Articulatory synthesis

Articulatory synthesis refers to computational techniques for synthesizing speech based on models of the human vocal tract and the articulation processes occurring there. The shape of the vocal tract can be controlled in a number of ways which usually involves modifying the position of the speech articulators, such as the tongue, jaw, and lips. Speech is created by digitally simulating the flow of air through the representation of the vocal tract.

There is a long history of attempts to build mechanical "talking heads." Mechanical devices.Gerbert (d. 1003), Albertus Magnus (1198–1280) and Roger Bacon (1214–1294) are all said to have built speaking heads (Wheatstone 1837). However, historically confirmed speech synthesis begins with Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804), who published an account of his research in 1791 (see also Dudley & Tarnoczy 1950).

The first electrical vocal tract analogs were static, like those of Dunn (1950), Ken Stevens and colleagues (1953), Gunnar Fant (1960). Rosen (1958) built a dynamic vocal tract (DAVO), which Dennis (1963) later attempted to control by computer. Dennis et al. (1964), Hiki et al. (1968) and Baxter and Strong (1969) have also described hardware vocal-tract analogs. Kelly and Lochbaum (1962) made the first computer simulation; later digital computer simulations have been made, e.g. by Nakata and Mitsuoka (1965), Matsui (1968) and Paul Mermelstein (1971). Honda et al. (1968) have made an analog computer simulation.

The first software articulatory synthesizer regularly used for laboratory experiments was developed at Haskins Laboratories in the mid-1970s by Philip Rubin, Tom Baer, and Paul Mermelstein. This synthesizer, known as ASY, was a computational model of speech production based on vocal tract models developed at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s and 1970s by Paul Mermelstein, Cecil Coker, and colleagues. Another popular model that has been frequently used is that of Shinji Maeda, which uses a factor-based approach to control tongue shape.

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