Note from the Editor: Special issue on speech processing and soft computing

Excerpt

This special issue of the Journal is devoted to the work of twelve eminent speech scientists who apply novel soft computing methods to address some of the most difficult and persistent problems facing speech recognition systems today. I first heard these scientists discuss their innovative soft computing algorithms at the University of Salamanca where the Sixth International Conference on Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications, SOCO 2011, was held in conjunction with the 9^th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. The SOCO chair, Professor Emilio Corchado, devoted a special workshop session to Speech Processing and Soft Computing to explore how soft computing may complement conventional techniques in speech processing. The topics covered in this workshop included, but were not limited to, speech production, speech coding, speech modeling and analysis, speech recognition, speech enhancement, multichannel speech processing, text-to speech synthesis, natural language understanding and generation, and other aspects related to speech processing. Such soft computing methods encompass neural networks, Fuzzy systems, Evolutionary computation, and Swarm intelligence, as well as Bayesian networks, Chaos theory and other soft computing based approaches. Having been impressed with the research rigor and analytic insights of the workshop session speakers, I asked Dr. Corchado to help me assemble a special issue of the Journal that would allow the SOCO conference speakers to expound appreciably on their research methods and test findings in their papers submitted to this special issue. The papers chosen for publication in this special issue underwent rigorous peer review and were accepted only after authors carefully revised their papers to the satisfaction of the peer reviewers and the editor. …