2018/11/26 by Loren Lugosch, Lugosch, Loren, Samuel Myer +3 · 3 citations
Computer Science · #Audio and Speech Processing (eess.AS) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Machine Learning (cs.LG) #Machine Learning (stat.ML) #Music and Audio Processing #Sound (cs.SD) #Speech Recognition and Synthesis #Speech and Audio Processing #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1811.10736
openalex publication_date 2018/11/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Keyword spotting--or wakeword detection--is an essential feature for hands-free operation of modern voice-controlled devices. With such devices becoming ubiquitous, users might want to choose a personalized custom wakeword. In this work, we present DONUT, a CTC-based algorithm for online query-by-example keyword spotting that enables custom wakeword detection. The algorithm works by recording a small number of training examples from the user, generating a set of label sequence hypotheses from these training examples, and detecting the wakeword by aggregating the scores of all the hypotheses given a new audio recording. Our method combines the generalization and interpretability of CTC-based keyword spotting with the user-adaptation and convenience of a conventional query-by-example system. DONUT has low computational requirements and is well-suited for both learning and inference on embedded systems without requiring private user data to be uploaded to the cloud.