• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.63-69
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the maximum and optimal listening speed of Korean TTS for the blind. Five blind participants took part in this study. The instruments used in this study were 17 sentence sets (2 sets for an excercise, 10 sets for a repeated test, and 5 sets for a random test), with short meaningful sentences (the same sentences for the repeated test, different sentences for the random test) with 15 differentiated speeds (Range=0.8-3.6, SD=0.2). Each participant's maximum and quickest listening speeds were calculated by objective recall accuracy (determined by the number of correctly recalled syllables/the total number of syllables in a sentence X 100) and subjective recall accuracy (recall accuracy judged by each participant's subjective evaluation). The results showed that the participants' recall accuracy had a tendency to increase as the TTS speed decreased. Participants' subjective recall accuracy was higher than objective recall accuracy in the repeated tests and vice versa in the random tests. The results also revealed that the participants' sentence familiarity had an influence on their Korean TTS listening speed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4E
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• pp.139-143
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• 2005

The present study aims to investigate the effects of speaker location on the speech intelligibility in a classroom. In order to this, acoustic measurements were undertaken in a classroom with three different sound source locations such as center of front wall (FC), both sides of front wall (FS) and the center of ceiling (CC). SPL, RT, $D_{50}$, RASTI were measured in the 9 measurement points with same sound power level of sound source and MLS was used as the sound source signal. Also, subjective listening tests were carried out using Korean language listening materials which were recorded in an anechoic chamber. The recorded syllables were replayed and recorded again in the classroom with same sound source at three different locations and listening tests were undertaken to 20 respondents who were asked to write the correct syllables which were recorded in the classroom. The results show that higher sound intelligibility ($D_{50}$ of $47\%$, RASTI of 0.56) was obtained when sound source was located at the FS. The results also show that high sound intelligibility was obtained at the area nearby walls.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.2479-2488
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• 1994

In this paper, a new dynamic excitation modeling scheme is proposed. Based upon the proposed excitation modeling scheme, two variable bit rate homomorphic vocoders are designed, whose average bit rates are 3.8 Kbps and 4.4 Kbps. The performance of the proposed excitation modeling scheme is then evaluated through the subjective listening tests. In the tests, the performances of two speech coders designed in this paper ate compared with the one of 4.8 Kbps homomorphic vocoder designed by Chung and Schafer, in which conventional static excitation modeling scheme applied. The subjective listening tests show that proposed dynamic excitation modeling scheme improves synthesized speech quality while lowering the average bit rate of speech coders.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.1009-1012
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• 2004

Recently, the concern on sound qualify (SQ) is on the steep increase in the fields of vehicle and home appliance and over the fast few decades a considerable number of studies have been conducted on SQ evaluation. As a result, basic procedure for SQ evaluation has been already suggested. Although most interesting sounds have time-varying features, however, little is known about their SQ evaluation. The purpose of this study is to systematize a method for SQ evaluation of non-stationary sound. For this, various listening tests procedure for non-stationary sound is introduced and it is attempted to find out correlation between various SQ metrics and subjective data obtain from listening test. Booming of car interior noise in acceleration is used as an example and finally, representative value is obtained for the interesting sensation of non-stationary sound.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.448-457
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• 2008

A principal components analysis (PCA) of the median-plane head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) in the CIPIC HRTF database reveals that the individual HRIRs in the median plane can be adequately reconstructed by a linear combination of 12 orthonormal basis functions. These basis functions can be used to model arbitrary median-plane HRIRs, which are not included in the process to obtain the basis functions. Memory size can be reduced up to 5-fold depending on the number of HRIRs to be modeled. To clarify whether these basis functions can be used to model other set of arbitrary median plane HRIRs, a numerical error analysis for modeling and a series of subjective listening tests were carried out using the measured and modeled HRIRs. The results showed that the set of individual HRIRs in the median plane, which were measured in our lab using different measurement conditions, techniques, and source positions, can be modeled with reasonable accuracy. All subjects, involved in the subjective listening test, reported not only the accurate vertical perception but also the front-back discrimination with the modeled HRIRs based on 12 basis functions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.33B no.4
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• pp.156-163
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• 1996

In this paper, we described the implementation and the sound quality assessment of a real-time stereo audio codec using TMS320C40 DSP (digital signal processing) chip for low bitrte and high quality audio. We implemented hardware and software in order to overcome a real-time processing problem of audio compression algorithm that can be produced by largely recursive computing and complexity of the process. We have studied five types of distortion that can be produced by perceptual coding and the codec was evaluated by eight test musics that are selected in SQAM (sound quality assessment material) 422-2-4-2 produced by EBU (european broadcast union). The subjective listening tests were carried out on the codec quality and preformance by double blind method in a listening room with eleven listeners. As a result, 5 grade-impairment scale was scored under minus one and the codec quality was evaluated to be perceptible, but not annoying.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.201-212
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• 2021

The present study was conducted as a pilot investigation to suggest the standards of acoustic performance for classrooms suitable for incomplete hearing people such as children under 9 years of age. Subjective evaluations such as questionnaire and speech intelligibility test were conducted to 264 students at two elementary schools in Cheong-ju in order to analyze the characteristics of the listening environment in the classrooms of the lower grades in elementary school. The survey was undertaken with a total of 264 students at two elementary schools in Cheong-ju, and investigated their satisfaction with the classroom listening environment. As a result, students responded that the most helpful information type for understanding class content is the voice of teacher. In addition, the volume of the current teacher's voice is normal, and the level of clarity is highly satisfactory. As for the acoustic performance of the classroom, the opinion that the noise was normal and the reverberation was very short was found to be dominant in overall satisfaction with the listening environment. Meanwhile, as a result of speech intelligibility test using the word list selected for the lower grade students of elementary school, it could be inferred that the longitudinal axis distance from the sound source in the case of 8-year-olds is a factor that affects speech recognition.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.343-352
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• 2007

The present study aims to investigate the design standard for acoustic criteria of Korean traditional music which could be used for the design of Korean traditional music halls. In order to do this, subjective listening tests were undertaken to musicians using auralized sounds which were convolved with the impulse response of traditional instruments recorded in an anechoic chamber. 94 pairs of sound were made which have different value of acoustic parameters including RT, BR, Brilliance, G, C80, ITDG, IACC. A paired comparison method(PCM) was used to analyze the results from the subjective listening tests. The results show that the preference of acoustic criteria for the Korean traditional music is far different from those of western music. As a result, specific range of acoustic criteria were suggested for the appropriate acoustic conditions of Korean traditional music. Also, a guideline of the acoustic design of halls for performing the Korean traditional music was suggested which could be used as a basic reference in the future works.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.37-46
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• 2001

This paper proposes a new noise suppression method using the Wavelet transform analysis. The noise suppressor using the Wavelet transform shows the more effective advantages in a babble noise than one using the short-time Fourier transform. We designed a new channel structure based on spectral subtraction of Wavelet transform coefficients and used the Wavelet mask pattern with more higher time resolution in high frequency. It showed a good adaptation capability for babble noise with a non-stationary property. To evaluate the performance of proposed noise canceller, the informal subjective listening tests (Mos tests) were performed in background noise environments (car noise, street noise, babble noise) of mobile communication. The proposed noise suppression algorithm showed about MOS 0.2 performance improvements than the suppression algorithm of EVRC in informal listening tests. The noise reduction by the proposed method was shown in spectrogram of speech signal.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

In this paper, a sound externalization method is proposed for out-of-the-head localization in a headphone listening environment. In order to reduce timbre distortion by the conventional methods using a measured a head-related transfer function (HRTF) or early reflections, the proposed method integrates a model-based HRTF with reverberation. In addition, for improving frontal externalization performance, techniques such as decorrelation and spectral notch filtering are included. To evaluate the performance of the proposed externalization method, subjective listening tests are conducted by using different types of sound sources such as white noise, sound effects, speech, and music. It is shown from the test results that the proposed externalization method can localize sound sources farther away from out of the head than the conventional method.