Audio fingerprinting is a highly specific content-based audio retrieval technique. Given a short audio fragment as query, an audio fingerprinting system can identify the particular file that contains the fragment in a large library potentially consisting of millions of audio files. In this thesis, we investigate the possibility and feasibility of applying audio fingerprinting to do speech recognition in noisy environments based on speech reconstruction. To reconstruct noisy speech, the speech is divided into small segments of equal length at first. Then, audio fingerprinting is used to find the most similar segment in a large dataset consisting of clean speech files. If the similarity is above a threshold, the noisy segment is replaced with the clean segment. At last, all the segments, after conditional replacement, are concatenated to form the reconstructed speech, which is sent to a traditional speech recognition system. In the above procedure, a critical step is using audio fingerprinting to find the clean speech segment in a dataset. To test its performance, we build a landmark-based audio fingerprinting system. Experimental results show that this baseline system performs well in traditional applications, but its accuracy in this new application is not as good as we expected. Next, we propose three strategies to improve the system, resulting in better accuracy than the baseline system. Finally, we integrate the improved audio fingerprinting system into a traditional speech recognition system and evaluate the performance of the whole system. / Graduate

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / Technological advances have had profound effects on the conduct of military operations in both peacetime and in war. One advance that has had a great impact outside the military by reducing human intervention is Voice Recognition (VR) technology. This thesis will examine the implementation of a Voice Recognition System as a shipdriving device and as a means of decreasing the occurrence of mishaps while reducing the level of fatigue of watchstanders on the bridge. Chapter I will discuss the need for the United States Navy to investigate the implementation of a Voice Recognition System to help reduce the probability of mishaps occurring. Chapter II will explain voice recognition technology, how it works, and how the proposed system can be fielded aboard U.S. Navy ships. Chapter III will examine the opinions (on the implementation of a Voice Recognition System) of officers charged with the safe navigation of naval ships. Chapter IV will review the concerns of officers, and will justify the implementation by answering these concerns. The conclusion will iterate the advances in voice recognition, and why a Voice Recognition system should be implemented on the bridges of U.S. Navy ships. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

by Yu Chun Kei. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 86-88.

Phonation onset and offset are important aspects of singing and speech. Their execution requires control of timing and coordination of complex vocal fold kinematics, glottal configuration, laryngeal muscular adjustments, and respiration. The purpose of this study was to examine effects of timing and coordination of vocal fold adductory and abductory movements on vocal fold vibratory behavior from offset to onset in a series of repeated phonation gestures, using high-speed digital imaging. Of particular interest were differences in vocal fold adductory positioning for slower and faster tempi; patterns of oscillation during onset and offset for the different tempi, and effects of onset and offset timing events on subsequent vibratory patterns. Method: 11 subjects, all classically trained, experienced professional singers, were videoendoscopically recorded singing a series of repeated notes at two different tempi, using high-speed digital imaging. Vocal fold adductory positioning was measured in terms of relative glottal width during onset in slower and faster tempi. Vocal fold vibratory behavior was measured in timing of offset and onset “events,” number, spacing, and timing of PPOs and pSSOs. Results: Relative glottal widths were significantly smaller for the faster tempo, supporting a hypothesis that vocal agility requires closer vocal fold approximation before onset. Significant differences were found in offset vs. onset timings and numbers of prephonatory and post-steady-state oscillations, supporting a theory of oscillation hysteresis.

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

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This research examined the relationship between the degree of maintained fluency improvement and the type of language used to respond to questions directly and indirectly related to speaking behavior. The subjects included sixteen former Portland State University stuttering clients who had participated in the Ginter (1979) study on fluency maintenance. The subjects responded to a thirteen item questionnaire dealing with themselves and their speaking behavior. Responses were recorded on the Modified Thematic Analysis Form developed by this examiner and analyzed according to guidelines set down by Stone and Casteel (1975) and this examiner.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the influence of situational cues on a standardized speechreading test in order to assess an individual's natural speechreading ability. The widely used, standardized Utley Lipreading Test was selected to which photoslides of message-related situational cues were added. The Utley Lipreading Test consists of two relatively equivalent test lists, containing series of unrelated sentences.

Identifying the severity level of unintelligibility objectively and efficiently holds critical clinical implications for speech assessment and intervention needs. The speech of children who demonstrate phonological deviations is frequently unintelligible. The use of an accurate and time-efficient measurement of intelligibility is necessary to screen children who may be producing phonological patterns that contribute to significantly reduced intelligibility in connected speech. The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of concurrent validity between scores received on the 1-Minute Measure of Homonymy and Intelligibility (Hodson, 1992) and speech intelligibility as measured by the percent of words understood in connected speech. For this investigation, intelligibility is operationally defined as the percent of words understood in a connected speech sample derived from orthographic transcription. Data collected were from 48 children, aged 4:0 to 5:6, who demonstrated varying levels of phonological proficiency/deficiency. A group of four listeners who had experience treating children with phonological disorders were responsible for completing orthographic transcriptions of the 48 connected speech samples. The two methods of assessing speech intelligibility investigated in this study were found to correlate highly (r = .84). This is considered a significant statistical correlation and therefore the 1-Minute Measure may be used to provide speech-language pathologists with valuable information to predict a child's intelligibility level in connected speech. A regression formula was employed to predict percentage of intelligibility when presented with a child's 1- Minute Measure score. Results from this correlational study suggest that the 1- Minute Measure of Homonymy and Intelligibility may serve as an assessment tool that can provide a speech-language pathologist with some valuable information pertaining to a child's level of intelligibility in connected speech. When used with another speech assessment tool, the 1-Minute Measure may function as a screening measure to identify preschoolers who produce phonological deviations that interfere with intelligibility of conversational speech.

No description available.