• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.337-342
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• 1996

In prevoius works we have repored phonetic similarities between Japanese and Spanish voweis and syiiabic sounds. (1) (2) (3) (4). In the present communication we explore the relative importance of duration of the consonantal segment to elicit Spanish /l/ - /r/ distinction by native j Japanese talkers. Three Argentine and three trained native Japanese talkers recorded /l-r/ combined with /a/ in VCV sequences. Modifications of consonant duration and vowel context with transitions were m made by editing natural /ala/ sounds. Mixed VCV were produced by combining sounds of both languages. Perceptual tests were produced by combining sounds of both languages perceptual performed presenting the speech material, to native t trained and non trained Japanese listeners. In a tirst sessIOn a d discrimination procedure was applied. The items were arranged in pairs a and listeners Nere told to indicate the pair that sounded different. In the f following session they were asked to identify and type the letter corresponding to each one of the items. Responses arc examined in tenns of critical duration of the interval between vowels. Preliminary results indicate that the duration of intervocalic intervais was a relevant cue for the identification of /l/ and /r/. It seems that to differentiate the two sounds, Japanese listeners required relatively longer interval steps than the argentine suhjects. There was a tendency to conhlse more frequently /l/ for /r/ than viceversa.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.333-336
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• 1996

It is widely known that the Japanese alveolar nasal (n) is affected by adjacent vowels in most positions, that is, the variants of the alveolar (n) occur conditionally. The Japanese (n) is palatalized under the influence of vowel (i) or palatal (j). In the articulation of (ni), for instance, the tip and sides of the tongue make wide contact with the palate. It is interesting to know how palatalization occurs and varies during the production in different contexts. In my presentation, the actual realization of the palatalized alveolar nasal in different contexts is examined and clarified by consider me the Electro-palatographic data and examining the articulatory feel ins and auditory impression. As a result, palatalized (equation omitted) occurs either word-initially or inter-vocalically. (equation omitted) in (equation omitted) and (equation omitted) has great palatality. When conditioned by (j), the (equation omitted) in (equation omitted), (equation omitted) and (equation omitted) has full palatality. In each sound the average number of contacted electrodes of the Electro-palatograph at maximum tongue-palate contact is 63 or 100% of the total. To summarize the experimental data, articulatory feel ins and auditory impression, it can be concluded that the (n) followed by or hemmed in (i), (j) is a palatalized nasal (equation omitted).

• MALSORI
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• no.31_32
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• pp.223-238
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• 1996

It is widely hewn that the Japanese alveolar nasal [n] is affected by adjacent vowels in most positions, that is, the variants of the alveolar [n] occur conditionally. The Japanese [n] is palatalized under the influence of vowel [i] or palatal [j]. In the articulation of 'に', for instance, the tip and sides of the tongue make wide contact with the palate. It is interesting to know how palatalization occurs and varies during the production in different contexts. In my presentation the actual realization of the palatalized alveolar nasal in different contexts is examined and clarified by considering the Electro-palatographic data and examining the articulatory feeling and auditory impression. As a result, palatalized [${\eta}$] occurs either word-initially- or inter-vocalically. [${\eta}$] in [${\eta}$i] and 'いに'[$i{\eta}$] has great palatality. When conditioned by [j], the [${\eta}$] in 'にゃ'[${\eta}$ja], 'にょ'[${\eta}jo$] and 'にゅ'[${\eta}jw$] has full palatality. In each sound the average number of contacted electrodes of the Electro-palatograph at maximum tongue-palate contact is 63 or 100% of the total. To summarize the experimental data, articulatory feeling and auditory impression, it can be concluded that 'the [n] followed by or hemmed in [i], [j] is a palatalized nasal [${\eta}$].

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2016

This paper describes an automatic vowel sequence reproduction system for a talking robot built to reproduce the human voice based on the working behavior of the human articulatory system. A sound analysis system is developed to record a sentence spoken by a human (mainly vowel sequences in the Japanese language) and to then analyze that sentence to give the correct command packet so the talking robot can repeat it. An algorithm based on a short-time energy method is developed to separate and count sound phonemes. A matching template using partial correlation coefficients (PARCOR) is applied to detect a voice in the talking robot's database similar to the spoken voice. Combining the sound separation and counting the result with the detection of vowels in human speech, the talking robot can reproduce a vowel sequence similar to the one spoken by the human. Two tests to verify the working behavior of the robot are performed. The results of the tests indicate that the robot can repeat a sequence of vowels spoken by a human with an average success rate of more than 60%.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2014

This article represents a first step in a large study aimed at elucidating the relationship between production and perception involved in sound change of /o/ in (Seoul) Korean. In this paper we present the results of a production study and a perception experiment. For the production study we examined vowel production data of 20 young adult speakers, measuring the first and second formants, then conducted a discriminant analysis based on those values. In terms of their F1-F2 values, the distribution of /o/ and /u/ were close, and even overlapping in some circumstances, which is consistent with the literature. This tendency was more apparent among the female speakers than the males. Moreover, with the females' distributions, /o/ was frequently categorized as /u/, suggesting that the direction of the sound change is indeed increasing from /o/ to /u/. Next, to investigate the effects of this proximity on perception, we used the production data of five randomly selected speakers from the production study as stimuli for a perception experiment in which 21 young adult native speakers of (Seoul) Korean performed a vowel identification task and provided a Goodness rating on a 5-point scale. We found that while rates of correctness were high, when these correctness scores were weighted by the Goodness rating, these "weighted correctness" scores were lower in some cases, indicating a degree of confusion in distinguishing between the two vowels.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.499-508
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• 2022

A lot of research has been carried out on the Hangeul generation model using deep learning, and recently, research is being carried out how to minimize the number of characters input to generate one set of Hangul (Few-Shot Learning). In this paper, we propose a CKFont2 model using only 14 letters by analyzing and improving the CKFont (hereafter CKFont1) model using 28 letters. The CKFont2 model improves the performance of the CKFont1 model as a model that generates all Hangul using only 14 characters including 24 components (14 consonants and 10 vowels), where the CKFont1 model generates all Hangul by extracting 51 Hangul components from 28 characters. It uses the minimum number of characters for currently known models. From the basic consonants/vowels of Hangul, 27 components such as 5 double consonants, 11/11 compound consonants/vowels respectively are learned by deep learning and generated, and the generated 27 components are combined with 24 basic consonants/vowels. All Hangul characters are automatically generated from the combined 51 components. The superiority of the performance was verified by comparative analysis with results of the zi2zi, CKFont1, and MX-Font model. It is an efficient and effective model that has a simple structure and saves time and resources, and can be extended to Chinese, Thai, and Japanese.

• MALSORI
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• no.65
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• pp.13-36
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• 2008

This paper attempts to analyze the characteristics of Korean vowel production by 12 Korean native speakers and 36 adult learners. The analyses have been performed with investigations of F1and F2 values. Results showed that there's no significant difference between /ㅔ/ and /H/ and between /ㅗ/ and /ㅜ/ in Korean native speakers' pronunciations. The distinguishing tendencies found in the analyses of foreign learners' pronunciations are fronting and lowering of /ㅗ/ by English speakers, backing and heightening of /ㅓ/ by Japanese speakers and backing and lowering of /ㅏ/ by Chinese speakers. For the limitations of this paper, it has a meaning of a preliminary study and could be developed into further research to show the order of acquisition and L1 transference.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.7-16
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• 2000

It is a great honour for me to speak to you today on the Korean's problems in learning English pronunciation. First of all I would like to thank Prof. H. B. Lee, President of the Phonetic Society of Korea for calling upon me to make a keynote speech at this International Conference on Phonetic Sciences. The year before last when the 1 st Joint Summit on English Phonetics was held at Aichi Gakuin University in Japan, the warm hospitality given to me and my colleagues by the English Phonetic Society of Japan was so great that I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the English Phonetic Society of Japan and especially to Prof. Masaki Tsuzuki, President of the Society. Korean learners of English have a lot of problems in learning English pronunciation. Some vowel problems seem to be shared by Japanese learners but other problems, especially in consonants, are peculiar to Koreans owing to the nature of phonological rules peculiar to the Korean language. Of course, there are other important problems like speech rhythm and intonation besides vowels and consonants. But they will not be included here because of limited time.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1993.06a
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• pp.903-906
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• 1993

Lipreading through visual processing techniques help provide some useful systems for the hearing impaired to learn communication assistance. This paper proposes a method to understand spoken words by using visual images taken by a camera with a video-digitizer. The image is processed to obtain the contours of lip, which is approximated into a hexagon. The pattern lists, consisting of lengths and angles of hexagon, are compared and computed to get the fuzzy similarity between two lists. By similarity matching, the mouth shape is recognized as the one which has the pronounced voice. Some experiments, exemplified by recognition of the Japanese vowels, are given to show feasibilities of this method.