science

Human Speechome Project

Human Speechome Project is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Human Speechome Project rather than just read about it. In short: The Human Speechome Project (by analogy to "genome" and similar terms) is an effort to closely observe and model the language acquisition of a child over the first three years of life. The project was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory by the Associate Professor Deb Roy with an array of technology that is used to comprehensively but unobtrusively observe a single child – Roy's…

Key takeaways

Human Speechome Project belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Human Speechome Project to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Human Speechome Project from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Human Speechome Project (by analogy to "genome" and similar terms) is an effort to closely observe and model the language acquisition of a child over the first three years of life. The project was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory by the Associate Professor Deb Roy with an array of technology that is used to comprehensively but unobtrusively observe a single child – Roy's own son – with the resulting data being used to create computational models to yield further insight into language acquisition.

Detail Most studies of human speech acquisition in children have been done in laboratory settings and with sampling rates of only a couple of hours per week. The need for studies in the more natural setting of the child's home, and at a much higher sampling rate approaching the child's total experience, led to the development of this project concept.

Just as the Human Genome Project illuminates the innate genetic code that shapes us, the Speechome project is an important first step toward creating a map of how the environment shapes human development and learning. Frank Moss, director of the Media Lab A digital network consisting of eleven video cameras, fourteen microphones, and an array of data capture hardware was installed in the home of the subject. A cluster of ten computers and audio samplers is located in the basement of the house to capture the data. Data from the cluster is moved manually to the MIT campus as necessary for storage in a one-million-gigabyte (one-petabyte) storage facility. To provide control of the observation system to the occupants of the house, eight touch-activated displays were wall-mounted throughout the house to allow for stopping and starting video and or audio recording, and also erase any number of minutes permanently from the system. Audio recording was turned off throughout the house at night after the child was asleep. Data was gathered at an average rate of 200 gigabytes per day, necessitating the development of sophisticated data-mining tools to reduce analysis efforts to a manageable level, and transcribing significant speech added a labor-intensive dimension.

References

External links Deb Roy's MIT home page Article in New Scientist Article in Wired Magazine Language Acquisition, (draft), Steven Pinker of MIT. TED talk about the project by Deb Roy

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Human Speechome Project

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Human Speechome Project claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Human Speechome Project before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Human Speechome Project ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Human Speechome Project

In research: Human Speechome Project appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Human Speechome Project in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Human Speechome Project is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Language acquisition, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Human Speechome Project outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Human Speechome Project in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Human Speechome Project means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Human Speechome Project out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Human Speechome Project in simple terms?

Why does Human Speechome Project matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Human Speechome Project?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Human Speechome Project.