Abstract
The goal of this project is to create a set of synthesized speech materials that yields listening results equivalent to those that would be obtained using recorded naturally spoken materials, such as the CUNY Nonsense Syllable Test and the CASPERsent set of topic-specific sentences. One research interest of the RERC-HE is the following: Can synthesized speech be used as a substitute for recorded human speech in aural rehabilitation and in hearing aid research? The listeners in this study are both adults with normal hearing and with hearing loss. We have tested two listeners with normal hearing and four with hearing loss using nonsense syllables synthesized with DECtalk. The patterns of errors in their identification of phonemes follow expected patterns when subjects’ responses were analyzed with respect to their audiometric profiles and the acoustic characteristics of the synthesized phonemes. The same group of listeners is now being tested using sentences from the CASPERsent lists synthesized with two commercially available text-to-speech systems: DECtalk, which uses a formant-type synthesizer, and ATT Natural Voices, which uses a concatenative synthesizer. Results of these listening tests will be presented. [This project is funded through the Rehab Engineering Research Center—Hearing Enhancement through the NIDRD.]
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