Title
Phoneme-group specific octave-band weights in predicting speech intelligibility
Author
Steeneken, H.J.M.
Houtgast, T.
TNO Technische Menskunde
Publication year
2002
Abstract
In an earlier study we derived robust frequency-weighting functions for prediction of the intelligibility of short nonsense words.These frequency-weighting functions are applied for prediction of intelligibility such as with the speech transmission index (STI).Six independent experiments revealed essentially similar frequency-weighting functions for the prediction of the nonsense word scores with respect to signal-to-noise ratio and gender [Speech Communication 28 (1999)109 ].Although the frequency weightings do not vary significantly for signal-to-noise ratio or gender, other studies have shown that using different types of speech material (i.e., nonsense words, phonetically balanced words and connected discourse) resulted in quite different frequency-weighting functions. This may be related to the distribution of specific phonemes in the test material. In order to obtain a more generic description of the frequency weighting, four relevant groups of phonemes were identified. In situations with reduced intelligibility, a small confusion rate of the phonemes within each group was observed.For each group a specific frequency-weighting function and a good prediction of the phoneme group scores could be obtained.It was shown that from these (weighted)phoneme group scores,word scores could be predicted with a prediction accuracy of ca.4%(this corresponds to a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1 dB).Hence,this method provides a more generic way to predict intelligibility scores for different types of speech material. (E)
Subject
Acoustics and Audiology
Diagnostic prediction
Frequency-importance function
Objective measurement
Octave-band contributions
Phoneme groups
Speech intelligibility
Speech transmission index
Bandwidth
Mathematical models
Signal to noise ratio
Transfer functions
Speech transmission index
STI
Speech communication
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-6393(02)00011-0
TNO identifier
11513
Source
Speech communication, 38 (3-4), 399-411
Document type
article