RI: Collaborative Research: Foreign accent conversion through articulatory inversion of the vocal-tract frontal cavity

RI：合作研究：通过声道额腔的发音倒转进行外国口音转换

• 批准号: 0713205
• 负责人: Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna
• 金额: $ 22.99万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0713205&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RI; Collaborative; Research; Foreign; accent

The ability to transform a ?foreign? accented voice into its ?native? counterpart could be an invaluable tool in pronunciation training for second-language learners. This requires separating those aspects of the speech signal that are determined by the anatomy of the vocal tract from those that result from the idiosyncratic way in which the speaker controls it. While these two sources interact in complex ways in the acoustic domain, a few studies indicate that they may be decoupled in the articulatory space, specifically in the vocal tract frontal cavity.The objective of this research is to determine the extent to which foreign-accent conversion can be performed through articulatory inversion of the frontal cavity. For this purpose, two complementary problems are being investigated. First, existing articulatory datasets are being used to develop a foreign-accent conversion model that operates in the frontal cavity domain. Second, articulatory inversion models are being developed to estimate the frontal cavity configuration from speech acoustics. Results from these models are being systematically validated through perceptual tests of foreign-accentedness, speaker identity and acoustic quality.English is a second language for a significant percentage of the workforce in the United States. Reduction of foreign accent becomes increasingly difficult beyond the ?critical period? of language learning, but substantial improvements in pronunciation do occur for adult second-language learners. This work will stimulate the development of new technology to facilitate such improvements. Its results may also find application for film dubbing/looping, as well as in speech technology at large (e.g., feature extraction, data compression).

改造“外国人”的能力口音变成其“母语”？对应物可能是第二语言学习者发音训练的宝贵工具。这需要将语音信号中由声道的解剖结构决定的那些方面与由说话者控制它的特殊方式产生的那些方面分开。虽然这两个源在声学领域以复杂的方式相互作用，但一些研究表明它们可能在发音空间中解耦，特别是在声道额腔中。本研究的目的是确定通过额腔的发音反转可以在多大程度上执行外国口音转换。为此，正在研究两个互补的问题。首先，现有的发音数据集被用来开发在额腔域中运行的外国口音转换模型。其次，正在开发发音反转模型来根据语音声学估计额腔配置。这些模型的结果正在通过对外国口音、说话者身份和音质的感知测试进行系统验证。英语是美国很大一部分劳动力的第二语言。过了“关键期”，减少外国口音就变得越来越困难。语言学习的进步，但成人第二语言学习者的发音确实发生了显着的改善。这项工作将刺激新技术的开发，以促进此类改进。其结果还可以应用于电影配音/循环以及整个语音技术（例如特征提取、数据压缩）。