Techniques in Speech Acoustics provides an introduction to the acoustic analysis and characteristics of speech sounds. The first part of the book covers aspects of the source-filter decomposition of speech, spectrographic analysis, the acoustic theory of speech production and acoustic phonetic cues. The second part is based on computational techniques for analysing the acoustic speech signal including digital time and frequency analyses, formant synthesis, and the linear predictive coding of speech. There is also an introductory chapter on the classification of acoustic speech signals which is relevant to aspects of automatic speech and talker recognition. The book intended for use as teaching materials on undergraduate and postgraduate speech acoustics and experimental phonetics courses; also aimed at researchers from phonetics, linguistics, computer science, psychology and engineering who wish to gain an understanding of the basis of speech acoustics and its application to fields such as speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition.

In communication acoustics, the communication channel consists of a sound source, a channel (acoustic and/or electric) and finally the receiver: the human auditory system, a complex and intricate system that shapes the way sound is heard. Thus, when developing techniques in communication acoustics, such as in speech, audio and aided hearing, it is important to understand the time–frequency–space resolution of hearing. This book facilitates the reader’s understanding and development of speech and audio techniques based on our knowledge of the auditory perceptual mechanisms by introducing the physical, signal-processing and psychophysical background to communication acoustics. It then provides a detailed explanation of sound technologies where a human listener is involved, including audio and speech techniques, sound quality measurement, hearing aids and audiology. Key features: Explains perceptually-based audio: the authors take a detailed but accessible engineering perspective on sound and hearing with a focus on the human place in the audio communications signal chain, from psychoacoustics and audiology to optimizing digital signal processing for human listening. Presents a wide overview of speech, from the human production of speech sounds and basics of phonetics to major speech technologies, recognition and synthesis of speech and methods for speech quality evaluation. Includes MATLAB examples that serve as an excellent basis for the reader’s own investigations into communication acoustics interaction schemes which intuitively combine touch, vision and voice for lifelike interactions.

Provides state-of-the-art algorithms for sound capture, processing and enhancement Sound Capture and Processing: Practical Approaches covers the digital signal processing algorithms and devices for capturing sounds, mostly human speech. It explores the devices and technologies used to capture, enhance and process sound for the needs of communication and speech recognition in modern computers and communication devices. This book gives a comprehensive introduction to basic acoustics and microphones, with coverage of algorithms for noise reduction, acoustic echo cancellation, dereverberation and microphone arrays; charting the progress of such technologies from their evolution to present day standard. Sound Capture and Processing: Practical Approaches Brings together the state-of-the-art algorithms for sound capture, processing and enhancement in one easily accessible volume Provides invaluable implementation techniques required to process algorithms for real life applications and devices Covers a number of advanced sound processing techniques, such as multichannel acoustic echo cancellation, dereverberation and source separation Generously illustrated with figures and charts to demonstrate how sound capture and audio processing systems work An accompanying website containing Matlab code to illustrate the algorithms This invaluable guide will provide audio, R&D and software engineers in the industry of building systems or computer peripherals for speech enhancement with a comprehensive overview of the technologies, devices and algorithms required for modern computers and communication devices. Graduate students studying electrical engineering and computer science, and researchers in multimedia, cell-phones, interactive systems and acousticians will also benefit from this book.

This is the only book to relate all three of the currently interactive areas of speech science-acoustic phonetics, speech perception, and speech technology. The book presents a gradual course, starting with a clear tutorial approach to basic speech then leading to speech perception research, the various theories of speech perception, and the modern speech technologies of computer synthesis and recognition of speech messages. The aim is to bring the reader through basic acoustics, spectrum analysis, vowel and consonant acoustics, and into the research literature of speech perception technology. The basic acoustic theory of speech production, the Source-Filter Theory, is clarified via text and diagrams. This knowledge is then applied to interpreting spectrograms of speech examples that sample all the phonetic distinctions among vowels and consonants. Distinctive acoustical patterns for vowel and consonant perception by listeners are summarized in detail based on the research literature. Critical discussions provide theories of motor, auditory, and computer recognition of speech. Consonant and vowel recognition by the hearing-impaired is described in relation to acoustic phonetic distinctions. Techniques of speech synthesis, recognition analysis by machines, and speech technologies are thoroughly explained. Anyone interested in speech acoustics, acoustic phonetics, speech and hearing science, psychoacoustics, and speech perception at any level.

Speech sound production is one of the most complex human activities: it is also one of the least well understood. This is perhaps not altogether surprising as many of the complex neurological and physiological processes involved in the generation and execution of a speech utterance remain relatively inaccessible to direct investigation, and must be inferred from careful scrutiny of the output of the system -from details of the movements of the speech organs themselves and the acoustic consequences of such movements. Such investigation of the speech output have received considerable impetus during the last decade from major technological advancements in computer science and biological transducing, making it possible now to obtain large quantities of quantative data on many aspects of speech articulation and acoustics relatively easily. Keeping pace with these advancements in laboratory techniques have been developments in theoretical modelling of the speech production process. There are now a wide variety of different models available, reflecting the different disciplines involved -linguistics, speech science and technology, engineering and acoustics. The time seems ripe to attempt a synthesis of these different models and theories and thus provide a common forum for discussion of the complex problem of speech production. Such an activity would seem particularly timely also for those colleagues in speech technology seeking better, more accurate phonetic models as components in their speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition systems.