• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2011

Recently, usability has become very important in voice user interface systems. In this paper, we have designed and implemented a wizard-of-oz (WOZ) usability testing tool for command-and-control voice user interfaces. We have proposed the VUIDML (Voice User Interface Design Markup Language) to design the usability test scenario of command-and-control voice interfaces in the early design stages. For highly satisfactory voice user interfaces, we have to select highly preferred voice commands and prompts. In VUIDML, we can specify possible prompt candidates. The WOZ usability testing tool can also be used to collect user-preferred voice commands and feedback from real users.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.467-474
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• 2007

This paper documents the design and implementation of an automatic creating web-site tool for the blind to build their own homepage by using both voice recognition and voice mixed technology with equal ease as the non-disabled. The blind can make voice mails, schedules, address lists and bookmarks by making use of the tool. It also facilitates communication between the non-disabled with the help of their information management system. This tool converts basic commands into voice recognition, also making an offer of text-to-speech which supports voice output. In the end, the tool will remove the blind's social isolation, allowing them to enjoy the information age like the non-disabled.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.167-173
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Top-down restoration of distorted speech, tapped as phonemic restoration of speech in noise, maybe a useful tool to understand robustness of perception in adverse listening situations. However, the relationship between phonemic restoration and speech perception in noise is not empirically clear. Subjects and Methods: 20 adults (40-55 years) with normal audiometric findings were part of the study. Sentence perception in noise performance was studied with various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) to estimate the SNR with 50% score. Performance was also measured for sentences interrupted with silence and for those interrupted by speech noise at -10, -5, 0, and 5 dB SNRs. The performance score in the noise interruption condition was subtracted by quiet interruption condition to determine the phonemic restoration magnitude. Results: Fairly robust improvements in speech intelligibility was found when the sentences were interrupted with speech noise instead of silence. Improvement with increasing noise levels was non-monotonic and reached a maximum at -10 dB SNR. Significant correlation between speech perception in noise performance and phonemic restoration of sentences interrupted with -10 dB SNR speech noise was found. Conclusions: It is possible that perception of speech in noise is associated with top-down processing of speech, tapped as phonemic restoration of interrupted speech. More research with a larger sample size is indicated since the restoration is affected by the type of speech material and noise used, age, working memory, and linguistic proficiency, and has a large individual variability.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.167-173
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Top-down restoration of distorted speech, tapped as phonemic restoration of speech in noise, maybe a useful tool to understand robustness of perception in adverse listening situations. However, the relationship between phonemic restoration and speech perception in noise is not empirically clear. Subjects and Methods: 20 adults (40-55 years) with normal audiometric findings were part of the study. Sentence perception in noise performance was studied with various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) to estimate the SNR with 50% score. Performance was also measured for sentences interrupted with silence and for those interrupted by speech noise at -10, -5, 0, and 5 dB SNRs. The performance score in the noise interruption condition was subtracted by quiet interruption condition to determine the phonemic restoration magnitude. Results: Fairly robust improvements in speech intelligibility was found when the sentences were interrupted with speech noise instead of silence. Improvement with increasing noise levels was non-monotonic and reached a maximum at -10 dB SNR. Significant correlation between speech perception in noise performance and phonemic restoration of sentences interrupted with -10 dB SNR speech noise was found. Conclusions: It is possible that perception of speech in noise is associated with top-down processing of speech, tapped as phonemic restoration of interrupted speech. More research with a larger sample size is indicated since the restoration is affected by the type of speech material and noise used, age, working memory, and linguistic proficiency, and has a large individual variability.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 2000

Examination of the vibrations of the vocal fold is very important in patients with voice changes. The newly developed videokymography (VKG) takes images in real time and records irregular vibrations of the vocal fold. However, there are few data on VKG findings. We studied VKG to evaluate the vibratory characteristics of the vocal fold in benign vocal fold lesions. Unique vibratory patterns, blurred demarcation of the mucosal propagation, decreased margin amplitudes, asymmetry in phase or amplitude, and a level difference of the contact site were observed in each benign vocal-fold lesion. We conclude that each type of laryngeal lesion has specific characteristic which are revealed by VKG examination, these parameters can be quantified and used to objectively evaluate VKG findings. Based on these results, VKG can be used as a supplementary diagnostic tool.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 2009.01a
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• pp.441-445
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• 2009

We have developed a real-time software tool to extract a speech feature vector whose time sequences consist of three groups of vector components; the phonetic/acoustic features such as formant frequencies, the phonemic features as outputs on neural networks, and some distances of Japanese phonemes. In those features, since the phoneme distances for Japanese five vowels are applicable to express vowel articulation, we have designed a switch, a volume control and a color representation which are operated by pronouncing vowel sounds. As examples of those vowel interface, we have developed some speech training tools to display a image character or a rolling color ball and to control a cursor's movement for aurally- or vocally-handicapped children. In this paper, we introduce the functions and the principle of those systems.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.220-225
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• 2020

This paper investigates the non-intrusive speech intelligibility estimation method in noise environments when the bottleneck feature of autoencoder is used as an input to a neural network. The bottleneck feature-based method has the problem of severe performance degradation when the noise environment is changed. In order to overcome this problem, we propose a novel non-intrusive speech intelligibility estimation method that adds the noise environment information along with bottleneck feature to the input of long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network whose output is a short-time objective intelligence (STOI) score that is a standard tool for measuring intrusive speech intelligibility with reference speech signals. From the experiments in various noise environments, the proposed method showed improved performance when the noise environment is same. In particular, the performance was significant improved compared to that of the conventional methods in different environments. Therefore, we can conclude that the method proposed in this paper can be successfully used for estimating non-intrusive speech intelligibility in various noise environments.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2009

This study investigated the determination of speech rates, words per minute (WPM) and syllables per minute (SPM), of $5{\sim}7$ year-old normal children to understand if there are any differences in the rates according to the children's age and sex. All participants were required to conduct story retelling tasks (SRT) and picture description tasks (PDT). In SRT, there was a significant difference between the groups of 5 year-old and 7 year-old children on WPM. However, there was no significant difference between the groups of ages regarding SPM. In addition, there was no significant difference between the groups according to sex on WPM and SPM. In PDT, there was no significant difference between the groups according to their ages and sex on WPM and SPM. The current research found that the speech rates of the preschool children might be somewhat different in their utterance abilities according to their age, but there was no obvious difference according to their sex. The findings can advance development of a clinical tool to screen children with fluency disorders and to determine the steps in establishing speech rates of children in the language development period.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: Music listening has a concomitant effect on structural and functional organization of the brain. It helps in relaxation, mind training and neural strengthening. In relation to it, the present study was aimed to find the effect of Carnatic music listening training (MLT) on speech in noise performance in adults. Subjects and Methods: A total of 28 participants (40-70 years) were recruited in the study. Based on randomized control trial, they were divided into intervention and control group. Intervention group underwent a short-term MLT. Quick Speech-in-Noise in Kannada was used as an outcome measure. Results: Results were analysed using mixed method analysis of variance (ANOVA) and repeated measures ANOVA. There was a significant difference between intervention and control group post MLT. The results of the second continuum revealed no statistically significant difference between post training and follow-up scores in both the groups. Conclusions: In conclusion short-term MLT resulted in betterment of speech in noise performance. MLT can be hence used as a viable tool in formal auditory training for better prognosis.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: Music listening has a concomitant effect on structural and functional organization of the brain. It helps in relaxation, mind training and neural strengthening. In relation to it, the present study was aimed to find the effect of Carnatic music listening training (MLT) on speech in noise performance in adults. Subjects and Methods: A total of 28 participants (40-70 years) were recruited in the study. Based on randomized control trial, they were divided into intervention and control group. Intervention group underwent a short-term MLT. Quick Speech-in-Noise in Kannada was used as an outcome measure. Results: Results were analysed using mixed method analysis of variance (ANOVA) and repeated measures ANOVA. There was a significant difference between intervention and control group post MLT. The results of the second continuum revealed no statistically significant difference between post training and follow-up scores in both the groups. Conclusions: In conclusion short-term MLT resulted in betterment of speech in noise performance. MLT can be hence used as a viable tool in formal auditory training for better prognosis.