South Indian Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang concluded and I staying in southern India (where snowfall is impossible) thought about logo of these games if they were to be held here. The logo will be based on this picture I guess.

Idly Chutney: Winter Olympics

Snow is white, Idlies are white and so is Chutney.
Goutham

I have suffered. Enough is enough!

Yes

I have till now suffered from an unprecedented overload of information.

All television, radio and internet companies are rigged to show you infinite things in form of advertisements, videos, pop-ups, click baits, statuses, tweets. Now I unleash a new quote!

"Extra information hurts"

 Better to stay away from internet for a while (ironically)!
G

New Higher Score

It's much higher this time.

New High Score

Surprise was when whole browser screen turns dark blue with crescent moon at top while you realize it's night setting for the same ongoing game.

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao

Goutham

GATE meme #2

My name is going to Mars

This is the boarding pass

 And this is the mission patch

New answer on Quora: What is the need for speech signal processing?

Signal is information and speech is very much so.

A sentence spoken (speech) tells you much more than what you can infer from just reading the same (text).

Attributes of speech are:

1. Core information: What the speaker intends to convey (message).
2. Gender: Female voice has higher frequencies compared to male’s.
3. Age: Voice deepens and crackles as age progresses.
4. Timbre: Everyone has a unique voice. It is almost as unique as his/her fingerprint.
5. Emotion: Angst, laughter, weeping, crying, etc.
6. intensity: Whisper, talk, shout, scream.

The above mentioned can now be extracted and exploited by a computing device using signal processing methods. Few interesting applications are:

• Speech recognition (speech to text): To identify what the speaker has said by essentially converting it into text for further processing/storage. Examples are Siri and Google Assistant.
• Speaker recognition (voice biometric): To establish identity of the speaker and maybe use it to unlock phone or start a car. This is different from recognition and can be combined with it to unlock by saying a ‘pass phrase’.
• speech coding: To effectively store as well as transmit speech in digital form over a channel (internet calls, mobile network, telephone cables, satellite link) using least bandwidth and in error free way.
• speech synthesis (Text to speech): To artificially produce speech using systems which mimic the entire mechanism from human vocal cord vibration, air flow out of trachea to filtering effects caused by oral and nasal cavities. Examples are Google assistant and Microsoft Sam.
• voice analysis: To medically diagnose the human vocal system from voice samples of patient.
• speech enhancement: To improve quality of speech affected by noise in applications like teleconference, VoIP, mobile call, hearing aids.
• voice morphing: To impersonate another individual’s voice using words spoken by you. Voice mimicry is one form done by humans. Now we are training computers to do the same. We may one day reach the perfection of regenerating Micheal Jackson’s voice and songs while lyrics are written and sung by someone else. Example from fiction is the voice ‘sticker’ used by Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible movie series.

Signal processing of speech has come a long way from the invention of telephone to voice calls on WhatsApp (which are surprisingly clearer than calls over mobile network).

GATE meme #1

Hi!

As a part of preparation, I have decided to post memes that are tuned to the minds of GATE aspirants. These can also be related to folks taking similar competitive exams(largely applicable to India). You can share the blog's link if you want to share these memes.

Apply for the exam (GATE 2018) on or before 5th October here.

Here is the first meme.

Goutham

I texted God... and he replied

Many times since start of my exam preparation, I felt this way:

Oh my God!

Goutham

The Breakup

I got a call today in the afternoon.

An unfamiliar female voice asked "Am I speaking to Goutham Sharma?".

I replied "Yes".

She said "Hello Goutham, this is HR department of Cognizant".

It took me a second to comprehend what was going on. Then my reply was "Oh!... Hi!".

"Hi Mr. Goutham! So... are your declining your job offer?" I was asked.

"Yes" was my reply without any second thought (She must be heartbroken hearing that).

 She continued "Are you sure?".

"Yes. I am sure"

"Thank you Goutham. What can I write as the reason for you declining?"

"Opted for higher studies"

"Thank you very much", she said in dispassionate tone.

"Thank you."

THE END

A new quote

"When you find me smiling, that is because I am really happy at the moment or I am hopeful that I will be happy later"

- Goutham Sharma

I understood...

Today I understood why people indulge in vices. Today I understood why they smoke, drink and have fun in ways deemed morally wrong. I also understood how it feels to be trapped in fabric of time, entangled in confusion and guilt.

To dare to come out of this and move on with your passion and goals makes you stand out. Makes you stronger. Makes you happy.

It makes you Healthy.

- Goutham Sharma