• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.209-216
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• 1992

Deafs train articulation by observing mouth of a tutor, sensing tactually the motions of the vocal organs, or using speech training aids. Present speech training aids for deafs can measure only single speech parameter, or display only frequency spectra in histogram of pseudo-color. In this study, a speech training aids that can display subject's articulation in the form of a cross section of the vocal organs and other speech parameters together in a single system is to be developed and this system makes a subject know where to correct. For our objective, first, speech production mechanism is assumed to be AR model in order to estimate articulatory motions of the vocal organs from speech signal. Next, a vocal tract profile model using LP analysis is made up. And using this model, articulatory motions for Korean vowels are estimated and displayed in the vocal tract profile graphics.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.345-352
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• 1995

The LPC cepstrum coefficients, which are an acoustic features of speech signal, have been widely used as the feature parameter for various speech recognition systems and showed good performance. The vocal tract area function is a kind of articulatory feature, which is related with the physiological mechanism of speech production. This paper proposes the vocal tract area function as an alternative feature parameter for speech recognition. The linear predictive analysis using Burg algorithm and the vector quantization are performed. Then, recognition experiments for 5 Korean vowels and 10 digits are executed using the conventional LPC cepstrum coefficients and the vocal tract area function. The recognitions using the area function showed the slightly better results than those using the conventional LPC cepstrum coefficients.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.11b
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• pp.215-218
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• 2003

The method of vocal tract normalization has been known as a successful method for improving the accuracy of speech recognition. A frequency warping procedure based low complexity and maximum likelihood has been generally applied for vocal tract normalization. In this paper, we propose a new power spectrum warping procedure that can be improve on vocal tract normalization performance than a frequency warping procedure. A mechanism for implementing this method can be simply achieved by modifying the power spectrum of filter bank in Mel-frequency cepstrum feature(MFCC) analysis. Experimental study compared our Proposal method with the well-known frequency warping method. The results have shown that the power spectrum warping is better 50% about the recognition performance than the frequency warping.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2019

Background and Objectives : Functional aphonia is characterized by incomplete closure of the vocal folds. Semi-occluded vocal tract exercise (SOVTE) allows smoothly vocal folds collision without damage to the vocal folds tissues to produce normal vocal intensity. The purpose of this study is to report the effect of SOVTE in patients with functional aphonia. Materials and Method : Seven patients diagnosed with functional aphonia were treated with 1-3 voice therapy sessions using voiced lip-trill, humming, Lax Vox in SOVTE. To assess the effectiveness of semi-occluded vocal tract exercise, cepstral analysis and auditory perceptual assessment were performed before and after voice therapy. Results : F0 (fundamental frequency), CPP (cepstral peak prominence) and L/H ratio (low/high spectral ratio) were significantly increased, while CPP Standard deviation, L/H ratio Standard deviation were decreased. In addition, 'Grade', 'Breathiness' and 'Asthenia' were significantly decreased in the GRBAS scale after SOVTE (p<0.05). Conclusion : In our study, SOVTE seemed to be effective to elicit voice quickly and promote vocal folds vibration without muscular effort in patients with functional aphonia.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.19-34
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• 1998

The author collected and compared midsagittal, coronal, coronal oblique, and transversal images of Korean monophthongs /a, i, e, o, u, i, v/ produced by a healthy male speaker using 1.5 T MR, VISION. Area was measured by computer software after tracing the cross-section at different points along the tract. Results showed that the width of the oral and pharyngeal cavities varied compensatorily from each other on the midsagittal dimension. Formant frequency values estimated from the area functions of the seven vowels showed a strong correlation (r=0.978) with those analyzed from the spoken vowels. Moreover, almost all of 35 students who listened to the synthesized vowels from area data perceived the synthesized vowels as equivalent to the spoken ones. Movement of constriction points of vowel /u/ with wider lip opening sounded /i/ and led to slight changes in vowel quality. Jaw and tongue movement led to major volume variation with an anatomical limitation. Each comer vowel varied systematically from a somewhat constant volume of the average area. Thus, the author proposed that any simulation studies related to vocal tract area variation should reflect its constant volume. The results may be helpful to verify exact measurement of the vocal tract area through vowel synthesis and a simulation study before having any operation of the vocal tract.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 1997

Total laryngectomy has become an usual treatment for any advanced carcinoma of the laynx, but most patients who have undergone total laryngectomy have shown permanant disability in voice production. I compared the first three formant frequencies estimated from MRI to those measured directly from speech data of the T-E patients and the normal. It was to estimate the accuracy of MRI and to compare the vocal tract shape of the normal to T-E patients. The obtained results were as follows : 1. The middle sagittle section of the MRI represents vocal tract well during pnonation. The vocal tract shape of the T-E shunt patients are lack of pharyngeal space and superior space of the glottis. 2. The length of the normal subject's vocal tract is 17 cm. For the T-E shunt patients, the length from lip to shunt opening is 17.5 cm in case 1, and 18.5 cm in case 2. That of the true resonante chamber is 13 cm and 13.5 cm for each case respectively. 3. T-E shunt patients phonated strained voice. The intensity of the higher formant frequency decreased especially in /o/, /u/. 4. The vocal tract is shortened during the phonation by T-E shunt patients. In case of /e/ and /i/, front cavities are constricted while back cavities are shortened. 5. The pseudoglottis of the T-E shunt patients is located at $14{\sim}15\;cm$ below from lips.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 1992

Development of Integrated Speech Training Aids for Hearing Impaired In this study, a spepch lralnlng aids that can do real-time display of vocal tract shape and other speech parameters together in a single system is implemenLed and self-training program for this system is developed. To estimate vocal tract shape, speech production process is assumed to be AR model. Through LPC analysis, vocal tract shape, intensity, and log spcclrum are calculated. And, fundamental frequency and nasality are measured using vibration sensors.

• MALSORI
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• no.41
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• pp.31-47
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to explain the cause of obsturents neutralization in syllable final position. Most of the previous phonological studies did not reflect phonetic reality sufficiently because of the limited use of the binary feature system. Using binary distinctive features, we can't explain the cause of neutralization. In order to explain the cause of neutralization, I use the multi-valued phonetic feature -[vocal tract aperture]. By [vocal tract aperture] I mean the distance between articulators in the hold stage. In this study, I claim that the cause of neutralization is assimilation to [vocal tract aperture] 0 degree. The neutralized sounds become aplosives, as a consequence of assimilation to [vocal tract aperture].

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1990.07a
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• pp.47-50
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• 1990

Deafs cannot speak straight voice as normal people in lack of feedback of their pronunciation, therefore speech training is required. In this study, fundamental frequency, intensity, formant frequencies, vocal tract graphic and vocal tract area function, extracted from speech signal, are used as feature parameter. AR model, whose coefficients are extracted using inverse filtering. is used as speech generation model. In connect ion between vocal tract graphic and speech parameter, articulation distances and articulation distance functions in selected 15-intervals are determined by extracted vocal tract areas and formant frequencies.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.185-188
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• 2005

We presents a new method for the measurement and analysis of the volume of the vocal tract using 3D magnetic resonance image. The relative ratios of volume A, B, and C, which are divided by the 2constriction points formed on the horizontal and vertical plane in vocal tract, take a decisive role indiscriminating Korean monophthong. Together with Fl-F2 and the minimum cross sectional area in the vocal tract, the relative ratios of the regional volumes were proved to be significant parameter in statistic viewpoint.