Frederick Jelinek

Bio: Frederick Jelinek is an academic researcher from Johns Hopkins University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Language model & Perplexity. The author has an hindex of 54, co-authored 134 publications receiving 19586 citations. Previous affiliations of Frederick Jelinek include IBM & Cornell University.

Optimal decoding of linear codes for minimizing symbol error rate (Corresp.)

Abstract: The general problem of estimating the a posteriori probabilities of the states and transitions of a Markov source observed through a discrete memoryless channel is considered. The decoding of linear block and convolutional codes to minimize symbol error probability is shown to be a special case of this problem. An optimal decoding algorithm is derived.

Statistical methods for speech recognition

Abstract: The speech recognition problem hidden Markov models the acoustic model basic language modelling the Viterbi search hypothesis search on a tree and the fast match elements of information theory the complexity of tasks - the quality of language models the expectation - maximization algorithm and its consequences decision trees and tree language models phonetics from orthography - spelling-to-base from mappings triphones and allophones maximum entropy probability estimation and language models three applications of maximum entropy estimation to language modelling estimation of probabilities from counts and the Back-Off method.

A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Continuous Speech Recognition

Abstract: Speech recognition is formulated as a problem of maximum likelihood decoding. This formulation requires statistical models of the speech production process. In this paper, we describe a number of statistical models for use in speech recognition. We give special attention to determining the parameters for such models from sparse data. We also describe two decoding methods, one appropriate for constrained artificial languages and one appropriate for more realistic decoding tasks. To illustrate the usefulness of the methods described, we review a number of decoding results that have been obtained with them.

Continuous speech recognition by statistical methods

Abstract: Statistical methods useful in automatic recognition of continuous speech are described. They concern modeling of a speaker and of an acoustic processor, extraction of the models' statistical parameters and hypothesis search procedures and likelihood computations of linguistic decoding. Experimental results are presented that indicate the power of the methods.

Deep Learning

Abstract: Deep learning is a form of machine learning that enables computers to learn from experience and understand the world in terms of a hierarchy of concepts. Because the computer gathers knowledge from experience, there is no need for a human computer operator to formally specify all the knowledge that the computer needs. The hierarchy of concepts allows the computer to learn complicated concepts by building them out of simpler ones; a graph of these hierarchies would be many layers deep. This book introduces a broad range of topics in deep learning. The text offers mathematical and conceptual background, covering relevant concepts in linear algebra, probability theory and information theory, numerical computation, and machine learning. It describes deep learning techniques used by practitioners in industry, including deep feedforward networks, regularization, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, sequence modeling, and practical methodology; and it surveys such applications as natural language processing, speech recognition, computer vision, online recommendation systems, bioinformatics, and videogames. Finally, the book offers research perspectives, covering such theoretical topics as linear factor models, autoencoders, representation learning, structured probabilistic models, Monte Carlo methods, the partition function, approximate inference, and deep generative models. Deep Learning can be used by undergraduate or graduate students planning careers in either industry or research, and by software engineers who want to begin using deep learning in their products or platforms. A website offers supplementary material for both readers and instructors.

Latent dirichlet allocation

Abstract: We describe latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a generative probabilistic model for collections of discrete data such as text corpora. LDA is a three-level hierarchical Bayesian model, in which each item of a collection is modeled as a finite mixture over an underlying set of topics. Each topic is, in turn, modeled as an infinite mixture over an underlying set of topic probabilities. In the context of text modeling, the topic probabilities provide an explicit representation of a document. We present efficient approximate inference techniques based on variational methods and an EM algorithm for empirical Bayes parameter estimation. We report results in document modeling, text classification, and collaborative filtering, comparing to a mixture of unigrams model and the probabilistic LSI model.

Latent Dirichlet Allocation

Abstract: We propose a generative model for text and other collections of discrete data that generalizes or improves on several previous models including naive Bayes/unigram, mixture of unigrams [6], and Hof-mann's aspect model, also known as probabilistic latent semantic indexing (pLSI) [3]. In the context of text modeling, our model posits that each document is generated as a mixture of topics, where the continuous-valued mixture proportions are distributed as a latent Dirichlet random variable. Inference and learning are carried out efficiently via variational algorithms. We present empirical results on applications of this model to problems in text modeling, collaborative filtering, and text classification.

A tutorial on hidden Markov models and selected applications in speech recognition

Abstract: This tutorial provides an overview of the basic theory of hidden Markov models (HMMs) as originated by L.E. Baum and T. Petrie (1966) and gives practical details on methods of implementation of the theory along with a description of selected applications of the theory to distinct problems in speech recognition. Results from a number of original sources are combined to provide a single source of acquiring the background required to pursue further this area of research. The author first reviews the theory of discrete Markov chains and shows how the concept of hidden states, where the observation is a probabilistic function of the state, can be used effectively. The theory is illustrated with two simple examples, namely coin-tossing, and the classic balls-in-urns system. Three fundamental problems of HMMs are noted and several practical techniques for solving these problems are given. The various types of HMMs that have been studied, including ergodic as well as left-right models, are described. >

Machine learning

Abstract: Machine Learning is the study of methods for programming computers to learn. Computers are applied to a wide range of tasks, and for most of these it is relatively easy for programmers to design and implement the necessary software. However, there are many tasks for which this is difficult or impossible. These can be divided into four general categories. First, there are problems for which there exist no human experts. For example, in modern automated manufacturing facilities, there is a need to predict machine failures before they occur by analyzing sensor readings. Because the machines are new, there are no human experts who can be interviewed by a programmer to provide the knowledge necessary to build a computer system. A machine learning system can study recorded data and subsequent machine failures and learn prediction rules. Second, there are problems where human experts exist, but where they are unable to explain their expertise. This is the case in many perceptual tasks, such as speech recognition, hand-writing recognition, and natural language understanding. Virtually all humans exhibit expert-level abilities on these tasks, but none of them can describe the detailed steps that they follow as they perform them. Fortunately, humans can provide machines with examples of the inputs and correct outputs for these tasks, so machine learning algorithms can learn to map the inputs to the outputs. Third, there are problems where phenomena are changing rapidly. In finance, for example, people would like to predict the future behavior of the stock market, of consumer purchases, or of exchange rates. These behaviors change frequently, so that even if a programmer could construct a good predictive computer program, it would need to be rewritten frequently. A learning program can relieve the programmer of this burden by constantly modifying and tuning a set of learned prediction rules. Fourth, there are applications that need to be customized for each computer user separately. Consider, for example, a program to filter unwanted electronic mail messages. Different users will need different filters. It is unreasonable to expect each user to program his or her own rules, and it is infeasible to provide every user with a software engineer to keep the rules up-to-date. A machine learning system can learn which mail messages the user rejects and maintain the filtering rules automatically. Machine learning addresses many of the same research questions as the fields of statistics, data mining, and psychology, but with differences of emphasis. Statistics focuses on understanding the phenomena that have generated the data, often with the goal of testing different hypotheses about those phenomena. Data mining seeks to find patterns in the data that are understandable by people. Psychological studies of human learning aspire to understand the mechanisms underlying the various learning behaviors exhibited by people (concept learning, skill acquisition, strategy change, etc.).