The final thesis deals with coders and voice coders used in speech signal processing. The aim is to create an integral overview of coders and voice coders including a description of their properties, in the second part of the thesis a simulation of algorithms and methods of speech processing is performed in Matlab Simulink program.The basic methods of speech processing and a parametric LPC voice coder were simulated in time domain. In the LPC voice coder model there are implemented the algorithms for obtaining speech segment parameters. These are the algorithm for classification of voiced and unvoiced speech segment, LPC analysis and pitch detection. The output is a parametric signal that enables a receiver to synthesize a speech signal. The appendix 1 contains a list of names of coders or standard numbers of coders and their properties, the appendix 2 includes an overview of speech processing methods.

This thesis describes basic principles of IP Multimedia Subsystem, known as the IMS, and shows the possibility for design applications using IMS. Firstly, a generic architecture IMS as layer model divided into four logic layer with definition the interfaces and the main entities is described. The IMS is based on SIP and IP protocols. Then is the architecture of SIP with the main entities explained. Structure of packet, request and response method in the part of SIP is also described. After that, three network services, namely presence services, instant messaging services and push over cellular services are presented. For each services the figuration of their architecture and the basic definition of their main entities are shown. Moreover, the graphical diagrams of SIP signalization are depicted for these services. In the next chapter, the self implementation of services was designed, namely presence services and services for speech transmission with next secondary function as sending email with registration information of user. The project was designed as client - server application in the development studio SDS Ericsson 4.1. The client application was simulated as java application and also as an application for Symbian emulator. The process of client registration was performed with the help of ICP platform. Finally, the diagram of analysis communication client - server is displayed with the captured packets explanation by the help of network analyzer WireShark. The video files, which were specially created for this thesis showing presentations for presence services and sending email. The most important results are summarized in the end of this article.

Adult listeners more accurately identify talkers speaking a known language than a foreign language (Thompson, 1987), a phenomenon known as the language-familiarity effect (Perrachione & Wong, 2007). Two experiments explored how knowledge of a language facilitates talker identification. In Experiment 1, participants identified talkers in three conditions: (a) a foreign-language speech condition featuring unfamiliar sound patterns and no known words; (b) a nonsense speech condition featuring all the familiar sound patterns of their native language, such as familiar phonemes, prosody, and syllable structure, but no actual words; and (c) a native-language condition with all the familiar components of a language, including words. In Experiment 2, participants again identified speakers in familiar and unfamiliar languages. In both languages, listeners identified speakers in a condition in which no word was ever repeated, and in a condition featuring repeated words. The results suggest that access to familiar, meaningful spoken words confers an advantage beyond access to familiar sounds, syllables, and prosody, particularly when words are repeated. Together, Experiments 1 and 2 support integrated models of voice and language processing systems, and indicate that access to meaningful words is a crucial component of the language-familiarity effect in talker identification.

Orientador: Gimol Benzaquen Perosa / Resumo: Há evidências na literatura de que a permanência dos prematuros em incubadora, com o propósito de garantir sua sobrevida, pode gerar um impacto negativo para o vínculo mãe/filho. Na maioria das vezes a criança está sedada e as mães impossibilitadas do contato tátil e de oferecer cuidados. Há vários estudos de como as mães vivenciam essa situação, mas poucos centram-se no papel da voz materna que, nessas condições, é uma via disponível para o estabelecimento do vínculo com o bebê, fundamental para sua constituição subjetiva. Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar o conteúdo da fala e a voz das mães frente a seu parto e a seu filho prematuro, pacientes de incubadora. Os médicos responsáveis pelo pelos leitos das crianças da pesquisa também foram entrevistados com o intuito de avaliar seu papel na forma como a mãe subjetiva a criança neste contexto. Em até sete dias após a internação da criança na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva neonatal (UTIN), foi realizada uma primeira entrevista, aberta, com mães de prematuros que permaneciam na incubadora. Uma segunda entrevista ocorreu após a alta da incubadora. Os médicos responsáveis pelo leito da criança também foram entrevistados, afim de encontrar possíveis relações do discurso médico com o discurso materno. Observou-se, também, como e o que as mães diziam aos bebês e seus comportamentos quando elas falavam com eles. Os dados foram analisados qualitativamente, à luz da teoria psicanalítica. A característica mais presente nos relatos foi ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: There is evidence in the literature of the negative impact that keeping premature babies in incubators - to ensure they will survive - can cause to mother-child bonding. Most of the times, the child is sedated and the mother cannot offer tactile contact or care. There are many studies on how mothers manage this situation, but only a few focus on the mother’s voice, that is, in these conditions, an available way to bonding with the baby, which is essential to their subjective constitution. The present study’s aim was to understand mothers’ perception of premature delivery, their role during the child’s stay in the incubator and their interaction with the babies. In up to seven days after the internment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), an open interview with mothers of newborns in incubators was held. A second interview took place after the discharge from the incubator. The doctors responsible for each crib were also interviewed in an attempt to find possible correlations between the medical and the maternal speech. It was also observed what mothers told their babies, how they did it and their behavior while talking to them. A qualitative analysis of data was done according to the psychoanalysis theory. The need to rebuild minutely the premature newborn story was the most common feature in the mothers’ report. Facing the perplexity of the situation, mothers tried to connect moments by recalling details, organizing their story and trying to fill up the emptiness and t... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The purpose of this study was to provide a description of teacher perceptions concerning behavioral and physiological vocal issues among current gender groupings in sixth-grade choir classrooms through the collection of survey research data. Participants selected for this study consisted of registered Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area choral directors of the Texas Music Educators Association. Results of the study indicated that more girls were enrolled in sixth-grade choir than boys and that mixed choirs were more common than gender-specific choirs in sixth grade. Results also indicated that teachers perceived evidence of early voice change among both sixth grade boys and girls, and that there was a difference in behavior as students showed signs of puberty.

The purpose of this study is to assemble information needed to assess, understand and hopefully correct muscular hyperfunction that is related to tongue tension in singing and speech which inhibit freely, efficiently, and comfortably produced beautiful singing. This text will include a definition of freely produced, fully resonating tone for beautiful singing, major components of vocal technique, physiology related to singing and speech production, hyperfunctions associated with tongue tension, tongue involvement in the articulation of the four major singing languages, and will present exercises for training the muscles of coordination in a manner conducive to singing and speech.

Prior research has suggested that there may be differences in voice quality between black and white speakers of South African English who had attended well-resourced middle-class schools. The principal objective of the study is to address the question of whether there is any acoustic evidence of such differences. The study then proceeds to describe such acoustic evidence for differences in voice quality. The author interviewed 36 female South African English speakers (18 white and 18 black) between the ages of 18 and 22. The research subjects had all attended well-resourced middleclass schools. In order to control for the possibility of substrate influences on voice quality, all black participants were of an isiXhosa language background. High quality sound recordings were conducted, consisting of both a set of read sentences as well as semi-structured interviews, the latter of which formed the core dataset for the subsequent acoustic analysis. The acoustic data were analyzed using VoiceSauce, a program specifically designed for the acoustic analysis of voice quality. Measurements were based on automatically segmented speech samples using FAVE and PRAAT. The VoiceSauce measurement data were statistically analyzed by means of a linear mixed effects regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank sum tests using the statistical package R to evaluate the significance of ethnicity as a variable. The effect of ethnicity was found to be significant for several measures of spectral tilt (including for example, 2K*-5K, H4*-2K*, H1*-H2* and H1*-A1*) and cepstral peak prominence with a nearly significant effect for the subharmonics-to-harmonics ratio. Black speakers exhibited consistently higher values for most harmonic differential measures (for example, H1*-A1*) overall, while white speakers exhibited higher values for fundamental frequency, harmonics-tonoise ratio and cepstral peak prominence. The author concludes that the acoustic evidence is most consistent with the hypothesis that the white speakers overall typically use a voice quality iii characterized by greater vocal fold constriction, thickness and stiffness in comparison to the black speakers, hypothesized to use a voice quality characterized by more breathiness. By providing a description of voice quality variation, the research contributes towards a more complete account of sociolinguistic variation in South African English.

This thesis reviews the usual properties and requirements for key agreement protocols. It then focuses on MIKEY, a work-in-progress protocol designed to conduct key agreements for secure multimedia exchanges. The protocol was implemented and incorporated in a SIP user agent - minisip. This implementation was used to measure the additional delay required for key exchange during call establishment. Finally, some schemes are proposed regarding the use of MIKEY in advanced VoIP scenarios, such as conferences and terminal mobility.

Today almost everyone owns a mobile phone, adults along with teenagers and kids. Even laptops and other wearable devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA’s) are become more common. We want constant connectivity to networks and the Internet, which in turn makes us more and more available. Context-awareness will play a bigger role for these devices in the future. Aware of its surroundings, a portable device can adapt and communicate with different devices and objects, hiding complexity from the user. This enables a simpler user interface and reduces user interaction. This master thesis builds partially upon the prior work done by Maria José Parajón Dominguez. To realize the concept of “context-awareness” HP’s iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 was used together with a server/client application developed as part of this thesis project. Questions that were addressed; what are the effects on the traffic to and from the mobile device of having a personal voice interface; what are the effect on the traffic to and from the mobile device of having significant local storage; and is it possible to exchanging personal CODECs to reduce bandwidth. With this background in mind, this thesis focuses on audio for mobile users in a quest to create more useful devices by exploiting context awareness. / Idag äger nästan alla en mobiltelefon, vuxna, tonåringar så väl som barn. Även bärbara datorer och andra bärbara apparater så som ”personal digital assistans” (PDA:er) blir vanligare. Vi strävar efter konstant dataåtkomst, vilket i sin tur gör oss mer och mer tillgängliga för andra. ”Context-awareness” kommer att spela en större roll för dessa apparater i framtiden. Medveten om sin omgivning, så kan en portabel apparat anpassa sig och kommunicera med andra, utan att göra det komplext för användaren. Detta medför ett enklare gränssnitt för användaren och minskar användarens samspel. Detta examensarbete bygger delvis på ett tidigare arbete av Maria José Parajón Dominguez. För att realisera begreppet “context-awareness” användes HP:s iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 tillsammans med en utvecklad server/klient programvara. Frågor som man försökte besvara var; vilken effekt trafiken har till och från PDA:n vid användning av ett röstgränssnitt; vilken effekt trafiken har till och från PDA:n vid lagring av mycket lokalt utrymme; och om det är möjligt att utväxla personliga algoritmer, så kallade CODECs. Med detta i tanke, så försöker detta examensarbete att fokusera på ljud för mobila användare i ett försök att skapa mer användbara apparater genom att utnyttja ”context-awareness”.

Th purpose of this study is to discover to interpret the nature and the extent of the deviations of voice, articulation, and rhythm of those students who were enrolled as regular students in the Stockton Junior College during the school year ending in June of 1939. Such deviations presumably reflect the speech needs of these individuals. The interpretation of such discoveries should, in a concrete and graphic manner, show not only the speech needs of those individuals tested, but also the general tendencies of any similar group of students of Junior College level in this location. However, the specific task of this study is to discover the facts, not to make recommendations concerning policy.