Automatic assessment of speech timing accuracy
George D. Allen · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1975
Our previous studies of speech timing accuracy have used measurements derived from oscillographic tracings of speech, a laborious and error-prone procedure. Hence we have designed a system, based on a laboratory minicomputer (PDP8/e), which automatically estimates the same temporal parameter (variance-per-unit-time). The heart of this system is a FOCAL program, modified by the addition of real-time subroutines to give instructions to the subject, monitor the temporal characteristics of his vocal behavior, and give him feedback related to either the rate or variability of that behavior. The program is slightly adaptive, in that, as the subject's performance improves, the standard of variability against which he is judged also improves, forcing him toward greater accuracy. Estimates so far obtained with this system are comparable with those of our earlier studies, suggesting that the variance-per-unit-time statistic is more characteristic of the speaker's ability than the experimental task.