<title>Text-independent speaker verification using discriminant neural networks classifier</title>

Abstract

In this paper, an evaluation of various discriminant neural networks classifiers for text- independent speaker verification problem is presented. Each person to be verified has a personalized neural network model. A new classifier called neural tree network (NTN) is also examined for this application. The memoryless feedforward neural network architecture makes decisions based on static features. Time delay neural network (TDNNs) have proved to be an efficient way to handle the dynamic nature of speech. Furthermore, a model called recurrent time delay neural networks (RTDNNs), obtained through a local feedback connection at the first hidden layer level of TDNNs is investigated. The training is carried out by backpropagation for sequence algorithm. The database used is a subset of the TIMIT database consisting of 38 speakers from the same dialect region. The NTN is compared with the MLP, TDNN, and RTDNN. It is shown that NTN is found to perform better than the other neural networks classifiers. Also, a little bit performance improvement was achieved due to the addition of temporal information for text-independent speaker verification problem using TDNNs and RTDNNs. Finally, we described the experimental results obtained using different neural network models.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.