Template-Based Speech Recognition Using Pre-trained Large Speech Models for Voice-Activated Shower Control

Hands-free control of shower settings, such as temperature, is highly desirable, enhancing user convenience when both hands are occupied or eyes are closed. In this paper, we propose a speaker-dependent, template-based isolated word recognition system using pre-trained large speech models (LSMs) to realize voice-activated shower control with a single microphone. Specifically, we examine the performance of 3 LSMs (wav2vec2.0, HuBERT, WavLM) as well as conventional MFCC as features. Additionally, we investigate speech enhancement using a Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (CRN) to improve robustness against shower noise. Our experiments for recognizing 30 words with SNRs ranging from -5 dB to 20 dB demonstrate that HuBERT achieves the highest recognition accuracy (77.8 to 95.6%). CRN, on the other hand, improved recognition accuracy only under -5 dB conditions, but its accuracy was only 80.8%.