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Abstract

Speech synthesizers may operate in terms of acoustic analogue signals (Haskins PB2), acoustic parameters (PAT, OVE II), physiological analogue signals (DAVO), or physiological parameters. The main difficulty in the latter possibility is in devising parametric characterizations of the vocal tract shape; these parameters should reflect the anatomical constraints, which are not yet fully known. Data on the positions of the muscles of the tongue on one subject have been collected. As a result we have a hypothesis concerning the forces exerted by the muscles in a number of vowels. This hypothesis, which may form the basis for a physiological characterization of speech, will be verified by the construction of a working replica of the vocal organs. The advantages of this form of physiological speech synthesizer in comparison with a computer simulation are discussed.

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Some Possibilities in Speech Synthesis

Abstract

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