Speech quality assessment and evaluation

Jekosch, Ute

doi:10.21437/eurospeech.1993-11

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Human listeners usually perceive transmitted speech signals as possessing a certain transmission quality, which might be communicated through free verbalizations or, in more systematic measurement contexts, through subjective quality ratings [1]. Yet, such behavioral descriptions are in fact just the end products of a hidden information processing chain within the experiencing person, being initiated by the occurrence of stimuli in the environment [2][3][4]. This presumed internal quality formation process includes all sensory, cognitive and motor processing steps necessary for perceiving, evaluating and describing the quality of a given stimulus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to current theoretical consensus, a 'quality event' eventually results from the comparison of perceived and expected quality features, referring to a subset of stimulus features which are known to affect subjective quality experience. In other words, 'quality' per se is identified with a specific cognitive judgment, resulting from a rather late evaluation process based on conscious reflection [3,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural correlates of speech quality dimensions analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG)

et al. 2019

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Objective. By means of subjective psychophysical methods, quality of transmitted speech has been decomposed into three perceptual dimensions named 'discontinuity' (F), 'noisiness' (N) and 'coloration' (C). Previous studies using electroencephalography (EEG) already reported effects of perceived intensity of single quality dimensions on electrical brain activity. However, it has not been investigated so far, whether the dimensions themselves are dissociable on a neurophysiological level of analysis. Approach. Pursuing this goal in the present study, a high-quality (HQ) recording of a spoken word was degraded on each dimension at a time, resulting in three quality-impaired stimuli (F, N, C) which were on average described as being equal in perceived degradation intensity. Participants performed a three-stimulus oddball task, involving the serial presentation of different stimulus types:(1) HQ or degraded 'standard' stimuli to establish sensory/perceptual quality references. (2) Degraded 'oddball' stimuli to cause random, infrequent deviations from those references. EEG was employed to examine the neuro-electrical correlates of speech quality perception. Main results. Emphasis was placed on modulations in temporal and morphological characteristics of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), whose subcomponents P3a and P3b are commonly linked to attentional orienting and task relevance categorization, respectively. Electrophysiological data analysis ( N = 28) revealed significant modulations of P300 amplitude and latency by the perceptual dimensions underlying both quality references and oddball stimuli. Significance. The present study exemplifies the utility of physiological methods like EEG for dissociating speech degradations not only based on perceived intensity level, but also their distinctive quality dimension.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of speech quality dimensions analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG)

et al. 2019

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“…Prior theoretical assertions presumably motivated the initial decision to utilize the P3 component for psychophysiological quality assessment. Conceptual models of internal quality formation have reduced 'quality' to the subjective experience associated with a cognitive evaluation process [2,3,19]: Accordingly, a quality judgment is understood as resulting from the comparison of expected and perceived quality features, referring to a subset of descriptive stimulus features taken into account by an individual person who evaluates quality, while being situated in a multi-layered (e.g. temporal, physical, task etc see [20,21]) context.…”

Section: P3-based Assessment Of Speech Transmission Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, also methodological limitations might have been responsible for research on speech quality perception and cognition taking priority over sensory processing of impaired speech signals. Past studies relied mostly on psycho-acoustic techniques in order to establish relationships between different kinds and intensities of speech signal impairments and behavioral descriptions of perceived speech quality [1][2][3][28][29]. Respective protocols for subjective multimedia quality assessment have evolved into standardized recommendations by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) [31]: Participants are usually required to reflect on their quality percepts of test stimuli, to arrive at an explicit quality judgment, encode it within the range of the quality rating scale at hand and produce the corresponding behavioral description [3,19].…”

Section: P3-based Assessment Of Speech Transmission Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impact of degraded speech on human listeners has been independently studied in telecommunications quality engineering [1][2][3], audiology and auditory neuroscience [4][5][6][7]. A recent series of experiments in the former field manipulated quality impairment factors common to speech transmission pathways and terminal equipment like packet/frame loss, multiplicative noise, bandwidth limitation and bit rate reduction (for reviews, see [8,9]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of speech transmission quality on sensory processing indicated by the cortical auditory evoked potential

2020

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Objective. Degradations of transmitted speech have been shown to affect perceptual and cognitive processing in human listeners, as indicated by the P3 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). However, research suggests that previously observed P3 modulations might actually be traced back to earlier neural modulations in the time range of the P1-N1-P2 complex of the cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP). This study investigates whether auditory sensory processing, as reflected by the P1-N1-P2 complex, is already systematically altered by speech quality degradations. Approach. Electrophysiological data from two studies were analyzed to examine effects of speech transmission quality (high-quality, noisy, bandpass-filtered) for spoken words on amplitude and latency parameters of individual P1, N1 and P2 components. Main results. In the resultant ERP waveforms, an initial P1-N1-P2 manifested at stimulus onset, while a second N1-P2 occurred within the ongoing stimulus. Bandpass-filtered versus high-quality word stimuli evoked a faster and larger initial N1 as well as a reduced initial P2, hence exhibiting effects as early as the sensory stage of auditory information processing. Significance. The results corroborate the existence of systematic quality-related modulations in the initial N1-P2, which may potentially have carried over into P3 modulations demonstrated by previous studies. In future psychophysiological speech quality assessments, rigorous control procedures are needed to ensure the validity of P3-based indication of speech transmission quality. An alternative CAEP-based assessment approach is discussed, which promises to be more efficient and less constrained than the established approach based on P3.

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Voice and Speech Quality Perception

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Speech quality assessment and evaluation

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Neural correlates of speech quality dimensions analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG)

Neural correlates of speech quality dimensions analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG)

Effects of speech transmission quality on sensory processing indicated by the cortical auditory evoked potential

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