Evaluation Metrics for Text Data Augmentation in NLP

Recent surveys on data augmentation for natural language processing have reported different techniques and advancements in the field. Several frameworks, tools, and repositories promote the implementation of text data augmentation pipelines. However, a lack of evaluation criteria and standards for method comparison due to different tasks, metrics, datasets, architectures, and experimental settings makes comparisons meaningless. Also, a lack of methods unification exists and text data augmentation research would benefit from unified metrics to compare different augmentation methods. Thus, academics and the industry endeavor relevant evaluation metrics for text data augmentation techniques. The contribution of this work is to provide a taxonomy of evaluation metrics for text augmentation methods and serve as a direction for a unified benchmark. The proposed taxonomy organizes categories that include tools for implementation and metrics calculation. Finally, with this study, we intend to present opportunities to explore the unification and standardization of text data augmentation metrics.

Phonetically rich corpus construction for a low-resourced language

Speech technologies rely on capturing a speaker's voice variability while obtaining comprehensive language information. Textual prompts and sentence selection methods have been proposed in the literature to comprise such adequate phonetic data, referred to as a phonetically rich \textit{corpus}. However, they are still insufficient for acoustic modeling, especially critical for languages with limited resources. Hence, this paper proposes a novel approach and outlines the methodological aspects required to create a \textit{corpus} with broad phonetic coverage for a low-resourced language, Brazilian Portuguese. Our methodology includes text dataset collection up to a sentence selection algorithm based on triphone distribution. Furthermore, we propose a new phonemic classification according to acoustic-articulatory speech features since the absolute number of distinct triphones, or low-probability triphones, does not guarantee an adequate representation of every possible combination. Using our algorithm, we achieve a 55.8\% higher percentage of distinct triphones -- for samples of similar size -- while the currently available phonetic-rich corpus, CETUC and TTS-Portuguese, 12.6\% and 12.3\% in comparison to a non-phonetically rich dataset.

Image captioning for Brazilian Portuguese using GRIT model

This work presents the early development of a model of image captioning for the Brazilian Portuguese language. We used the GRIT (Grid - and Region-based Image captioning Transformer) model to accomplish this work. GRIT is a Transformer-only neural architecture that effectively utilizes two visual features to generate better captions. The GRIT method emerged as a proposal to be a more efficient way to generate image captioning. In this work, we adapt the GRIT model to be trained in a Brazilian Portuguese dataset to have an image captioning method for the Brazilian Portuguese Language.

An Inpainting-Infused Pipeline for Attire and Background Replacement

In recent years, groundbreaking advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) have triggered a transformative paradigm shift, significantly influencing various domains. In this work, we specifically explore an integrated approach, leveraging advanced techniques in GenAI and computer vision emphasizing image manipulation. The methodology unfolds through several stages, including depth estimation, the creation of inpaint masks based on depth information, the generation and replacement of backgrounds utilizing Stable Diffusion in conjunction with Latent Consistency Models (LCMs), and the subsequent replacement of clothes and application of aesthetic changes through an inpainting pipeline. Experiments conducted in this study underscore the methodology's efficacy, highlighting its potential to produce visually captivating content. The convergence of these advanced techniques allows users to input photographs of individuals and manipulate them to modify clothing and background based on specific prompts without manually input inpainting masks, effectively placing the subjects within the vast landscape of creative imagination.

From Pampas to Pixels: Fine-Tuning Diffusion Models for Gaúcho Heritage

Generative AI has become pervasive in society, witnessing significant advancements in various domains. Particularly in the realm of Text-to-Image (TTI) models, Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs), showcase remarkable capabilities in generating visual content based on textual prompts. This paper addresses the potential of LDMs in representing local cultural concepts, historical figures, and endangered species. In this study, we use the cultural heritage of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, as an illustrative case. Our objective is to contribute to the broader understanding of how generative models can help to capture and preserve the cultural and historical identity of regions. The paper outlines the methodology, including subject selection, dataset creation, and the fine-tuning process. The results showcase the images generated, alongside the challenges and feasibility of each concept. In conclusion, this work shows the power of these models to represent and preserve unique aspects of diverse regions and communities.

Performance of Data Augmentation Methods for Brazilian Portuguese Text Classification

Improving machine learning performance while increasing model generalization has been a constantly pursued goal by AI researchers. Data augmentation techniques are often used towards achieving this target, and most of its evaluation is made using English corpora. In this work, we took advantage of different existing data augmentation methods to analyze their performances applied to text classification problems using Brazilian Portuguese corpora. As a result, our analysis shows some putative improvements in using some of these techniques; however, it also suggests further exploitation of language bias and non-English text data scarcity.