Topic Segmentation Using Generative Language Models

Topic segmentation using generative Large Language Models (LLMs) remains relatively unexplored. Previous methods use semantic similarity between sentences, but such models lack the long range dependencies and vast knowledge found in LLMs. In this work, we propose an overlapping and recursive prompting strategy using sentence enumeration. We also support the adoption of the boundary similarity evaluation metric. Results show that LLMs can be more effective segmenters than existing methods, but issues remain to be solved before they can be relied upon for topic segmentation.

Chord Recognition with Deep Learning

Progress in automatic chord recognition has been slow since the advent of deep learning in the field. To understand why, I conduct experiments on existing methods and test hypotheses enabled by recent developments in generative models. Findings show that chord classifiers perform poorly on rare chords and that pitch augmentation boosts accuracy. Features extracted from generative models do not help and synthetic data presents an exciting avenue for future work. I conclude by improving the interpretability of model outputs with beat detection, reporting some of the best results in the field and providing qualitative analysis. Much work remains to solve automatic chord recognition, but I hope this thesis will chart a path for others to try.

CNNs for Style Transfer of Digital to Film Photography

The use of deep learning in stylistic effect generation has seen increasing use over recent years. In this work, we use simple convolutional neural networks to model Cinestill800T film given a digital input. We test the effect of different loss functions, the addition of an input noise channel and the use of random scales of patches during training. We find that a combination of MSE/VGG loss gives the best colour production and that some grain can be produced, but it is not of a high quality, and no halation is produced. We contribute our dataset of aligned paired images taken with a film and digital camera for further work.