Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications: 5th International Workshop: December 13-15, 2007, Firenze, Italy

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies. The Workshop has the sponsorship of: Ente Cassa Risparmio di Firenze, COST Action 2103, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Journal (Elsevier Eds.), IEEE Biomedical Engineering Soc. Special Issues of International Journals have been, and will be, published, collecting selected papers from the conference

Brownian dynamics for the vowel sounds of human language

We present a model for the evolution of vowel sounds in human languages, in which words behave as Brownian particles diffusing in acoustic space, interacting via the vowel sounds they contain. Interaction forces, derived from a simple model of the language learning process, are attractive at short range and repulsive at long range. This generates sets of acoustic clusters, each representing a distinct sound, which form patterns with similar statistical properties to real vowel systems. Our formulation may be generalised to account for spontaneous self actuating shifts in system structure which are observed in real languages, and to combine in one model two previously distinct theories of vowel system structure: dispersion theory, which assumes that vowel systems maximize contrasts between sounds, and quantal theory, according to which non linear relationships between articulatory and acoustic parameters are the source of patterns in sound inventories. By formulating the dynamics of vowel sounds using inter-particle forces, we also provide a simple unifi ed description of the linguistic notion of push and pull dynamics in vowel systems.The authors are grateful to the Royal Society for an APEX award (2018-2020), funded by the Leverhulme trust

Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications

This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2003, held 10-12 December 2003, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies

A Satellite Association Procedure

A procedure is derived for estimating the consistency of a radar observation of an object with a prediction of an orbiting object. This procedure may be of use as an association procedure., i.e., to insure that data is indeed being taken on an intended object before associating the new data with old data on the object. Specifically we show that, with reasonable assumptions about the observational and prediction errors, a quadratic form associated with the position error vector has a chi-square distribution with 3 degrees of freedom. Thus we can compute the probability of the residual if the observation and the prediction come from the same object. A low probability is taken as an indication that the prediction and observation refer to different objects. The computational procedure is described in detail, and a Monte Carlo run is included to demonstrate the correctness of the procedure

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies

The nature and function of human nonverbal vocalisations

Though human nonverbal vocalisations are widespread, scientific consideration of their mechanisms and communicative functions has been largely overlooked. This is despite their close alignment with the vocal communicative systems of primates and other mammals, whose primary function is to signal indexical information relevant to sexual and natural selection processes. In this thesis, I examine human nonverbal vocalisations from an evolutionary perspective, with the central hypothesis that they are functionally and structurally homologous to nonhuman mammal calls, communicating evolutionarily relevant indexical information that is perceived and utilised by listeners. In Chapter 1, I introduce the methodological framework (source-filter theory) necessary to understand the production of vocal signals in mammals, before summarising the information contained within the acoustic structure of nonhuman mammals and human speech, and the effects these cues have on both vocaliser and listener. I then examine the current evidence for functional and structural homology between human and nonhuman nonverbal vocalisations. In Chapters 2 to 5, I quantitatively analyse the acoustic structure of a number of nonverbal vocalisations, and perform playback experiments to examine their functional effects on listeners. In Chapters 2 and 3, I investigate whether aggressive roars and distress screams communicate acoustic cues to absolute and relative strength and height. In Chapter 4, I analyse the acoustic structure of pain cries of varying intensity, and conduct playback experiments to explore the acoustic and perceptual correlates of pain. In Chapter 5, I examine whether the fundamental frequency of tennis grunts produced during professional tennis matches is dependent on the sex and body posture of the vocaliser, as well as the progress and outcome of the contest, and whether listeners can infer these cues. In Chapter 6, I tie these findings together, arguing that the acoustic structure of human nonverbal vocalisations, in continuity with nonhuman mammal vocalisations, has been selected to support the functional communication of indexical and motivational information

Analysis and correction of the helium speech effect by autoregressive signal processing

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