Welcome! Here at Lee Laboratory of Nagoya Institute of Technology, we focus on human-to-human and human-to-machine communication through speech and language, and are conducting research on speech recognition, spoken dialogue systems, natural language processing, speech-based interaction, and avatar communication. Our goal is to advance technologies related to spoken language processing and to realize highly sophisticated, voice- and language-driven man–machine interfaces that are truly natural and user-friendly for everyone.

Our research topic involves:

  • Speech recognition and synthesis
  • Spoken dialogue system
  • Natural language processing
  • CG based humanoid agent interaction
  • Avatar communication

Lee Lab is running in collaboration with Sako laboratory. We also have a cooperative relationship with Tokuda, Nankaku and Hashimoto Laboratory.

About the PI

Professor

LEE Akinobu

Professor

LEE Akinobu was born in Kyoto, Japan, on December 19, 1972. He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in information science, and the Ph.D. degree in informatics from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1996, 1998 and 2000, respectively. He worked on Nara Institute of Science and Technology as an assistance professor from 2000-2005. Currently he is a professor of Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. His research interests include speech recognition, spoken language understanding, and spoken dialogue system. He is a member of IEEE, ISCA, JSAI, IPSJ and the Acoustical Society of Japan.

He is also a researcher who loves coding and has been involved in open-source activities for over 25 years. Below is a list of open-source software and CG avatars for which he serves as the lead developer:

  • ASR engine Julius (from 1996)
  • CG Agent Interaction Toolkit MMDAgent (2011～)
  • Extended version for CG Avatar interaction: MMDAgent-EX MMDAgent-EX (2020～)
  • High-quality Open CG Avatars: Gene and Uka (2023～)

News and Posts

VRM version of our CG Avatar is now on VRoid Hub

Information
We’ve started uploading VRM version of our CG avatars on VRoid Hub. Lab’s page on VRoid Hub “Gene” and “Uka” models are set to public, so you can use them with vroid-enabled tools. Models are provided with CC-BY 4.0 license, and “Gene” has additional restriction for commercial use. Please consult CG avatars page for details.

New CG avatar: Nirva

Information
A New CG-CA “Nirva” has been released, designed by an illustrator Mai Yoneyama. CG-CA Nirva The CG-CA page has also been updated to have system information.

New members joined on 2024

Event
Following members has been joined to Lee and Sako lab on this April. 池田 康希 / IKEDA Kouki (M1) 黄 永展 / HUANG Yongzhan (M1) 阪上 聡吾 / SAKAUE Sogo 清水 誠広 / SHIMIZU Masahiro 鈴木 颯真 / SUZUKI Soma 鈴木 萌々音 / SUZUKI Momone 仲田 樹 / NAKADA Itsuki 星野 琴未 / HOSHINO Kotomi 箕成 侑音 / MINARI Yukito 山田 航暉 / YAMADA Koki 𠮷田 拓実 / YOSHIDA Takumi

We have released MMDAgent-EX

Information
We have released MMDAgent-EX, our open-source platform for CG avatar based spoken dialogue system, multimodal dialogue and avatar communication. Links: Press release (by NITech, in Japanese) Official site GitHub

New members joined on 2023

Event
Following members has been joined to Lee and Sako lab on this April. 吉村 涼平 / YOSHIMURA Ryohei 齋藤 大輔 / SAITO Daisuke 岡本 海 / Umi OKAMOTO 笠間 健太郎 / Kentaro KASAMA 月東 菜乃 / Nano GATTO 金子 優 / Yu KANEKO 酒井 健壱 / Kenichi SAKAI 目瀬 道瑛 / Michiaki MESE 嶋崎 純一 / Junichi SHIMAZAKI 伊藤 誠一郎 / Seiichiro ITO 梅田 唯花 / Yuika UMEDA 鈴木 香保 / Kaho SUZUKI

New members joined on 2022

Event
Following members has been joined to Lee and Sako lab on this April. 磯谷 光 / ISOGAI Hikaru (M1) LOURENCO CORREA Iago / LOURENCO CORREA Iago (M1) 市川 奎吾 / ICHIKAWA Keigo 柄澤 光一朗 / KARASAWA Koichiro 川地 奎多 / KAWACHI Keita 川又 朱莉 / KAWAMATA Akari 中野 俊輔 / NAKANO Syunsuke 藤岡 侑貴 / FUJIOKA Yuki 三浦 麻登伊 / MIURA Matoi 吉村 涼平 / YOSHIMURA Ryohei 神田 陸人 / KANDA Rikuto 木全 亮太朗 / KIMATA Ryotaro 齋藤 大輔 / SAITO Daisuke