Hands-free, voice-driven user input is gaining popularity, in part due to the increasing functionalities provided by intelligent digital assistances such as Siri, Cortana, and Google Now, and in part due to the proliferation of small devices that do not support more traditional, keyboardbased input. In this paper, we examine the gap in the mechanisms of speech recognition between human and mach...

Voice activity detection (VAD) is an important enabling technology for a variety of speech-based applications including speech recognition, speech encoding, and hands-free telephony. The primary function of a voice activity detector is to provide an indication of speech presence in order to facilitate speech processing as well as possibly provide delimiters for the beginning and end of a speech...