• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.59-73
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• 2012

This study attempts to investigate the contribution of prosody to the foreign accent in Chinese speakers' English production by examining the synthesized speech of crossing native and non-native talkers' prosody and segments. For the stimuli of the foreign accent ratings, we transplanted gender-matched native speakers' prosody onto non-native talkers' segments and vice versa, utilizing the TD-PSOLA algorithm. Eight English native listeners participated in judging foreign accent and comprehensibility of the transplanted stimuli. Results showed that the synthesized stimuli were perceived as stronger foreign accent regardless of speakers' proficiency when English speakers' prosody was crossed with Chinese speakers' segments. This suggests that segments contribute more than prosody to native listeners' evaluation of foreign accent. When transplanted with English speakers' segments, Chinese speakers' prosody showed a difference in duration rather than pitch between high and low proficiency such that stronger foreign accent was detected when low proficient Chinese speakers' duration was crossed with English speakers' segments. This indicated that prosody, more specifically duration, plays a role though the prosodic role is not overall as significant as segments. According to the post acoustic analysis, the temporal features contributing to making the duration parameter prominent as opposed to pitch were found out to be speaking rate, pause duration and pause frequency. Finally, foreign accent and comprehensibility showed no significant correlation such that native listeners had no difficulty listening to highly foreign accented speech.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the aspect of production and perception of Korean vowels /${\Lambda}$/ and /o/ and to discuss the correlation between production and perception of the two vowels. For this purpose, two separate experiments were conducted. 19 Chinese learners and 20 Korean native speakers produced Korean vowels /${\Lambda}$/ and /o/. Production experiments indicated that Koreans and Chinese female groups revealed common features in production, showing that they all pronounced /${\Lambda}$/ and /o/ in a distinguishable manner in the acoustic space. On the other hand, the Chinese male group failed to show that they could pronounce two vowels distinctively. The Chinese male group seemed to be confused in vowel height between the two vowels. A perception experiment was carried out on a continuum consisting of 11 synthesized stimuli. The perceptual judgment from referred Chinese and Korean subjects showed that Koreans and Chinese female groups had the same phonological boundaries (stimulus '04') for the two vowels on the continuum. However, the Chinese male group made perceptual criterion on stimulus '03'. These results confirmed that there was strong correlation between the aspect of production and perception.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

This study investigates how American English high back vowels are identified. American English and Korean speakers participated in a phonetic experiment for this study. This study shows their response times of the vowels and discusses how the speakers identified them. For the experiment I used a synthesized vowel continuum between American English /u/ and /$\mho$/based on American English male speakers' voice obtained by Peterson and Barney (1952). I manipulated spectral steps and vowel duration of the stimuli. The statistical results showed that American English speakers were not able to distinguish the stimuli based on spectral quality. Instead they relied on vowel duration. This suggests that the American English high back vowels have changed since Peterson and Barney recorded them in 1952. The Korean speakers also relied on vowel duration, not spectral quality since they could not distinguish them. American speakers' response times of these vowels were not affected by both spectral quality and vowel duration. Koreans' response times were affected by vowel durations only.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2006

This paper presents an experimental study of the factors modulating the urgency perception of voice alarm generated by concatenative synthesizers. Four experiments were conducted using psycho-physical approach in which 105 participants made magnitude estimation for urgency perception of various voice alarm stimuli. Experiment 1 identified 6 acoustic and non-acoustic factors modulating the perceived urgency of synthesized voice alarm. Experiment 2, 3 and 4 quantified the relations between the objective changes in each of the quantifiable parameters and the subjective changes in urgency perception. This research has implications for the design and implementation of synthesized voice alarm systems where urgency mapping is required.

• MALSORI
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• no.41
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• pp.73-81
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• 2001

This paper reports the results of an experimental phonetic study of intonation contrasts perception by speakers of British English, Japanese and Russian. Six series of re-synthesized two-syllable rise-fall contours with manipulated parameters of the rise in the first and the fall in the second syllable were employed in the experiment. Modifications of pitch height were executed in 2 st steps, and of duration in 30ms steps. The subjects, who were native speakers of British English, Japanese and Russian, identified the sentence type of presented re-synthesized stimuli. The results of the experiments demonstrate overall similarity of the perception strategies across the three groups of subjects, especially regarding the thresholds of declarative' sentence type judgement. Non-declarative judgements are more language-specific. The results can be employed for the teaching of English, Japanese and Russian as foreign languages as well as for speech synthesis and recognition.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.139-148
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• 2000

This paper reports the results of an experimental phonetic study of intonation contrasts perception by speakers of British English, Japanese and Russian. Six series of re-synthesized two-syllable rise-fall contours with manipulated parameters of the rise in the first and the fall in the second syllable were employed in the experiment. Modifications of pitch height were executed in 2 st steps, and of duration - in 30ms steps. The subjects, who were native speakers of British English, Japanese and Russian, identified the sentence type of presented re-synthesized stimuli. The results of the experiments demonstrate overall similarity of the perception strategies across the three groups of subjects, especially regarding the thresholds of 'declarative' sentence type judgement. Non-declarative judgements are more language-specific. The results can be employed for the teaching of English, Japanese and Russian as foreign languages as well as for speech synthesis and recognition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.592-595
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• 2002

New polymeric hydrogels based on vinyl ethers have been synthesized by the ${\gamma}$-initiated polymerization method. Their physical chemistry and physical mechanical properities have been studied. It has been shown that structure and swelling behavior of the hydrogels can be regulated by the changing of synthesis conditions nature of monomers. Novel stimuli-sensitive polymers have been synthesized by the varying of macrochains hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance. The some biomedical aspects of application of hydrogels in capacity of drain aging polymeric materials in ophthalmology surgery, implants in plastic surgery as well as drug delivery systems have been investigated.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.189-201
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• 2013

This paper presents an experimental study of the factors modulating the urgency perception of voice alarm generated by concatenative synthesizers. Four experiments were conducted using psycho-physical approach in which 112 participants made magnitude estimation for urgency perception of various voice alarm stimuli. Experiment 1 identified 6 acoustic and non-acoustic factors modulating the perceived urgency of synthesized voice alarm. Experiment 2, 3 and 4 quantified the relations between the objective changes in each of the quantifiable parameters and the subjective changes in urgency perception. This research has implications for the design and implementation of synthesized voice alarm systems where urgency mapping is required.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.126-135
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• 2021

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are being extensively studied to alter their physiochemical properties in response to external changes such as temperature, pH, light and mechanical stress. This study reports multi-responsive hydrogel having optical change response to external stress. First, we synthesized a novel spiropyran cross-linker successfully by grafting poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) on both side of spiropyran and introduced to hydrogel. In the results, the yellow spriopyran structure was conversed to purple merocyaine structure by internal stress during swelling of the hydrogels cross-linked with the SP-PEGDAs. Also, the hydrogel could be visualized the swelling and deswelling process in response to pH, by converting MC and prontonated MC structure.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

This study explored how Korean L2 learners of English utilize multiple acoustic cues (VOT and F0) in perceiving and producing the English alveolar stop with a voicing contrast. Thirty-four 18-year-old high-school students participated in the study. Their English proficiency level was classified as either 'high' (HEP) or 'low' (LEP) according to high-school English level standardization. Thirty different synthesized syllables were presented in audio stimuli by combining a 6-step VOTs and a 5-step F0s. The listeners judged how close the audio stimulus was to /t/ or /d/ in L2 using a visual analogue scale. The L2 /d/ and /t/ productions collected from the 22 learners (12 HEP, 10 LEP) were acoustically analyzed by measuring VOT and F0 at the vowel onset. Results showed that LEP listeners attended to the F0 in the stimuli more sensitively than HEP listeners, suggesting that HEP listeners could inhibit less important acoustic dimensions better than LEP listeners in their L2 perception. The L2 production patterns also exhibited a group-difference between HEP and LEP in that HEP speakers utilized their VOT dimension (primary cue in L2) more effectively than LEP speakers. Taken together, the study showed that the relative cue-weighting strategies in L2 perception and production are closely related to the learner's L2 proficiency level in that more proficient learners had a better control of inhibiting and enhancing the relevant acoustic parameters.