New research has found a way to manage and organise information in Arabic speeches more effectively.
This was contained in a paper on indexing of Arabic speech databases presented by Dr Habib Talhami, a senior lecturer at the British University in Dubai (BUiD) and Head of the Informatics Institute.
Dr Talhami presented the paper at the International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications in Switzerland.
Three-year project
His research, a three-year project, introduces new methods for accessing Arabic audio files and data bases. These methods allow Arabic users to access and catalogue speech automatically rather than sorting out files and databases manually.
This is the first time that advanced speech recognition technology has been used to catalogue large speech databases. Dr Talhami and his team recognised there was a lack of investment and research into Arabic systems and wanted to bring these closer to English-language systems.
“I was very pleased to represent BUiD at such an important global IT event. Presenting the findings of our research gave me a real sense of pride, and demonstrated the significance of the research taking place in the UAE and the Middle East,” Dr Talhami said.
“I look forward to continuing with this research at BUiD so that we can build on our findings and further develop our research,” he said.
Dr Talhami brings a wealth of research experience in the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis and voice portals to BUiD.
Before he assumed his position at the university, Dr Talhami was a faculty member at Zayed University’s College of Information Systems.
A member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering since 1985 and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia since 1998, Dr Talhami is also a recipient of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce Award Natwest, BP Award for Technology for his innovative design work.
Dr Talhami received his PhD in Digital Signal Processing from Imperial College at the University of London. BUiD is the Middle East’s first postgraduate research-based university.
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