Recognition of “Verbal Expression” over Communications Systems

Abstract

Communication systems which involve extensive speech processing may yield relatively high intelligibility scores but may fail to transmit other characteristics normally associated with voice communication systems. Among these other characteristics are features associated with the talker: his identity, his vocal effort, his expressive state, etc. A series of exploratory studies was designed to determine whether previously untrained listeners could identity the “verbal expression” of untrained talkers. Talkers were instructed to read neutral sentences, e.g., “The lamp is on the desk,” under instructions to “sound happy,” “sound pedantic,” etc. High recognition scores are obtained after a preliminary indoctrination period by some talkers with eight alternative expressions. The effects of background noise, whispering, and temporal sampling also will be discussed.