Librispeech

Dataset abstract

Dataset name	Type of data	Annotation remarks	License	Metadata
LibriSpeech	FLAC	The audio file and the transcription file are stored under the same directory. There are multiple audio files and only one txt file which is the transcription. And in the transcription file, the transcription for each audio is in separate lines.	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.	Sampling rate: 16 kHz Download size: 57.14 GiB

Comparison Performance between APIs

We use a subset(1272/128104) of dataset dev-clean(development set, "clean" speech) to compare the performance between the Google and Whisper APIs.

This is the evaluation script: https://gist.github.com/auwjong22/357c3020a82d68414aae9fdcb3b60521

WER Overview

	Google WER	Whisper WER
1272-128104-0000.flac	17.65	5.88
1272-128104-0001.flac	30.0	10.0
1272-128104-0002.flac	15.62	3.12
1272-128104-0003.flac	29.17	8.33
1272-128104-0004.flac	29.41	16.18
1272-128104-0005.flac	11.11	5.56
1272-128104-0006.flac	41.67	16.67
1272-128104-0007.flac	5.26	5.26
1272-128104-0008.flac	36.36	18.18
1272-128104-0009.flac	37.21	9.3
1272-128104-0010.flac	20.0	6.67
1272-128104-0011.flac	50.0	5.88
1272-128104-0012.flac	22.22	0.0
1272-128104-0013.flac	27.78	5.56
1272-128104-0014.flac	80.0	40.0

Detailed Transcriptions

	Reference	Google transcription	Whisper transcription
1272-128104-0000.flac	MISTER QUILTER IS THE APOSTLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND WE ARE GLAD TO WELCOME HIS GOSPEL	Mr quilter is the apostle of the middle classes and we're glad to welcome his gospel	Mr. Quilter is the apostle of the middle classes, and we are glad to welcome his gospel.
1272-128104-0001.flac	NOR IS MISTER QUILTER'S MANNER LESS INTERESTING THAN HIS MATTER	nor is Mr coaches Manor less interesting than his matter	Nor is Mr. Quilter's manner less interesting than his matter.
1272-128104-0002.flac	HE TELLS US THAT AT THIS FESTIVE SEASON OF THE YEAR WITH CHRISTMAS AND ROAST BEEF LOOMING BEFORE US SIMILES DRAWN FROM EATING AND ITS RESULTS OCCUR MOST READILY TO THE MIND	he tells us that at this festive season of the Year with Christmas roast beef looming before us similies drawn from eating and it's results are coronavirus ready to the mind	He tells us that at this festive season of the year, with Christmas and roast beef looming before us, similarly drawn from eating and its results occur most readily to the mind.
1272-128104-0003.flac	HE HAS GRAVE DOUBTS WHETHER SIR FREDERICK LEIGHTON'S WORK IS REALLY GREEK AFTER ALL AND CAN DISCOVER IN IT BUT LITTLE OF ROCKY ITHACA	is grave doubts whether sir Frederic Layton's work is really Greek after all and can discover in it but little of Rocky is a car	He has graved doubts whether Sir Frederick Layton's work is really Greek after all, and can discover in it but little of Rocky Ithaca.
1272-128104-0004.flac	LINNELL'S PICTURES ARE A SORT OF UP GUARDS AND AT EM PAINTINGS AND MASON'S EXQUISITE IDYLLS ARE AS NATIONAL AS A JINGO POEM MISTER BIRKET FOSTER'S LANDSCAPES SMILE AT ONE MUCH IN THE SAME WAY THAT MISTER CARKER USED TO FLASH HIS TEETH AND MISTER JOHN COLLIER GIVES HIS SITTER A CHEERFUL SLAP ON THE BACK BEFORE HE SAYS LIKE A SHAMPOOER IN A TURKISH BATH NEXT MAN	Lozells pictures of gods and Adam paintings and Masons exquisite Angels national as a jingle poem Mr broken Fosters landscapes smile at one match in the same way that Mr Kaka used to flash his teeth and Mr John Collier gives his sister a cheerful slap on the back before he said like a shampooer in a Turkish bath next Man	Lynelle's pictures are a sort of upgards and atom paintings, and Mason's exquisite ittles are as national as a jingo poem. Mr. Birkett Foster's landscapes smile at one much in the same way that Mr. Carker used to flash his teeth. And Mr. John Collier gives his sitter a cheerful slap on the back, before he says, like a shampooer and a Turkish bath. Next man!
1272-128104-0005.flac	IT IS OBVIOUSLY UNNECESSARY FOR US TO POINT OUT HOW LUMINOUS THESE CRITICISMS ARE HOW DELICATE IN EXPRESSION	is obviously unnecessary for us to point out how luminous these criticisms are how delicate an expression	It is obviously unnecessary for us to point out how luminous these criticisms are, how delicate and expression.
1272-128104-0006.flac	ON THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ART MISTER QUILTER WRITES WITH EQUAL LUCIDITY	and the general principles of artistic water rates with equal lucidity	On the general principles of art, Mr. Krilter writes with equal lucidity.
1272-128104-0007.flac	PAINTING HE TELLS US IS OF A DIFFERENT QUALITY TO MATHEMATICS AND FINISH IN ART IS ADDING MORE FACT	painting he tells us is of a different quality to Mathematics and finish in art is adding more fat	Painting, he tells us, is of a different quality to mathematics, and finish in art is adding more factor.
1272-128104-0008.flac	AS FOR ETCHINGS THEY ARE OF TWO KINDS BRITISH AND FOREIGN	as for itching there are two kinds of British and foreign	As for etchings, there are two kinds, British and foreign.
1272-128104-0009.flac	HE LAMENTS MOST BITTERLY THE DIVORCE THAT HAS BEEN MADE BETWEEN DECORATIVE ART AND WHAT WE USUALLY CALL PICTURES MAKES THE CUSTOMARY APPEAL TO THE LAST JUDGMENT AND REMINDS US THAT IN THE GREAT DAYS OF ART MICHAEL ANGELO WAS THE FURNISHING UPHOLSTERER	elements most beautiful that has been made between decorative part and what we usually call pictures makes a customer appeal to The Last Judgement and reminds us that integrate days of art Michelangelo was the furnishing a poster	He laments most bitterly the divorce that has been made between decorative art and what we usually call pictures. Mixed a customary appeal to the last judgment and reminds us that in the great days of art Michelangelo was the furnishing upholsterer.
1272-128104-0010.flac	NEAR THE FIRE AND THE ORNAMENTS FRED BROUGHT HOME FROM INDIA ON THE MANTEL BOARD	near the fire any ornaments Fred brought home from India on the mental board	near the fire, and the ornaments Fred brought home from India on the mental board.
1272-128104-0011.flac	IN FACT HE IS QUITE SEVERE ON MISTER RUSKIN FOR NOT RECOGNISING THAT A PICTURE SHOULD DENOTE THE FRAILTY OF MAN AND REMARKS WITH PLEASING COURTESY AND FELICITOUS GRACE THAT MANY PHASES OF FEELING	in fact is quite severe Mr Ruskin from not recognising that I picked you shouldn't up the 3rd of man and remarks with please increase the infelicitous Grace that many faces is a feeling	In fact, he is quite severe on Mr. Ruskin for not recognizing that a picture should denote the frailty of man, and remarks with pleasing courtesy and felicitous grace that many phases of feeling
1272-128104-0012.flac	ONLY UNFORTUNATELY HIS OWN WORK NEVER DOES GET GOOD	only unfortunately is only work never does get good	Only, unfortunately, his own work never does get good.
1272-128104-0013.flac	MISTER QUILTER HAS MISSED HIS CHANCE FOR HE HAS FAILED EVEN TO MAKE HIMSELF THE TUPPER OF PAINTING	Mr Coulter has missed his chance for his failed even to make himself the tower of painting	Mr. Quilter has missed his chance, for he has failed even to make himself the Tupper of Painting.
1272-128104-0014.flac	BY HARRY QUILTER M A	hi Harry quarter ma	by Harry quilter MA.

Analysis

Abbreviations and different spellings cause many misjudgements in calculating WER. For example, in 0000, both Google and Whisper transcribed "Mister" as "Mr." and Google transcribed "we are" as "we're", which lead to 5.88 WER and 17.65 WER respectively. Same situation happened in 0001 and 0013 of Whisper transcriptions where "Mister" has been written as "Mr.". Different spellings, for example in Whisper 0011 where "recognising" has been written as "recognizing", together with "Mr.", leading to 5.88 WER. Since "Mr." and "Mister", "recognizing" and "recognising", "we are" and "we're" have no difference at all except for their spellings, we should consider above-mentioned transcriptions as correct with 0 WER.

Conclusion

The SR model from Whisper markedly outshines that of Google. Beyond just its superior WER, it delivers transcriptions that are more human-friendly, complete with fitting punctuation. Consequently, Whisper's results integrate better with NLP models, such as machine translation.

To enhance the precision of the WER evaluation, we could better normalize both the references and hypotheses before evaluating WER. For instance, equating terms like 'mister' and 'mr' would aid in consistency.

Comparison Between Transcriptions and Original Transcript using whisper

Xueying LIU

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jrPuAcyzeAFT4cg0Lc1nJg115sqP5yCu/view?usp=drive_link

	Whisper WER	Whisper transcription
1272-128104-0000.flac	100	감사합니다.
1272-128104-0001.flac	10.0	Nor is Mr. Culture's manner less interesting than his matter.
1272-128104-0005.flac	5.56	It is obviously unnecessary for us to point out how luminous these criticisms are, how delicate and expression.
1272-128104-0006.flac	16.67	On the general principles of art, Mr. Kult writes with equal lucidity.
1272-128104-0007.flac	5.26	Painting, he tells us, is of a different quality to mathematics and finish in art is a more fact.
1272-128104-0010.flac	13.33	Near the fire and the ominous, Fred brought home from India on the mental board.
1272-128104-0012.flac	0.0	Only unfortunately his own work never does get good.
1272-128104-0013.flac	11.11	Mr. Quilter has missed his chance for he has failed even to make himself the tougher of painting.

Recording Device: iPhone13

Recording Environment: Noisy, normal speed

It is surprising to see that 0000 was transcribed into Korean. Compared with the WER of original audio recognized by Whisper, 5 out of 8 sentences from this speaker had the same WER with original audio, and 3 had higher WER than original audio. Reasons for the low performance could be that first, these audios were recorded under noisy environment with people talking in the background; second, some words in the sentences are uncommon and might be mispronounced by the speaker.

Jingxuan YUE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UYOKGkM0cli9htQ6ry6SLuE2Wa2_b3-U/view?usp=drive_link

	Whisper WER	Whisper transcription
1272-128104-0000.flac	35.29	Mr. Krueger is a parcel of the middle classes and we're glad to welcome his gospel.
1272-128104-0001.flac	30	Nor is Mr. Quotor's manner less interesting than his manner.
1272-128104-0002.flac	18.75	He tells us that at this festive season of the year, with Christmas and Rosebeef looming before us, similarly drowned from 18 and its resounds occur most readily to the mind.
1272-128104-0003.flac	37.5	He has graved out the weather, so Frederick Lydon's work is really great after all and can discover the internet but little of Rocky Ithaca.
1272-128104-0004.flac	30.88	The Niles pictures are a sort of op-cards and atom paintings and maisons. Equasites, idols are as national as a jingle poem. Mr. Borke Foster's landscapes smile at one mudge in the same way that Mr. Cocker used to flash his teeth and Mr. Drong. Cocker gives his sitter a cheerful slap on the back before he says like shampoo in a Turkish bath next to man.
1272-128104-0005.flac	11.11	It is obviously a necessary for us to point out how luminous these criticisms are, how delicate in expression.
1272-128104-0006.flac	16.67	On the general principles of art, Mr. Quilter writes word equal lucidity.
1272-128104-0007.flac	10.53	Painting he tells us is of a different quality to mathematics and finishing art is adding more fact.
1272-128104-0008.flac	9.09	As for addings, they are of two kinds, British and foreign.
1272-128104-0009.flac	0	He laments most bitterly the divorce that has been made between decorative art and what we usually call pictures makes the customary appeal to the last judgment and reminds us that in the great days of art. Michael Angelo was the furnishing upholsterer.
1272-128104-0010.flac	20	Near the fire and ornaments fled brought home from India on the mental board.
1272-128104-0011.flac	17.65	In fact, he is quite severe on Mr. Ruskin for not recognizing that a picture should denote the frailty of men and remarks with pleasing courtesy and the felicitous grace that many faces a feeling.
1272-128104-0012.flac	0	Only, unfortunately, his own work never does get good.
1272-128104-0013.flac	11.11	Mr. Quilter has missed his chance for he has failed even to make himself the tougher of painting.
1272-128104-0014.flac	40	by Harry Quilter, M.A.

Recording device: iPhone XR

Environment: relatively quiet corridor with occasional background noise, standard speech rate

Notes:

In general, the WER in this transcription is considerably higher than that of the original audiobook transcribed by Whisper. The primary reason behind this discrepancy lies in the fact that this recording was made by a native Mandarin speaker, and there are instances where the pronunciation of certain phonetics is not entirely accurate when speaking in continuous sentences. For example, words like 'man' and 'men,' which have similar pronunciations, lead to a higher WER.

However, there are a few exceptions to this trend. Notably, the WER for segments 0008 and 0009 in this transcription is lower than that of the original recording. This is especially evident in segment 0009, which features a lengthy sentence with no transcription errors. This indicates that Whisper's Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) system performs admirably in specific cases.

There are instances where Whisper faces challenges. Firstly, it struggles when dealing with words that share the same or similar pronunciations. For instance, in segment 0003, the original word 'WHETHER' is transcribed as 'weather.' Another instance occurs in segment 0011, where 'PHASES' is transcribed as 'faces.' This highlights the need for improvement in the system's ability to transcribe within the context of the language model.

Additionally, the transcription quality suffers when it comes to liaison. For example, in segment 0000, the original transcript reads 'apostle,' but the transcription results in 'a parcel.' A similar situation arises in segment 0004, where 'AT EM' is transcribed as 'atom.'

M.Tepei

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ysPduZXsf_pUziEq_-p1cqUv8EGULc03/view?usp=drive_link

	Whisper WER	Whisper transcription
1272-128104-0000.flac	41.18	The answer is the question of the middle classes and we are going to let the well-composed gospel.
1272-128104-0001.flac	20	Nor is Mr. Quilter's manner less interesting than this matter.
1272-128104-0002.flac	18.75	The process that at this festive season of the year with Christmas and roast beef looming before us, similes drawn from eating and its result occur more spreadly to the mind.
1272-128104-0003.flac	20.83	He has graved out sweater Sir Frederick Layton's work is really Greek after all and can discover in it but little Rocky Ithaca.
1272-128104-0004.flac	17.65	The pictures are a sort of upgarts and at paintings and mason's exquisite idls are as national as a jingle poem Mr. Burkid Foster's landscape smile. At one much in the same way that Mr. Carker used to flash his teeth and Mr. John Collier gives his sitter a cheerful slap on the bag before he says like a shampooer in a Turkish bath next man.
1272-128104-0005.flac	5.56	It is obviously unnecessary for us to point out how luminous these criticisms are, how delicate and expression.
1272-128104-0006.flac	33.33	The general principles of art, Mr. Quilder, rise with equal lucidity.
1272-128104-0007.flac	15.79	I think he tells us as of a different quality to mathematics and finish in art is adding more fact.
1272-128104-0008.flac	0	As for etchings, they are of two kinds, British and foreign.
1272-128104-0009.flac	6.98	He laments most bitterly the divorce that has been made between decorative art and what we usually call pictures makes the customary appeal to the last judgment and reminds us that in the great days of art Michelangelo was the furnishing upholster.
1272-128104-0010.flac	40	The entire empire and ornaments thread brought home from India on the mental board.
1272-128104-0011.flac	11.76	In fact, he is quite severe on Mr. Ruskin for not recognizing that a picture should denote the frailty of men and remarks with pleasing courtesy and felicitous grace that many faces of feeling.
1272-128104-0012.flac	0	Only unfortunately his own work never does get good.
1272-128104-0013.flac	16.67	Mr. Guilter has missed his chance for he has failed even to make himself the upper of painting.
1272-128104-0014.flac	60	by every quilter ma.

Recording device: Dell XPS 13

Environment: quiet, modal voice, standard (natural) speech rate.

Notes: Interesting to see that 'Mr. Quilter' is transcribed correctly once, and with different minor errors for the rest of the cases. Did not expect 'etchings' to be transcribed correctly, as I hesitated/stuttered when I pronounced it.

Contributors

• Yuxing OUYANG
• Xiaoling LIN
• Xueying LIU
• Jingxuan YUE
• M.Tepei