Study for practical use of a digital hearing aid device having functions of speech rate convertion and intonation emphasis

具有语速转换和语调强调功能的数字助听器的实用化研究

• 批准号: 09559001
• 负责人: IFUKUBE Tohru
• 金额: $ 4.35万
• 依托单位: HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 日本
• 项目类别: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 日本
• 起止时间: 1997 至 1998
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-09559001/
• 关键词: Digital hearing aid; The elderly hearing impaired; Speech rate conversion; Intonation emphasis; Pitch fluctuation; 1; f fluctuation; Wavelet conversion; Speech synthesis; イントネーション; 難聴; 高齢者; 範疇的知覚; 波形ゆらぎ

The purpose of this study is to develop a digital hearing aid, which has functions of speech rate conversion and intonation emphasis, for the elderly impaired. Research results are as follows.1. The digital hearing aid having a function of the speech rate conversion was designed and this hearing aid was evaluated by the elderly hearing impaired. From the experimental results, the recognition rate of the Japanese words increased 3 times when the conversion rate was 1.5 times of the ordinary speech rate. We have developed a portable hearing aid having the speech rate conversion function in cooperation with Hitachi company.2. Discrimination ability of the intonation change was tested by the elderly hearing impaired. From the results, the ability was found to be much worse than the normal subjects. Furthermore, the intonation discrimination ability of the elderly hearing impaired was found to increase when the intonation of the words was emphasized. This means that the intonation emphasis was effective for the hearing impaired. Especially, the emphasis would be useful for Chinese spoken language which has fore tones.3. We have found that pitch fluctuation, which is small intonation change, has characteristics of 1/f fluctuation. It was anticipated that the addition of the fluctuation to the hearing aid function would be useful to improve the quality of speech. Furthermore, a wavelet conversion method was proved to be effective to control the pitch fluctuation and the conversion algorithm was successfully stored into a digital signal processor of the hearing aid. Through the study, it was clarified that the 1/f fluctuation and the wavelet conversion algorithm are very useful to improve the digital hearing aid for the elderly hearing impaired.

本研究的目的是为老年人研制一种具有语速转换和语调强调功能的数字助听器。研究成果如下：1.研究成果。设计了一种具有语速转换功能的数字助听器，并对老年听障人士进行了评估。实验结果表明，当转换率为普通语音速率的1.5倍时，日语单词的识别率提高了3倍。我们与日立公司合作开发了一款具有语速转换功能的便携式助听器。对老年听力障碍者进行语调变化的辨别能力测试。结果发现，这一能力比正常受试者差得多。此外，还发现老年听障人士的语调辨别能力随着对词语语调的重视而提高。这意味着强调语调对听力受损的人是有效的。特别是对于具有前声调的汉语口语，这种强调将是有用的。我们发现，音高波动具有1/f波动的特征，音高波动是语调的微小变化。预计将波动添加到助听器功能将有助于提高语音质量。在此基础上，采用小波变换的方法对基音周期波动进行了有效的控制，并将变换算法成功地存储到助听器的数字信号处理器中。通过研究表明，1/f起伏和小波变换算法对于改善老年听障人士的数字助听器是非常有用的。

项目成果

N. Aoki and T. Ifukube: "Analysis and perception of spectra 1/f characteristics of amplitude and press fluctuation in normal sustaiend vowels" The Journal of the Acoustical Society America. (1998)

N. Aoki 和 T. Ifukube：“正常延音元音振幅和压力波动的频谱 1/f 特征的分析和感知”美国声学学会杂志。

S. Miyoshi, T. Ifukube and etc,: "Evaluation of the Tripolar Electrode Stimulation Method by Numberical Analysis and Animal Experiments for Cochlear Implants" Acta Otolaryngol. 532. 123-125 (1997)

S. Miyoshi，T. Ifukube等，“通过数字分析和动物实验对人工耳蜗植入的三极电极刺激方法进行评估”Acta Otolaryngol。

伊福部 達: "音の福祉工学,音響テクノ、ロジーシリーズ" コロナ社, 252 (1997)

Tatsu Ifukube：“声音福利工程、声学技术、科学系列” Coronasha，252 (1997)

T.Ifukube: "From sensory substitute technology to virtual reality research" Artificial Life and Robotics. Springer-Herlag. 145-150 (1998)

T.Ifukube：“从感觉替代技术到虚拟现实研究”人工生命和机器人。

N.AOKI and T.Ifukube: "1/f Shimmer and jitter in normal sustained vowels and their application to speech synthesis" The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. in press (1998)

N.AOKI 和 T.Ifukube：“1/f 正常持续元音中的闪烁和抖动及其在语音合成中的应用”美国声学学会杂志。