Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions with Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) workshop came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is a natural development from virtual reality (VR), which was developed several decades earlier. AR complements VR in many ways. Due to the advantages of the user being able to see both the real and virtual objects simultaneously, AR is far more intuitive, but it's not completely detached from human factors and other restrictions. AR doesn't consume as much time and effort in the applications because it's not required to construct the entire virtual scene and the environment. In this book, several new and emerging application areas of AR are presented and divided into three sections. The first section contains applications in outdoor and mobile AR, such as construction, restoration, security and surveillance. The second section deals with AR in medical, biological, and human bodies. The third and final section contains a number of new and useful applications in daily living and learning

Statistical Parametric Methods for Articulatory-Based Foreign Accent Conversion

Foreign accent conversion seeks to transform utterances from a non-native speaker (L2) to appear as if they had been produced by the same speaker but with a native (L1) accent. Such accent-modified utterances have been suggested to be effective in pronunciation training for adult second language learners. Accent modification involves separating the linguistic gestures and voice-quality cues from the L1 and L2 utterances, then transposing them across the two speakers. However, because of the complex interaction between these two sources of information, their separation in the acoustic domain is not straightforward. As a result, vocoding approaches to accent conversion results in a voice that is different from both the L1 and L2 speakers. In contrast, separation in the articulatory domain is straightforward since linguistic gestures are readily available via articulatory data. However, because of the difficulty in collecting articulatory data, conventional synthesis techniques based on unit selection are ill-suited for accent conversion given the small size of articulatory corpora and the inability to interpolate missing native sounds in L2 corpus. To address these issues, this dissertation presents two statistical parametric methods to accent conversion that operate in the acoustic and articulatory domains, respectively. The acoustic method uses a cross-speaker statistical mapping to generate L2 acoustic features from the trajectories of L1 acoustic features in a reference utterance. Our results show significant reductions in the perceived non-native accents compared to the corresponding L2 utterance. The results also show a strong voice-similarity between accent conversions and the original L2 utterance. Our second (articulatory-based) approach consists of building a statistical parametric articulatory synthesizer for a non-native speaker, then driving the synthesizer with the articulators from the reference L1 speaker. This statistical approach not only has low data requirements but also has the flexibility to interpolate missing sounds in the L2 corpus. In a series of listening tests, articulatory accent conversions were rated more intelligible and less accented than their L2 counterparts. In the final study, we compare the two approaches: acoustic and articulatory. Our results show that the articulatory approach, despite the direct access to the native linguistic gestures, is less effective in reducing perceived non-native accents than the acoustic approach

What can autism teach us about the role of sensorimotor systems in higher cognition? New clues from studies on language, action semantics, and abstract emotional concept processing.

Within the neurocognitive literature there is much debate about the role of the motor system in language, social communication and conceptual processing. We suggest, here, that autism spectrum conditions (ASC) may afford an excellent test case for investigating and evaluating contemporary neurocognitive models, most notably a neurobiological theory of action perception integration where widely-distributed cell assemblies linking neurons in action and perceptual brain regions act as the building blocks of many higher cognitive functions. We review a literature of functional motor abnormalities in ASC, following this with discussion of their neural correlates and aberrancies in language development, explaining how these might arise with reference to the typical formation of cell assemblies linking action and perceptual brain regions. This model gives rise to clear hypotheses regarding language comprehension, and we highlight a recent set of studies reporting differences in brain activation and behaviour in the processing of action-related and abstract-emotional concepts in individuals with ASC. At the neuroanatomical level, we discuss structural differences in long-distance frontotemporal and frontoparietal connections in ASC, such as would compromise information transfer between sensory and motor regions. This neurobiological model of action perception integration may shed light on the cognitive and social-interactive symptoms of ASC itself, building on and extending earlier proposals linking autistic symptomatology to motor disorder and dysfunction in action perception integration. Further investigating the contribution of motor dysfunction to higher cognitive and social impairment, we suggest, is timely and promising as it may advance both neurocognitive theory and the development of new clinical interventions for this population and others characterised by early and pervasive motor disruption

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty years of uninterrupted and succesfully research in the field of voice analysis

Example Based Caricature Synthesis

The likeness of a caricature to the original face image is an essential and often overlooked part of caricature production. In this paper we present an example based caricature synthesis technique, consisting of shape exaggeration, relationship exaggeration, and optimization for likeness. Rather than relying on a large training set of caricature face pairs, our shape exaggeration step is based on only one or a small number of examples of facial features. The relationship exaggeration step introduces two definitions which facilitate global facial feature synthesis. The first is the T-Shape rule, which describes the relative relationship between the facial elements in an intuitive manner. The second is the so called proportions, which characterizes the facial features in a proportion form. Finally we introduce a similarity metric as the likeness metric based on the Modified Hausdorff Distance (MHD) which allows us to optimize the configuration of facial elements, maximizing likeness while satisfying a number of constraints. The effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated with experimental results

Characterization and Improvement of the Clinical Assessment of Vocal Hyperfunction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-180).Vocal hyperfunction refers to "conditions of abuse and/or misuse of the vocal mechanism due to excessive and/or 'imbalanced' muscular forces" (Hillman, Holmberg, Perkell, Walsh, & Vaughan, 1989), characterized by excessive laryngeal and paralaryngeal tension (Aronson, 1980; M. D. Morrison, Rammage, Belisle, Pullan, & Nichol, 1983; N. Roy, Ford, & Bless, 1996). There is no widely accepted diagnostic measure of the presence and degree of vocal hyperfunction, and currently, assessment during diagnosis is often primarily based on subjective impressions given the patient's history and presentation of symptoms such as auditory-perceptual and visual or tactile discrimination of muscle tension (e.g., laryngeal palpation). Clinical care is hindered by the lack of a "gold standard" objective measure for the assessment of vocal hyperfunction. The first study in this thesis evaluated a novel experimental design for the study of vocal hyperfunction, making use of the established clinical procedure of injection laryngoplasty. This work found that the use of injection laryngoplasty as a platform for the study of some types of vocal hyperfunction is limited, but may offer a convenient opportunity to study selected associated parameters. Particular promising objective measures were investigated in the remaining four studies: kinematics of the vocal folds, root-mean-squared (RMS) measures of surface electromyography (sEMG), and spectral characteristics of sEMG. Kinematic features of vocal fold abduction and adduction were shown to discriminate between individuals with muscle tension dysphonia and controls.(cont.) RMS measures of sEMG were investigated through correlation with current clinical neck palpation techniques in voice therapy patients and via a cross-sectional study of individuals with vocal fold nodules. Correlations between RMS neck sEMG and palpation ratings were low, and although some individuals with nodules displayed RMS neck sEMG patterns that were inconsistent with those seen in controls, overall the RMS measures were unable to discriminate between disordered and control groups. Mean coherence between two neck sEMG locations in individuals with vocal nodules was significantly lower in the 15 - 35 Hz band relative to controls, possibly agreeing with past subjective accounts of "imbalanced" muscle activity.by Cara Elizabeth Stepp.Ph.D

Rhotics.New Data and Perspectives

This book provides an insight into the patterns of variation and change of rhotics in different languages and from a variety of perspectives. It sheds light on the phonetics, the phonology, the socio-linguistics and the acquisition of /r/-sounds in languages as diverse as Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Kuikuro, Malayalam, Romanian, Slovak, Tyrolean and Washili Shingazidja thus contributing to the discussion on the unity and uniqueness of this group of sounds

Sensorimotor exploration: constraint awareness and social reinforcement in early vocal development

This research is motivated by the benefits that knowledge regarding early development in infants may provide to different fields of science. In particular, early sensorimotor exploration behaviors are studied in the framework of developmental robotics. The main objective is about understanding the role of motor constraint awareness and imitative behaviors during sensorimotor exploration. Particular emphasis is placed on prelinguistic vocal development because during this stage infants start to master the motor systems that will later allow them to pronounce their first words. Previous works have demonstrated that goal-directed intrinsically motivated sensorimotor exploration is an essential element for sensorimotor control learning. Moreover, evidence coming from biological sciences strongly suggests that knowledge acquisition is shaped by the environment in which an agent is embedded and the embodiment of the agent itself, including developmental processes that shape what can be learned and when. In this dissertation, we firstly provide a collection of theoretical evidence that supports the relevance of our study. Starting from concepts of cognitive and developmental sciences, we arrived al the conclusion that spoken language, i.e., early \/ocal development, must be studied asan embodied and situated phenomena. Considering a synthetic approach allow us to use robots and realistic simulators as artifacts to study natural cognitive phenomena. In this work, we adopta toy example to test our cognitive architectures and a speech synthesizer that mimics the mechanisms by which humans produce speech. Next, we introduce a mechanism to endow embodied agents with motor constraint awareness. lntrinsic motivation has been studied as an importan! element to explain the emergence of structured developmental stages during early vocal development. However, previous studies failed to acknowledge the constraints imposed by the embodiment and situatedness, al sensory, motor, cognitive and social levels. We assume that during the onset of sensorimotor exploratory behaviors, motor constraints are unknown to the developmental agent. Thus, the agent must discover and learn during exploration what !hose motor constraints are. The agent is endowed with a somesthetic system based on tactile information. This system generales a sensor signal indicating if a motor configuration was reached or not. This information is later used to create a somesthetic model to predict constraint violations. Finally, we propase to include social reinforcement during exploration. Sorne works studying early vocal development have shown that environmental speech shapes the sensory space explored during babbling. More generally, imitative behaviors have been demonstrated to be crucial for early development in children as they constraint the search space.during sensorimotor exploration. Therefore, based on early interactions of infants and caregivers we proposed an imitative mechanism to reinforce intrinsically motivated sensorimotor exploration with relevan! sensory units. Thus, we modified the constraints aware sensorimotor exploration architecture to include a social instructor, expert in sensor units relevant to communication, which interacts with the developmental agent. lnteraction occurs when the learner production is ·enough' similar to one relevan! to communication. In that case, the instructor perceives this similitude and reformulates with the relevan! sensor unit. When the learner perceives an utterance by the instructor, it attempts to imitate it. In general, our results suggest that somesthetic senses and social reinforcement contribute to achieving better results during intrinsically motivated exploration. Achieving lest redundant exploration, decreasing exploration and evaluation errors, as well as showing a clearer picture of developmental transitions.La motivación principal de este trabajo es la magnitud que las contribuciones al conocimiento en relación al desarrollo infantil pueden aportar a diferentes campos de la ciencia. Particularmente, este trabajo se enfoca en el estudio de los comportamientos de autoexploración sensorimotora en un marco robótico e inspirado en el campo de la psicología del desarrollo. Nuestro objetivo principal es entender el papel que juegan las restricciones motoras y los reflejos imitativos durante la exploración espontánea observada en infantes. Así mismo, este trabajo hace especial énfasis en el desarrollo vocal-auditivo en infantes, que les provee con las herramientas que les permitirán producir sus primeras palabras. Trabajos anteriores han demostrado que los comportamientos de autoexploración sensorimotora en niños, la cual ocurre en gran medida por motivaciones intrínsecas, es un elemento importante para aprender a controlar su cuerpo con tal de alcanzar estados sensoriales específicos. Además, evidencia obtenida de estudios biológicos sugiere tajantemente que la adquisición de conocimiento es regulada por el ambiente en el cual un agente cognitivo se desenvuelve y por el cuerpo del agente per se. Incluso, los procesos de desarrollo que ocurren a nivel físico, cognitivo y social también regulan que es aprendido y cuando esto es aprendido. La primera parte de este trabajo provee al lector con la evidencia teórica y práctica que demuestran la relevancia de esta investigación. Recorriendo conceptos que van desde las ciencias cognitivas y del desarrollo, llegamos a la conclusión de que el lenguaje, y por tanto el habla, deben ser estudiados como fenómenos cognitivos que requieren un cuerpo físico y además un ambiente propicio para su existencia. En la actualidad los sistemas robóticos, reales y simulados, pueden ser considerados como elementos para el estudio de los fenómenos cognitivos naturales. En este trabajo consideramos un ejemplo simple para probar las arquitecturas cognitivas que proponemos, y posteriormente utilizamos dichas arquitecturas con un sintetizador de voz similar al mecanismo humano de producción del habla. Como primera contribución de este trabajo proponemos introducir un mecanismo para construir robots capaces de considerar sus propias restricciones motoras durante la etapa de autoexploración sensorimotora. Ciertos mecanismos de motivación intrínseca para exploración sensorimotora han sido estudiados como posibles conductores de las trayectorias de desarrollo observadas durante el desarrollo temprano del habla. Sin embargo, en previos estudios no se consideró o que este desarrollo está a delimitado por restricciones debido al ambiente, al cuerpo físico, y a las capacidades sensoriales, motoras y cognitivas. En nuestra arquitectura, asumimos que un agente artificial no cuenta con conocimiento de sus limitantes motoras, y por tanto debe descubrirlas durante la etapa de autoexploración. Para tal efecto, el agente es proveído de un sistema somatosensorial que le indica cuando una configuración motora viola las restricciones impuestas por el propio cuerpo. Finalmente, como segunda parte de nuestra contribución proponemos incluir un mecanismo para reforzar el aprendizaje durante la autoexploración. Estudios anteriores demostraron que el ambiente lingüístico en que se desarrolla un infante, o un agente artificial, condiciona sus producciones vocales durante la autoexploración o balbuceo. En este trabajo nos enfocamos en el estudio de episodios de imitación que ocurren durante el desarrollo temprano de un agente. Basados en estudios sobre la interacción entre madres e hijos durante la etapa pre lingüística, proponemos un mecanismo para reforzar el aprendizaje durante la autoexploración con unidades sensoriales relevantes. Entonces, a partir de la arquitectura con autoconocimiento de restricciones motores, construimos una arquitectura que incluye un instructor experto en control sensorimotor. Las interacciones entre el aprendiz y el experto ocurren cuando el aprendiz produce una unidad sensorial relevante para la comunicación durante la autoexploración. En este caso, el experto percibe esta similitud y responde reformulando la producción del aprendiz como la unidad relevante. Cuando el aprendiz percibe una acción del experto, inmediatamente intenta imitarlo. Los resultados presentados en este trabajo sugieren que, los sistemas somatosensoriales, y el reforzamiento social contribuyen a lograr mejores resultados durante la etapa de autoexploración sensorimotora motivada intrínsecamente. En este sentido, se logra una exploración menos redundante, los errores de exploración y evaluación disminuyen, y por último se obtiene una imagen más nítida de las transiciones entre etapas del desarrollo.La motivació principal d'aquest treball és la magnitud que les contribucions al coneixement en relació al desenvolupament infantil poden aportar a diferents camps de la ciència. Particularment, aquest treball s'enfoca en l'estudi dels comportaments d’autoexploració sensorimotora en un marc robòtic i inspirat en el camp de la psicologia del desenvolupament. El nostre objectiu principal és entendre el paper que juguen les restriccions motores i els reflexos imitatius durant l’exploració espontània observada en infants. Així mateix, aquest treball fa especial èmfasi en el desenvolupament vocal-auditiu en infants, que els proveeix amb les eines que els permetran produir les seves primeres paraules. Treballs anteriors han demostrat que els comportaments d'autoexploració sensorimotora en nens, la qual ocorre en gran mesura per motivacions intrínseques, és un element important per aprendre a controlar el seu cos per tal d'assolir estats sensorials específics. A més, evidencies obtingudes d'estudis biològics suggereixen que l’adquisició de coneixement és regulada per l'ambient en el qual un agent cognitiu es desenvolupa i pel cos de l'agent per se. Fins i tot, els processos de desenvolupament que ocorren a nivell físic, cognitiu i social també regulen què és après i quan això ès après. La primera part d'aquest treball proveeix el lector amb les evidencies teòrica i pràctica que demostren la rellevància d'aquesta investigació. Recorrent conceptes que van des de les ciències cognitives i del desenvolupament, vam arribar a la conclusió que el llenguatge, i per tant la parla, han de ser estudiats com a fenòmens cognitius que requereixen un cos físic i a més un ambient propici per a la seva existència. En l'actualitat els sistemes robòtics, reals i simulats, poden ser considerats com a elements per a l'estudi dels fenòmens cognitius naturals. En aquest treball considerem un exemple simple per provar les arquitectures cognitives que proposem, i posteriorment utilitzem aquestes arquitectures amb un sintetitzador de veu similar al mecanisme humà de producció de la parla. Com a primera contribució d'aquest treball proposem introduir un mecanisme per construir robots capaços de considerar les seves pròpies restriccions motores durant l'etapa d'autoexploració sensorimotora. Certs mecanismes de motivació intrínseca per exploració sensorimotora han estat estudiats com a possibles conductors de les trajectòries de desenvolupament observades durant el desenvolupament primerenc de la parla. No obstant això, en previs estudis no es va considerar que aquest desenvolupament és delimitat per restriccions a causa de l'ambient, el cos físic, i les capacitats sensorials, motores i cognitives. A la nostra arquitectura, assumim que un agent artificial no compta amb coneixement dels seus limitants motors, i per tant ha de descobrir-los durant l'etapa d'autoexploració. Per a tal efecte, l'agent és proveït d'un sistema somatosensorial que li indica quan una configuració motora viola les restriccions imposades pel propi cos. Finalment, com a segona part de la nostra contribució proposem incloure un mecanisme per reforçar l'aprenentatge durant l'autoexploració. Estudis anteriors han demostrat que l'ambient lingüísticstic en què es desenvolupa un infant, o un agent artificial, condiciona les seves produccions vocals durant l'autoexploració o balboteig. En aquest treball ens enfoquem en l'estudi d'episodis d’imitació que ocorren durant el desenvolupament primerenc d'un agent. Basats en estudis sobre la interacció entre mares i fills durant l'etapa prelingüística, proposem un mecanisme per reforçar l'aprenentatge durant l'autoexploració amb unitats sensorials rellevants. Aleshores, a partir de l'arquitectura amb autoconeixement de restriccions motors, vam construir una arquitectura que inclou un instructor expert en control sensorimotor. Les interaccions entre l'aprenent i l'expert, ocorren quan una producció sensorial de l'aprenent durant l'autoexploració és similar a una unitat sensorial rellevant per a la comunicació. En aquest cas, l'expert percep aquesta similitud i respon reformulant la producció de l'aprenent com la unitat rellevant. Quan l'aprenent percep una acció de l'expert, immediatament intenta imitar-lo. Els resultats presentats en aquest treball suggereixen que els sistemes somatosensorials i el reforçament social contribueixen a aconseguir millors resultats durant l'etapa d'autoexploració sensorimotora motivada intrínsecament. En aquest sentit, s'aconsegueix una exploració menys redundant, els errors d’exploració i avaluació disminueixen, i finalment s’obté una imatge més nítida de les transicions entre etapes del desenvolupamen