different. You can only decode mfc files extracted with HTK as described in the blog. The details on frontend issues are described in the blog comments too.