HUT Acoustics 1

HOARSE, Mid-Term Review

Paavo Alku

Team ReportHelsinki University of Technology

(HUT)

HUT Acoustics 2

Theme:Speech production modelling

1. Glottal flow

2. Vocal tract3. Lip radiation

Speech

Estimatedglottal flow

INVERSE FILTER

HUT Acoustics 3

Tasks:Task 3.1 Glottal excitation estimation• 12 month milestone: Research on combining new AR

(Auto Regressive) models to inverse filtering• 24 month milestone: Inverse filtering experiments on

intensity regulation of speech with soft and extremely loud voices

- Algorithmic development performed by HUT researchers (funded not by HOARSE)

- Application of inverse filtering studied by the young researcher, Eva Björkner, funded by HOARSE

- Soft and extremely loud voices represented by singing voices

(the main area of expertise for Eva Björkner)

HUT Acoustics 4

Task 3.2 Voice production studies

• 12 month milestone: Inverse filtering experiments on high-pitched voices

• 24 month milestone: Research on the relationship between the main effects of the glottal flow (fundamental frequency, phonation type etc.) and brain functions using MEG

- Inverse filtering analysis on high-pitched voices studied by Eva Björkner using singing voices

- Relationship between the glottal flow and brain functions studied at HUT (but not funded at the moment by HOARSE)

HUT Acoustics 5

Task 3.3 Voice production and cortical speech processing

Studied at HUT (funded so far mainly by the Academy of Finland ).

Examples of studies:

Mäkelä, Alku, Mäkinen, Valtonen, May, Tiitinen: Human cortical dynamics determined by speech fundamental frequency, NeuroImage, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 1300-1305, 2002.

Mäkelä, Alku, Tiitinen: The auditory N1m reveals the left-hemispheric representation of vowel identity in humans. Neuroscience Letters, Vol. 353, pp. 111-114, 2003.

Mäkelä, Alku, Mäkinen, Tiitinen: Glides in speech fundamental frequency are reflected in the auditory N1m response. NeuroReport, Vol. 15, No. 7, pp. 1205-1208, 2004.

HUT Acoustics 6

General issues:• Kalle Palomäki, “the bridge” between HUT and

Sheffield:

- funded by the Academy of Finland but also by HOARSE

- works on Task 3.3

- joint publications • Tasks 3.1 & 3.2 (and thereby the entire

HOARSE) get strong scientific support from KTH, Prof. Johan Sundberg