14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)

San Francisco, CA, USA
August 1-7, 1999


Counteracting Adverse Speaking Environments: A Model for HeO2 Speech

Harry Hollien

Institute for Advanced Study of the Communication Processes, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

There are many situations where adverse speaking conditions operate to prevent good message transfer. However, most research on the factors which degrade reasonably good speech intelligibility have focused on only a single form of disruption. The problem is that, until virtually all (multiple) distortions/degradations have been studied, there are a number of situations where not even marginal communication is reasonably possible. A model is proposed where multiple remedies are applied simultaneously. The approach attempts to provide acceptable speech intelligibility even where the nature of the distorting factors are not fully understood. An example is given to illustrate how the model would work; it involves speech uttered in the deep diving situation where ambient pressure is great and exotic gas mixtures (HeO2) are used. The model in this case, involves the development of a speech lexicon, articulatory modification of speakers output, a variety of electronic processors and the training of the listeners/decoders

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Hollien, Harry (1999): "Counteracting adverse speaking environments: a model for heO2 speech", In ICPhS-14, 575-578.