Immediately following the Second World War, between 1947 and 1955, several classic papers quantified the fundamentals of human speech information processing and recognition. In 1947 French and Steinberg published their classic study on the articulation index. In 1948 Claude Shannon published his famous work on the theory of information. In 1950 Fletcher and Galt published their theory of the articulation index, a theory that Fletcher had worked on for 30 years, which integrated his classic works on loudness and speech perception with models of speech intelligibility. In 1951 George Miller then wrote the first book Language and Communication, analyzing human speech communication with Claude Shannon's just published theory of information. Finally in 1955 George Miller published the first extensive analysis of phone decoding, in the form of confusion matrices, as a function of the speech-to-noise ratio. This work extended the Bell Labs' speech articulation studies with ideas from Shannon's Information theory. Both Miller and Fletcher showed that speech, as a code, is incredibly robust to mangling distortions of filtering and noise. Regrettably much of this early work was forgotten. While the key science of information theory blossomed, other than the work of George Miller, it was rarely applied to aural speech research. The robustness of speech, which is the most amazing thing about the speech code, has rarely been studied. It is my belief (i.e., assumption) that we can analyze speech intelligibility with the scientific method. The quantitative analysis of speech intelligibility requires both science and art. The scientific component requires an error analysis of spoken communication, which depends critically on the use of statistics, information theory, and psychophysical methods. The artistic component depends on knowing how to restrict the problem in such a way that progress may be made. It is critical to tease out the relevant from the irrelevant and dig for the key issues. This will focus us on the decoding of nonsense phonemes with no visual component, which have been mangled by filtering and noise. This monograph is a summary and theory of human speech recognition. It builds on and integrates the work of Fletcher, Miller, and Shannon. The long-term goal is to develop a quantitative theory for predicting the recognition of speech sounds. In Chapter 2 the theory is developed for maximum entropy (MaxEnt) speech sounds, also called nonsense speech. In Chapter 3, context is factored in. The book is largely reflective, and quantitative, with a secondary goal of providing an historical context, along with the many deep insights found in these early works.

Speech dynamics refer to the temporal characteristics in all stages of the human speech communication process. This speech "chain" starts with the formation of a linguistic message in a speaker's brain and ends with the arrival of the message in a listener's brain. Given the intricacy of the dynamic speech process and its fundamental importance in human communication, this monograph is intended to provide a comprehensive material on mathematical models of speech dynamics and to address the following issues: How do we make sense of the complex speech process in terms of its functional role of speech communication? How do we quantify the special role of speech timing? How do the dynamics relate to the variability of speech that has often been said to seriously hamper automatic speech recognition? How do we put the dynamic process of speech into a quantitative form to enable detailed analyses? And finally, how can we incorporate the knowledge of speech dynamics into computerized speech analysis and recognition algorithms? The answers to all these questions require building and applying computational models for the dynamic speech process. What are the compelling reasons for carrying out dynamic speech modeling? We provide the answer in two related aspects. First, scientific inquiry into the human speech code has been relentlessly pursued for several decades. As an essential carrier of human intelligence and knowledge, speech is the most natural form of human communication. Embedded in the speech code are linguistic (as well as para-linguistic) messages, which are conveyed through four levels of the speech chain. Underlying the robust encoding and transmission of the linguistic messages are the speech dynamics at all the four levels. Mathematical modeling of speech dynamics provides an effective tool in the scientific methods of studying the speech chain. Such scientific studies help understand why humans speak as they do and how humans exploit redundancy and variability by way of multitiered dynamic processes to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of human speech communication. Second, advancement of human language technology, especially that in automatic recognition of natural-style human speech is also expected to benefit from comprehensive computational modeling of speech dynamics. The limitations of current speech recognition technology are serious and are well known. A commonly acknowledged and frequently discussed weakness of the statistical model underlying current speech recognition technology is the lack of adequate dynamic modeling schemes to provide correlation structure across the temporal speech observation sequence. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, the majority of current research activities in this area favor only incremental modifications and improvements to the existing HMM-based state-of-the-art. For example, while the dynamic and correlation modeling is known to be an important topic, most of the systems nevertheless employ only an ultra-weak form of speech dynamics; e.g., differential or delta parameters. Strong-form dynamic speech modeling, which is the focus of this monograph, may serve as an ultimate solution to this problem. After the introduction chapter, the main body of this monograph consists of four chapters. They cover various aspects of theory, algorithms, and applications of dynamic speech models, and provide a comprehensive survey of the research work in this area spanning over past 20~years. This monograph is intended as advanced materials of speech and signal processing for graudate-level teaching, for professionals and engineering practioners, as well as for seasoned researchers and engineers specialized in speech processing

Latent semantic mapping (LSM) is a generalization of latent semantic analysis (LSA), a paradigm originally developed to capture hidden word patterns in a text document corpus. In information retrieval, LSA enables retrieval on the basis of conceptual content, instead of merely matching words between queries and documents. It operates under the assumption that there is some latent semantic structure in the data, which is partially obscured by the randomness of word choice with respect to retrieval. Algebraic and/or statistical techniques are brought to bear to estimate this structure and get rid of the obscuring ""noise."" This results in a parsimonious continuous parameter description of words and documents, which then replaces the original parameterization in indexing and retrieval. This approach exhibits three main characteristics: -Discrete entities (words and documents) are mapped onto a continuous vector space; -This mapping is determined by global correlation patterns; and -Dimensionality reduction is an integral part of the process. Such fairly generic properties are advantageous in a variety of different contexts, which motivates a broader interpretation of the underlying paradigm. The outcome (LSM) is a data-driven framework for modeling meaningful global relationships implicit in large volumes of (not necessarily textual) data. This monograph gives a general overview of the framework, and underscores the multifaceted benefits it can bring to a number of problems in natural language understanding and spoken language processing. It concludes with a discussion of the inherent tradeoffs associated with the approach, and some perspectives on its general applicability to data-driven information extraction. Contents: I. Principles / Introduction / Latent Semantic Mapping / LSM Feature Space / Computational Effort / Probabilistic Extensions / II. Applications / Junk E-mail Filtering / Semantic Classification / Language Modeling / Pronunciation Modeling / Speaker Verification / TTS Unit Selection / III. Perspectives / Discussion / Conclusion / Bibliography

This undergraduate textbook aids readers in studying music and color, which involve nearly the entire gamut of the fundamental laws of classical as well as atomic physics. The objective bases for these two subjects are, respectively, sound and light. Their corresponding underlying physical principles overlap greatly: Both music and color are manifestations of wave phenomena. As a result, commonalities exist as to the production, transmission, and detection of sound and light. Whereas traditional introductory physics textbooks are styled so that the basic principles are introduced first and are then applied, this book is based on a motivational approach: It introduces a subject with a set of related phenomena, challenging readers by calling for a physical basis for what is observed. A novel topic in the first edition and this second edition is a non-mathematical study of electric and magnetic fields and how they provide the basis for the propagation of electromagnetic waves, of light in particular. The book provides details for the calculation of color coordinates and luminosity from the spectral intensity of a beam of light as well as the relationship between these coordinates and the color coordinates of a color monitor. The second edition contains corrections to the first edition, the addition of more than ten new topics, new color figures, as well as more than forty new sample problems and end-of-chapter problems. The most notable additional topics are: the identification of two distinct spectral intensities and how they are related, beats in the sound from a Tibetan bell, AM and FM radio, the spectrogram, the short-time Fourier transform and its relation to the perception of a changing pitch, a detailed analysis of the transmittance of polarized light by a Polaroid sheet, brightness and luminosity, and the mysterious behavior of the photon. The Physics of Music and Color is written at a level suitable for college students without any scientific background, requiring only simple algebra and a passing familiarity with trigonometry. The numerous problems at the end of each chapter help the reader to fully grasp the subject.

Auralization is the technique of creation and reproduction of sound on the basis of computer data. With this tool it is possible to predict the character of sound signals which are generated at the source and modified by reinforcement, propagation and transmission in systems such as rooms, buildings, vehicles or other technical devices. This book is organized as a comprehensive collection of the basics of sound and vibration, acoustic modelling, simulation, signal processing and audio reproduction. With some mathematical prerequisites, the readers will be able to follow the main strategy of auralization easily and work out their own implementations of auralization in various fields of application in architectural acoustics, acoustic engineering, sound design and virtual reality. For readers interested in basic research, the technique of auralization may be useful to create sound stimuli for specific investigations in linguistic, medical, neurological and psychological research, and in the field of human-machine interaction.

Materials Science and Engineering in Food Product Development A comprehensive and accessible guide to the food development applications of cutting-edge materials science In Materials Science and Engineering in Food Product Development, distinguished researcher Wing-Fu Lai delivers an authoritative exploration of the roles played by materials science and engineering in food product development. In the book, the authors employ a practical, industrial perspective to illustrate how food products, especially functional foods, can benefit from the incorporation of materials science technologies. The book includes helpful glossary sections in each chapter, as well as important notes to highlight information useful to food manufacturers engaged in the real-world development and manufacture of foods. This book is appropriate for both early and advanced researchers interested in the design, improvement, and engineering of food products using the most current advances in food materials science. Readers will also find: A thorough overview of the most critical advances in food materials science Comprehensive explorations of a materials science approach to food product design and discussions of techniques for the characterization of food materials and products Practical discussions of the design and use of hydrogels, polymers, and lipid-based systems for food component encapsulation Comprehensive treatments of the optimization of pasting and textural properties of food products by rheological manipulation Perfect for students, researchers, and scholars in the fields of nutritional science, materials engineering, food science, food engineering, and nanotechnology, Materials Science and Engineering in Food Product Development will also benefit food manufacturing professionals during food product development.

Audio Production and Critical Listening: Technical Ear Training, Second Edition develops your critical and expert listening skills, enabling you to listen to audio like an award-winning engineer. Featuring an accessible writing style, this new edition includes information on objective measurements of sound, technical descriptions of signal processing, and their relationships to subjective impressions of sound. It also includes information on hearing conservation, ear plugs, and listening levels, as well as bias in the listening process. The interactive web browser-based "ear training" software practice modules provide experience identifying various types of signal processes and manipulations. Working alongside the clear and detailed explanations in the book, this software completes the learning package that will help you train you ears to listen and really "hear" your recordings. This all-new edition has been updated to include: Audio and psychoacoustic theories to inform and expand your critical listening practice. Access to integrated software that promotes listening skills development through audio examples found in actual recording and production work, listening exercises, and tests. Cutting-edge interactive practice modules created to increase your experience. More examples of sound recordings analysis. New outline for progressing through the EQ ear training software module with listening exercises and tips.

Worship Sound Spaces unites specialists from architecture, acoustic engineering and the social sciences to encourage closer analysis of the sound environments within places of worship. Gathering a wide range of case studies set in Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, the book presents investigations into Muslim, Christian and Hindu spaces. These diverse cultural contexts demonstrate the composite nature of designing and experiencing places of worship. Beginning with a historical overview of the three primary indicators in acoustic design of religious buildings, reverberation, intelligibility and clarity, the second part of this edited collection offers a series of field studies devoted to perception, before moving onto recent examples of restoration of the sound ambiances of former religious buildings. Written for academics and students interested in architecture, cultural heritage, acoustics, sensory studies and sound. The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: https://frama.link/WSS

Advanced Computational Vibroacoustics presents an advanced computational method for the prediction of sound and structural vibrations, in low- and medium-frequency ranges - complex structural acoustics and fluid-structure interaction systems encountered in aerospace, automotive, railway, naval, and energy-production industries. The formulations are presented within a unified computational strategy and are adapted for the present and future generation of massively parallel computers. A reduced-order computational model is constructed using the finite element method for the damped structure and the dissipative internal acoustic fluid (gas or liquid with or without free surface) and using an appropriate symmetric boundary-element method for the external acoustic fluid (gas or liquid). This book allows direct access to computational methods that have been adapted for the future evolution of general commercial software. Written for the global market, it is an invaluable resource for academic researchers, graduate students, and practising engineers.

Michel Chion's landmark Audio-Vision has exerted significant influence on our understanding of sound-image relations since its original publication in 1994. Chion argues that sound film qualitatively produces a new form of perception. Sound in audiovisual media does not merely complement images. Instead, the two channels together engage audio-vision, a special mode of perception that transforms both seeing and hearing. We don't see images and hear sounds separately-we audio-view a trans-sensory whole. In this updated and expanded edition, Chion considers many additional examples from recent world cinema and formulates new questions for the contemporary media environment. He takes into account the evolving role of audio-vision in different theatrical environments, considering its significance for music videos, video art, commercial television, and the internet, as well as conventional cinema. Chion explores how multitrack digital sound enables astonishing detail, extending the space of the action and changing practices of scene construction. He demonstrates that speech is central to film and television and shows why "audio-logo-visual" is a more accurate term than "audiovisual." Audio-Vision shows us that sound is driving the creation of a sensory cinema. This edition includes a glossary of terms, a chronology of several hundred significant films, and the original foreword by sound designer, editor, and Oscar honoree Walter Murch.

This title is a complete guide to recording dialog on location. The topics include audio basics, microphone selection, wireless systems, recording and mixing techniques, and the Ten Location Sound Commandments, but it's more than just cables and connectors.

Learn the basics of modern robotics while building your own intelligent robot from scratch! You'll use inexpensive household materials to make the base for your robot, then add motors, power, wheels, and electronics. But wait, it gets better: your creation is actually five robots in one! -- build your bot in stages, and add the features you want. Vary the functions to create a robot that's uniquely yours. Mix and match features to make your own custom robot: Flexible Motorized Base -- a playpen for all kinds of programming experiments Obstacle Detector -- whiskers detect when your robot has bumped into things Object Avoider -- ultrasonic sound lets your robot see what's in front of it Infrared Remote Control -- command your robot from your easy chair Line Follower -- use optics to navigate your bot; have races with other robot builders! You will learn how switches, ultrasonics, infrared detectors, and optical sensors work. Install an Arduino microcontroller board and program your robot to avoid obstacles, provide feedback with lights and sound, and follow a tracking line. In this book you will combine multiple disciplines -- electronics, programming, and engineering -- to successfully build a multifunctional robot. You'll discover how to: construct a motorized base set up an Arduino to function as the brain use whisker switches to detect physical contact avoid obstacles with ultrasonic sensors teach your robot to judge distances use a universal remote to control your robot install and program a servo motor respond to input with LEDs, buzzers, and tones mount line-following sensors under your robot And more. Everything is explained with lots and lots of full-color line drawings. No prior experience is necessary. You'll have fun while you learn a ton!

The essential guide for anyone wanting a quick introduction to the fundamental ideas underlying photonics. The author uses his forty years of experience in photonics research and teaching to provide intuitive explanations of key concepts, and demonstrates how these relate to the operation of photonic devices and systems. Readers will gain insight into the nature of light and the ways in which it interacts with materials and structures, and learn how these basic ideas are applied in areas such as optical systems, 3D imaging and astronomy. Carefully designed worked examples and end-of-chapter problems enable students to check their understanding, with full solutions available online. Mathematical treatments are kept as simple as possible, allowing readers to grasp even the most complex of concepts. Clear, concise and accessible, this is the perfect guide for undergraduate students taking a first course in photonics, and anyone in academia or industry wanting to review the fundamentals.

Published for the Association of Professional Recording Services. and fully revised and updated for this edition, this book explains every link in the chain of professional sound recording. As well as the technical equipment, from microphones and mixers through to recording gear and manufacturing of CDs and cassettes, the techniques used in studios for recording speech and music of all kinds are described in detail.

With this all-in-one manual, students and teachers have an easy-to-read reference that provides a reliable and current rundown of the world of sound production, from planning a recording session to mastering the final product. Organized by four main topics - pre-production, recording various instruments, mixing theories and tools, and mastering - Audio Production Principles follows the actual flow of instruction given over the course of a student's tenure. Chapters address etiquette and basic operations for any recording session written in useful, tutorial style language, providing guidelines for beginner audio engineers on topics including pre-production, equipment selection, and mixing tips by instrument. Jumpstarting the mastering process, lessons delve into features unique to specific tools and techniques. All sections offer instructional scenarios of studio setups, asking students to brainstorm the best production technique for each situation. These exercises also help teachers generate new ideas for instruction and production projects of their own.

Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production shows how changes in the design of music software in the first decades of the twenty-first century shaped the production techniques and performance practices of artists working across media, from hip-hop and electronic dance music to video games and mobile apps. Emerging alongside developments in digital music distribution such as peer-to-peer file sharing and the MP3 format, digital audio workstations like FL Studio and Ableton Live introduced design affordances that encouraged rapid music creation workflows through flashy, "user-friendly" interfaces. Meanwhile, software such as Avid's Pro Tools attempted to protect its status as the "industry standard," "professional" DAW of choice by incorporating design elements from pre-digital music technologies. Other software, like Cycling 74's Max, asserted its alterity to "commercial" DAWs by presenting users with nothing but a blank screen. These are more than just aesthetic design choices. Push examines the social, cultural, and political values designed into music software, and how those values become embodied by musical communities through production and performance. It reveals ties between the maximalist design of FL Studio, skeuomorphic design in Pro Tools, and gender inequity in the music products industry. It connects the computational thinking required by Max, as well as iZotope's innovations in artificial intelligence, with the cultural politics of Silicon Valley's "design thinking." Finally, it thinks through what happens when software becomes hardware, and users externalize their screens through the use of MIDI controllers, mobile media, and video game controllers. Amidst the perpetual upgrade culture of music technology, Push provides a model for understanding software as a microcosm for the increasing convergence of globalization, neoliberal capitalism, and techno-utopianism that has come to define our digital lives.

The sounds produced by geophonic, biophonic and technophonic sources are relevant to the function of natural and human modified ecosystems. Passive recording is one of the most non-invasive technologies as its use avoids human intrusion during acoustic surveys and facilitates the accumulation of huge amounts of acoustical data. For the first time, this book collates and reviews the science behind ecoaucostics; illustrating the principles, methods and applications of this exciting new field. Topics covered in this comprehensive volume include; * the assessment of biodiversity based on sounds emanating from a variety of environments * the best technologies and methods necessary to investigate environmental sounds * implications for climate change and urban systems * the relationship between landscape ecology and ecoacoustics * the conservation of soundscapes and the social value of ecoacoustics * areas of potential future research. An invaluable resource for scholars, researchers and students, Ecoacoustics: The Ecological Role of Sounds provides an unrivalled set of ideas, tools and references based on the current state of the field.

If you ve ever handled live sound, you know the recipe for creating quality live sound requires many steps. Your list of ingredients, shall we say, requires an understanding of sound and how it behaves, the know-how to effectively use a sound system), and the knowledge to choose and use your gear well. Add a dash of miking ability, stir in a pinch of thinking on your feet for when your system starts to hum or the vocals start to feed back, and mix.

In practice, there really is no "recipe" for creating a quality performance. Instead, musicians and engineers who effectively use sound systems have a wealth of knowledge that informs their every move before and during a live performance. You can slowly gather that knowledge over years of live performance, or you can speed up the process with "The SOS Guide to Live Sound."

With these pages, you get practical advice that will allow you to accomplish your live-sound goals in every performance. Learn how to choose, set up, and use a live-performance sound system. Get the basics of live-sound mixing, save money by treating your gear well with a crash course in maintenance, and fix issues as they happen with a section on problem-solving, full of real-world situations. You ll also get information on stage-monitoring, both conventional and in-ear, along with the fundamentals of radio microphones and wireless mixing solutions. Finally, a comprehensive glossary of terminology rounds out this must-have reference."

A celebration of Irish thatch. The picturesque, white-washed thatched cottage is an iconic emblem of Ireland. The tradition reaches back in history to the ancient crannog and one-roomed labourers' cottages. Beautiful examples of this still-living craft can be found all over the island, from bustling urban centres and quiet country roads to the wild coasts of the west. Since moving into a thatched cottage several years ago, Emma Byrne has become fascinated by thatched houses and the craft behind them. Armed with a camera, a notebook, and a Sat Nav, she took to the roads, travelling the length and breadth of this island to capture the variety and beauty of Ireland's thatch. This beautiful new addition to the O'Brien Heritage series is a celebration of the unique beauty and wonder of Irish thatch. The book features a map guiding the reader to over 40 buildings that can be visited, including United Irishmen leader of the 1798 rebellion Michael Dwyer's hideout cottage in County Wicklow; America's 28th president Woodrow Wilson's ancestral home in County Tyrone; Dan Winters Cottage in County Armagh where The Orange Order began; the last miner's cottage in Kilkenny, the last fisherman's cottage near Lough Neagh, Thoor Ballylee, the County Galway home of poet WB Yeats; and a number of pubs, restaurants, art studios and shops around the country, museums (recently restored Casino Model Railway Museum in Malahide, Dublin) and windmills.

This book describes the many varied materials used by model engineers in their workshops such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals including aluminium, brass and copper, hard and soft woods and a number of engineering and other plastics. It also contains details about abrasives, adhesives, bearing materials, ceramics and refractory materials, coatings, electroplating solutions, fuels, gases, lubricants, pickles, polishing materials, sealants and solders. It provides an easy reference for those seeking the right material for the task or an item specified on plan. Packed full of useful information, the book is aimed at those who build model locomotives, traction, boat and stationary steam engines, oil, diesel, glow and petrol engines, gas turbines, artillery pieces, farming appliances, carriages and other road vehicles as well as those who make clocks and workshop tools. It is also directed at those working with full-size machinery, such as vintage cars, motor and pedal cycles, traction engines and railway locomotives.