On-line experimental methods to evaluate text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis: effects of voice gender and signal quality on intelligibility, naturalness and preference

Stevens, Catherine J.; Lees, Nicole; Vonwiller, Julie; Burnham, Denis K

doi:10.1016/j.csl.2004.03.003

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Sex differences lead to intelligibility differences in noise (Kilic and Ogut, 2004;Stevens et al, 2005) and can be cause for particular concern under military noise conditions, such as in loud cockpits (Nixon et al, 1998). It is critical to know if demographic effects found in AC systems operate similarly in BC systems (McBride et al, 2008a).…”

Section: B Demographicsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The effect of vocal and demographic traits on speech intelligibility over bone conduction

Pollard

Tran

Łȩtowski

2015

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Bone conduction (BC) communication systems provide benefits over air conduction systems but are not in widespread use, partly due to problems with speech intelligibility. Contributing factors like device location and background noise have been explored, but little attention has been paid to the role of individual user differences. Because BC signals travel through an individual's skull and facial tissues, demographic factors such as user age, sex, race, or regional origin may influence sound transmission. Vocal traits such as pitch, spectral tilt, jitter, and shimmer may also play a role. Along with microphone placement and background noise, these factors can affect BC speech intelligibility. Eight diverse talkers were recorded with bone microphones on two different skull locations and in different background noise conditions. Twenty-four diverse listeners listened to these samples over BC and completed Modified Rhyme Tests for speech intelligibility. Forehead bone recordings were more intelligible than condyle recordings. In condyle recordings, female talkers, talkers with high fundamental frequency, and talkers in background noise were understood better, as were communications between talkers and listeners of the same regional origin. Listeners' individual traits had no significant effects. Thoughtful application of this knowledge can help improve BC communication for diverse users.

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Section: B Demographicsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The effect of vocal and demographic traits on speech intelligibility over bone conduction

Pollard

Tran

Łȩtowski

2015

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…Moreover, intelligibility of TTS synthesis is affected by both the gender of the voice and the quality of the signal affect (Stevens, Lees, Vonwiller, and Burnham, 2005). Previous studies have also indicated that synthetic speech perception in listeners without disabilities is also dependent on listening conditions (Koul & Allen, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Differences Among Sighted Individuals and Individuals with Visual Impairments in Word Intelligibility Presented via Synthetic and Natural Speech

Papadopoulos

Katemidou

Koutsoklenis

et al. 2010

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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This study investigated word intelligibility among sighted individuals and individuals with visual impairments for both natural and synthetic speech. Both groups of participants performed significantly better when identifying words presented via natural speech. The results also demonstrated that individuals with visual impairments were more successful than their sighted peers in understanding words presented via synthetic speech, with experience being the most critical factor in identifying words for the participants with visual impairments. Finally, the findings show the correlation between intelligibility and key factors such as age and the overall use of text-to-speech systems.

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“…Despite the limitations of the experimental setting, this series of experiments represents a comprehensive usability evaluation of the use of TTS in the context of a real-world application that is not often evident in other research in this area (as suggested by Stevens et al, 2005). The results are in agreement with previous research in a computer aided language learning (CALL) application (Handley, 2009), in which a sample of seventeen language professionals (teachers and researchers) rated the adequacy and acceptability of various TTS systems for use in a variety of teaching roles (e.g.…”

Section: Number Of Versionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the evaluation of TTS systems, many empirical evaluations focus on the acceptability, naturalness and comprehensibility of the systems (Stern et al, 1999;Stevens et al, 2005;Viswanathan and Viswanathan, 2005). Such research focuses on the comprehension or acceptability of TTS as a speech solution, that is, assessing TTS system prompts solely from a quality perspective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Usability assessment of text-to-speech synthesis for additional detail in an automated telephone banking system

Morton¹,

Gunson²,

Marshall³

et al. 2011

Computer Speech & Language

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This paper describes a comprehensive usability evaluation of an automated telephone banking system which employs text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis in offering additional detail on customers' account transactions. The paper describes a series of four experiments in which TTS was employed to offer an extra level of detail to recent transactions listings within an established banking service which otherwise uses recorded speech from a professional recording artist. Results from the experiments show that participants welcome the added value of TTS in being able to provide additional detail on their account transactions, but that TTS should be used minimally in the service.

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On-line experimental methods to evaluate text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis: effects of voice gender and signal quality on intelligibility, naturalness and preference

Cited by 32 publications

References 21 publications

The effect of vocal and demographic traits on speech intelligibility over bone conduction

The effect of vocal and demographic traits on speech intelligibility over bone conduction

Differences Among Sighted Individuals and Individuals with Visual Impairments in Word Intelligibility Presented via Synthetic and Natural Speech

Usability assessment of text-to-speech synthesis for additional detail in an automated telephone banking system

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