• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• 제21권4E호
• /
• pp.170-177
• /
• 2002

The goal of the present research is to improve a quality of life of the elderly with a dementia. In this paper, it is realized by developing the dialog system that is controlled by three kinds of modules such as speech recognition engine, graphical agent, or database classified by a nursing schedule. The system was evaluated in an actual environment of a nursing facility by introducing it to an older male patient with dementia. The comparison study between dialog system and professional caregivers was then carried out at nursing home for 5 days in each case. The evaluation results showed that the dialog system was more responsive in catering to needs of dementia patient than professional caregivers. Moreover, the proposed system led the patient to talk more than caregivers did.

• 한국음향학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국음향학회 1994년도 제11회 음성통신 및 신호처리 워크샵 논문집 (SCAS 11권 1호)
• /
• pp.103-106
• /
• 1994

Generally we are used to apply waveform coding method obtaining the high quality synthesized speech. But we have to solve the problems, memory capacity and pitch alteration, for applying the waveform coding method to speech synthesis by rule. The former problem is conquered by improving the integrated semiconductor technology, but the latter problem remains. In this paper, we compare the methods that have proposed for pitch alteration in our laboratory until now. These methods are not change properties of vocal tract formants and only altered the pitch halving method, 1.14% for cepstrum analysis method, and 2.36% for hamonics compensated with the phase method.

• 한국방송∙미디어공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국방송공학회 2011년도 하계학술대회
• /
• pp.122-125
• /
• 2011

In real environment, background noise exists everywhere and degrades the performance of system. To reduce this distortion, a speech enhancement algorithm can be very useful and variety methods have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a postfilter to improve the performance of optimally modified log-spectral amplitude (OM-LSA) estimator. Proposed algorithm uses the formant postfilter to minimize perceptual distortion caused by background noise. We adjust an emphasizing parameter which is varied by spectral flatness and first reflection coefficient. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by measuring the log-spectral distance (LSD) and the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) score. The test results show the improvement of proposed algorithm compared to conventional OM-LSA.

• 음성과학
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.7-19
• /
• 2001

The acoustic parameters of nine Korean numbers were analyzed by Praat, a speech analysis software, and synthesized by SenSynPPC, a Klatt formant synthesizer. The overall intensity, pitch and formant values of the numbers were modified dynamically by a step of 1 dB, 1 Hz and 2.5% respectively. The study explored the sensitivity of listeners to changes in the three acoustic parameters. Twelve subjects (male and female) listened to 390 pairs of synthesized numbers and judged whether the given pair sounded the same or different. Results showed that subjects perceived the same sound quality within the range of 6.6 dB of intensity variation, 10.5 Hz of pitch variation and 5.9% of the first three formant variations. The male and female groups showed almost the same perceptual ranges. Also, an asymmetrical structure of high and low boundary was observed. The ranges may be applicable to the development of a speaker identification system while the method of synthesis modification may apply to its evaluation data.

• 한국음향학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국음향학회 1994년도 FIFTH WESTERN PACIFIC REGIONAL ACOUSTICS CONFERENCE SEOUL KOREA
• /
• pp.984-990
• /
• 1994

In this paper a new speech synthesis method in the time domain using mono-syllables is proposed. It is to overcome the degradation of the synthetic speech quality by the synthesis method in the frequency domain and to develop an algorithm in the time domain for the prosodic control. In particular when we use a method in a time domain with mono-syllable as a synthesis unit it will be the main issues which are to control th pitch period and to smooth the energy pattern. As a solution to the pitch control, a method using Lagrange interpolation is suggested. As a solution to the other problem, an algorithm which can control the amplitude envelop shape of mono-syllable is proposed. As the results of experiments it was possible to synthesize unlimited Korean speeches including the prosody control. Accoding to the MOS evaluation the quality and the naturality in them was improved to be a good level.

• 한국정보통신학회논문지
• /
• 제26권5호
• /
• pp.649-655
• /
• 2022

본 논문에서는 음성존재확률을 활용한 2채널 입력신호 상관행렬의 행렬식 기반 잡음제거 기법을 제안하였다. 제안한 기법은 음성존재확률을 이용해 기존의 행렬식 기반 2채널 잡음제거 기법의 위너 필터 이득을 음성과 잡음구간에 따라 적응적으로 조절함으로써 잡음제거 성능을 더욱 향상시키고자 하였다. 제안한 기법은 잡음 종류, 반향 조건, 신호대잡음비, 잡음원의 개수와 방향이 다양한 모의 환경에서 객관적 평가 방법을 통해 평가되었다. 실험 결과는 대부분의 실험환경에서 행렬식 기반의 기법들이 위상차를 기반으로 한 기법들보다 성능이 우수했고 특히 제안한 음성존재확률을 이용한 행렬식 기반 잡음제거기법이 음성 신호 왜곡을 최소화하면서 가장 우수한 잡음 제거 성능을 보였다.

• 한국음향학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국음향학회 1994년도 FIFTH WESTERN PACIFIC REGIONAL ACOUSTICS CONFERENCE SEOUL KOREA
• /
• pp.977-983
• /
• 1994

In this paper we have evaluated the synthetic speech quality by the proposed TD-PCULI speech synthesis method. For the synthesis we have extracted parameters from the Korean monosyllables through the analysis of speech waveforms in the time domain. We have constructed the Korean data format dictionary for the synthesis-by-rule depending upon the frequencies of the Korean pronunciation large vocabulary dictionary, in which V type syllables are 19, CV type's are 80, VC type's are 30 and CVC type's are 100. And using them we have synthesized various Korean monosyllables, words and sentences. We have tested each 10 syllables selected according to the 4 Korean syllable types with the objective MOS(Mean Opinion Score) evluation method about the 4 items i.e., intelligibility, clearness, loudness, and naturality after selecting random group without the knowledge of them. And also we have tested the possibility to modify a duration and F0 into another forms with changing a duration (i.e., 150msec, 300msec, 500msec, 700msec and 1sec) and a central fundamental frequency(i.e., 80Hz, 118Hz, 140Hz, 170Hz, and 200Hz). As the results of experiments the noises occurred in the course of synthesizing the speech by the rules are removed to be a very clear level and we can find that the prosodic elements can be controled as a good condition.

• 한국음향학회지
• /
• 제25권8호
• /
• pp.383-388
• /
• 2006

본 논문에서는 잡음 환경에서 단일 마이크로폰의 음성 향상에 대한 새로운 기법을 제시했다. 일반적으로 널리 알려진 스펙트럼 차감법에 근거한 음성 향상 기술은 신호 대 잡음비에 따른 스펙트럼 이득으로 표현된다. 대표적인 Ephraim과 Malah의 decision-directed (DD) 추정치는 잡음 구간에서 효율적으로 뮤지컬 잡음을 제거하지만 음성 구간에서는 이전 프레임의 음성 스펙트럼 성분에 더 큰 비중을 두기 때문에 a priori SNR의 프레임 지연이 발생한다. 따라서 DD에 의해 추정된 a priori SNR이 적용된 잡음 제거 이득은 현재 프레임보다 이전 프레임에 영향을 받으므로 음성 전이 구간에서 잡음 제거 성능을 저하시킨다. 본 논문은 DD의 가중치 파라미터에 Sigmoid Type의 함수를 적용하여 계산적으로는 간단하지만 효과적인 음성 향상 알고리즘을 제안한다. 제안된 접근 방식은 DD의 주요 파라미터인 a priori SNR 지연의 문제점을 해결하면서 뮤지컬 잡음 제거에 우수한 DD의 이점은 유지한다. 제안된 알고리즘의 성능은 다양한 잡음 환경에서 ITU-T P.862 Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) 와 Mean Opinion Score (MOS). 그리고 음성 스펙트로그램 (Spectrogram)에 의해 평가했고 기존의 DD의 고정된 가중치 파라미터를 사용했을 때 보다 향상된 결과를 나타내었다.

• 한국음향학회지
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.24-33
• /
• 2001

이 논문에서는 대용량 음성 데이터베이스를 기반으로 하는 한국어 문장/음성변환시스템의 구현에 관해 기술한다. 기존 소량의 음성데이타를 이용하여 운율조절을 통해 합성하는 방식은 여전히 기계음에 가까운 합성음을 생성하고 있다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서는 대용량 음성 데이터베이스를 기반으로 하여 운율처리없이 합성단위 선정/연결에 의해 합성음질을 향상시키고자 한다. 대용량 음성 데이터베이스는 다양한 운율변화를 포함하도록 문장단위를 녹음하며 이로부터 복수개의 합성단위를 추출, 구축한다. 합성단위는 음성인식기를 훈련, 자동으로 음소분할하여 생성하며, 래링고그라프 신호를 이용하여 정교한 피치를 추출한다. 끊어 읽기는 휴지길이에 따라 4단계로 설정하고 끊어읽기 추정은 품사열의 통계정보를 이용한다. 합성단위 선정은 운율/스펙트럼 파라미터를 이용하여 비터비 탐색을 수행하게 되며 유클리디언 누적거리가 최소인 합성단위열을 선정/연결하여 합성한다. 또한 이 논문에서는 고품질 음성합성을 위해 특정 서비스 영역에 더욱 자연스러운 합성음을 생성할 수 있는 영역의존 음성합성용 데이터베이스를 제안한다. 구현된 합성시스템은 주관적 평가방법으로 명료도와 자연성을 평가하였고 그 결과 대용량 음성 데이터베이스를 기반으로한 합성방식의 성능이 기존 반음절단위를 사용한 합성방식보다 더 나은 성능을 보임을 알 수 있었다.

• 대한후두음성언어의학회지
• /
• 제9권1호
• /
• pp.32-37
• /
• 1998

Tonsillectomy is the one of operation that is performed the most commonly in otolaryngology field. Many changes that include range of voice, tone, voice quality and resonance were made by tonsillectomy. Sometimes, any patients taken tonsillectomy has suffer from these voice problem after tonsillectomy. However there are less study for these problems until now. Then, we studied to find the anatomical findings that affected the voice quality when tonsillectomy was performed. We evaluated the voice in 2 groups, one is the group showed the normal pharyngeal space by using the transnasal fiberscopy, the other is group showed medially bulging tonsil at pharyngeal cavity by using same method, with perceptual evaluation, nasalance score, nasality, oral formant and nasal formant. We used the computerized speech analysis system, the nasometer and the spectrogram in the CSL program. We could not find any differences in perceptual evaluation between two groups. But objective measures were provided. Nasalance score and nasality on the nasometric analysis were increased significantly and oral formant on the spectrogram was changed singnificantly after tonsillectomy in Group 2. Authors thought medially bulging tonsil in the pharynx is able to affect the voice quality after tonsillectomy when we evaluted through the nasal cavity by the using of fiberscopy and this evaluation would be important especially in singers.