Vowel synthesis tool based on transmission line model as a web application

Abstract

This paper introduces a web application for vowel synthesis in acoustics education. Synthesis systems that provide users with interactive operation for determining vocal tract configuration and vocal fold control parameters can be effective tools for intuitive understanding of vowel production for students. For example, differences in the size of the vocal tract and vocal folds between male and female speakers can be recognized as differences in formant and pitch frequencies in speech sounds. The realization of such a system as a web application is suitable for platform independent use, considering the recent progress in information and communication technology. In our developed system, interactive operation for determining vocal tract configuration and vocal fold control parameters is achieved on a web browser by using a Java applet. These articulatory parameters are transferred to a server computer via a client/server connection using socket programming, and synthetic speech is produced using calculation programs on the server computer. The speech synthesizer installed on the server is based on the hybrid speech production model proposed by Sondhi and Schroeter. A preliminary user test showed that the system demonstrated a certain applicability as a teaching tool.