MAT--A Project to Collect Mandarin Speech Data Through Telephone Networks in Taiwan

A cooperative project, called Polyphone, was initiated by the Coordinating Committee on Speech Databases and Speech I/O Systems Assessment (COCOSDA) in 1992. Accordingly, a project to collect Mandarin speech data across Taiwan (MAT) was conducted by a group of researchers from several universities and research organizations in Taiwan. The purpose was to generate a speech corpus for the development of Mandarin-based speech technology and products. The speech data were collected at eight recording stations through telephone networks. The speakers were chosen so as to reflect the population of the gender, the dialect, the educational level, and the residence in Taiwan. A preliminary Mandarin speech database of 800 speakers has been produced. The final goal is to generate a speech database of at least 5000 speakers.