mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Few-Shot Keyword Spotting in Any Language

arXiv 2104.01454 ↗First posted 3 Apr 2021cs.CL eess.AScited by 27

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Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce a few-shot transfer learning method for keyword spotting in any language. Leveraging open speech corpora in nine languages, we automate the extraction of a large multilingual keyword bank and use it to train an embedding model. With just five training examples, we fine-tune the embedding model for keyword spotting and achieve an average F1 score of 0.75 on keyword classification for 180 new keywords unseen by the embedding model in these nine languages. This embedding model also generalizes to new languages. We achieve an average F1 score of 0.65 on 5-shot models for 260 keywords sampled across 13 new languages unseen by the embedding model. We investigate streaming accuracy for our 5-shot models in two contexts: keyword spotting and keyword search. Across 440 keywords in 22 languages, we achieve an average streaming keyword spotting accuracy of 87.4% with a false acceptance rate of 4.3%, and observe promising initial results on keyword search.

Key facts. Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 13 of its 23 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Apr 2021.

Builds on

13 of 23 references.

References · 13

  1. 2017Prototypical Networks for Few-shot Learningcited by 3,001
  2. 2019Common Voice: A Massively-Multilingual Speech Corpuscited by 1,358
  3. 2019SpecAugment: A Simple Data Augmentation Method for Automatic Speech Recognitioncited by 1,355
  4. 2018Speech Commands: A Dataset for Limited-Vocabulary Speech Recognitioncited by 741
  5. 2017Self-Normalizing Neural Networkscited by 591
  6. 2020TensorFlow Lite Micro: Embedded Machine Learning on TinyML Systemscited by 161
  7. 2017Hello Edge: Keyword Spotting on Microcontrollerscited by 108
  8. 2017Deep Residual Learning for Small-Footprint Keyword Spottingcited by 68
  9. 2021Query-by-Example Keyword Spotting system using Multi-head Attention and Softtriple Losscited by 25
  10. 2020Training Keyword Spotters with Limited and Synthesized Speech Datacited by 20
  11. 2019Predicting detection filters for small footprint open-vocabulary keyword spottingcited by 10
  12. 2018Fast ASR-free and almost zero-resource keyword spotting using DTW and CNNs for humanitarian monitoringcited by 7
1 more
  1. 2018Multilingual bottleneck features for subword modeling in zero-resource languagescited by 3

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 1; 2022: 5; 2023: 6; 2024: 5; 2025: 7; 2026: 3.

27 papers.

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  1. 2022DataPerf: Benchmarks for Data-Centric AI Developmentcited by 89
  2. 2024Tiny Machine Learning: Progress and Futurescited by 40
  3. 2023The taste of IPA: Towards open-vocabulary keyword spotting and forced alignment in any languagecited by 14
  4. 2023Few-Shot Open-Set Learning for On-Device Customization of KeyWord Spotting Systemscited by 9
  5. 2022Progressive Continual Learning for Spoken Keyword Spottingcited by 8
  6. 2022Rainbow Keywords: Efficient Incremental Learning for Online Spoken Keyword Spottingcited by 8
  7. 2024Self-Learning for Personalized Keyword Spotting on Ultra-Low-Power Audio Sensorscited by 7
  8. 2021What shall we do with an hour of data? Speech recognition for the un- and under-served languages of Common Voicecited by 5
  9. 2025From Tiny Machine Learning to Tiny Deep Learning: A Surveycited by 5
  10. 2022On the Efficiency of Integrating Self-supervised Learning and Meta-learning for User-defined Few-shot Keyword Spottingcited by 4
  11. 2025AnalyticKWS: Towards Exemplar-Free Analytic Class Incremental Learning for Small-footprint Keyword Spottingcited by 4
  12. 2023Locale Encoding For Scalable Multilingual Keyword Spotting Modelscited by 3
15 more
  1. 2023Latent Phrase Matching for Dysarthric Speechcited by 2
  2. 2024Text-Aware Adapter for Few-Shot Keyword Spottingcited by 2
  3. 2023Exploring Representation Learning for Small-Footprint Keyword Spottingcited by 1
  4. 2024Efficiently Identifying Low-Quality Language Subsets in Multilingual Datasets: A Case Study on a Large-Scale Multilingual Audio Datasetcited by 1
  5. 2025Enhancing Few-shot Keyword Spotting Performance through Pre-Trained Self-supervised Speech Modelscited by 1
  6. 2022Nonverbal Sound Detection for Disordered Speechcited by 0
  7. 2023Plug-and-Play Multilingual Few-shot Spoken Words Recognitioncited by 0
  8. 2024SLiCK: Exploiting Subsequences for Length-Constrained Keyword Spottingcited by 0
  9. 2025Noise-Agnostic Multitask Whisper Training for Reducing False Alarm Errors in Call-for-Help Detectioncited by 0
  10. 2025A Comprehensive Survey of Challenges and Opportunities of Few-Shot Learning Across Multiple Domainscited by 0
  11. 2025PatchDSU: Uncertainty Modeling for Out of Distribution Generalization in Keyword Spottingcited by 0
  12. 2025Zero-Shot KWS for Children's Speech using Layer-Wise Features from SSL Modelscited by 0
  13. 2026EdgeSpot: Efficient and High-Performance Few-Shot Model for Keyword Spottingcited by 0
  14. 2026Does language matter for spoken word classification? A multilingual generative meta-learning approachcited by 0
  15. 2026Versatile On-device Adaptation at the Edge by Unifying Few-shot, Zero-shot, Continual, and In-context Learningcited by 0