Computer-Generated Speech, Perception of

The ability to generate synthetic speech under computer control provides an important tool for the study of speech perception as well as an important technology for interacting with computers. We generally think of speech as a uniquely human ability, even if qualified by the vocal mimicry abilities of other species such as parrots and mynah birds, but computer models of speech production make it possible to generate speech signals with specific acoustic characteristics. Speech is an extremely complex acoustic signal mixing periodic and aperiodic sounds and consisting of patterns of frequency change over time, bursts of noise, silent gaps, and brief steady state patterns. Understanding how listeners quickly and effectively understand this complex signal is the primary goal of speech perception research, and synthetic speech ...