The purpose of this study is to determine if the phonemic voice quality distinction of Dinka is also conveyed in songs. Acoustic measurements (formant tracking and spectral regression) were applied for the first time to a song data set. The results clearly pointed towards a neutralization of the voice quality distinction in songs. A perception experiment was performed to back up the results of ...

A Concatenative Text-To-Speech (CTTS) synthesizer requires a large acoustic database for high quality speech synthesis. This database consists of many acoustic leaves, each containing a number of short, compressed, speech segments. In this paper we propose two algorithms for re-compression of the acoustic database, by re-compressing the data in each acoustic leaf, without compromising the perce...

BACKGROUND Magneto-acoustic tomography with current injection involves using electrical impedance imaging technology. To explore the potential applications in imaging biological tissue and enhance image quality, a new scan mode for the transducer is proposed that is based on translational and circular scanning to record acoustic signals from sources. METHODS An imaging algorithm to analyze th...

The use of voice quality features in addition to prosodic features is proposed for automatic extraction of paralinguistic information (like speech acts, attitudes and emotions) in dialog speech. Perceptual experiments and acoustic analysis are conducted for monosyllabic utterances spoken in several speaking styles, carrying a variety of paralinguistic information. Acoustic parameters related wi...

Advanced laryngeal cancer is often treated by surgical removal of the larynx (laryngectomy) thus rendering patients unable to produce normal voice and speech. Laryngectomy patients must rely on an alternative means of producing voice and speech, with the most common method being the use of an electrolarynx (EL). The EL is a small, hand-held, electromechanical device that acoustically excites th...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies involve substantial acoustic noise. This review covers the difficulties posed by such noise for auditory neuroscience, as well as a number of possible solutions that have emerged. Acoustic noise can affect the processing of auditory stimuli by making them inaudible or unintelligible, and can result in reduced sensitivity to auditory activatio...

There is a growing interest to use acoustic sensors for selection in tree breeding to ensure high wood quality of future plantations. In this study, we assessed acoustic velocity as a selection trait for the improvement of mechanical wood properties in two 15and 32-year-old white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench.] Voss) genetic tests. Individual heritability of acoustic velocity was moderate and of...

OBJECTIVE To compare voice and speech function in patients who underwent laryngectomy with that of 2 control groups. DESIGN A cross-sectional study comparing acoustic and temporal variables with perceptual evaluations in 3 subject groups. SETTING University hospital in Göteborg, Sweden. SUBJECTS Two groups of patients with laryngeal carcinoma were examined: 12 male patients who had laryng...

biophysical profile (bpp) test is the most commonly used antenatal test of fetal well-being. purpose of this study is determining the influence of acoustic stimulation (as) on bpp testing time. about 55 pregnant women at 35 to 42 weeks who referred to department of obstetric & gynecology at university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran, were selected randomly. we used abdominal ultrasound guidan...

We describe the implementation of a cellular-phone based speech translation system without telephone quality speech database or special CT hardware. The purpose is to quickly build a prototype service system that can be used for data collection with real users. To train the acoustic model for the speech recognition system, available high-quality databases were made usable by 1.) appropriate dow...