QVoice: Arabic Speech Pronunciation Learning Application

This paper introduces a novel Arabic pronunciation learning application QVoice, powered with end-to-end mispronunciation detection and feedback generator module. The application is designed to support non-native Arabic speakers in enhancing their pronunciation skills, while also helping native speakers mitigate any potential influence from regional dialects on their Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) pronunciation. QVoice employs various learning cues to aid learners in comprehending meaning, drawing connections with their existing knowledge of English language, and offers detailed feedback for pronunciation correction, along with contextual examples showcasing word usage. The learning cues featured in QVoice encompass a wide range of meaningful information, such as visualizations of phrases/words and their translations, as well as phonetic transcriptions and transliterations. QVoice provides pronunciation feedback at the character level and assesses performance at the word level.

An Explainable Model for EEG Seizure Detection based on Connectivity Features

Epilepsy which is characterized by seizures is studied using EEG signals by recording the electrical activity of the brain. Different types of communication between different parts of the brain are characterized by many state of the art connectivity measures which can be directed and undirected. We propose to employ a set of undirected (spectral matrix, the inverse of the spectral matrix, coherence, partial coherence, and phaselocking value) and directed features (directed coherence, the partial directed coherence) to learn a deep neural network that detects whether a particular data window belongs to a seizure or not, which is a new approach to standard seizure classification. Taking our data as a sequence of ten sub-windows, we aim at designing an optimal deep learning model using attention, CNN, BiLstm, and fully connected layers. We also compute the relevance using the weights of the learned model based on the activation values of the receptive fields at a particular layer. Our best model architecture resulted in 97.03% accuracy using balanced MITBIH data subset. Also, we were able to explain the relevance of each feature across all patients. We were able to experimentally validate some of the scientific facts concerning seizures by studying the impact of the contributions of the activations on the decision.