Talking tube : a novel approach for vocal tract acoustic modelling using the finite-difference time-domain method
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Mohapatra, Debasish Ray
issued: 2021-04-22T20:05:19Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The human voice is a complex but unique physiological process. It involves the neuromuscular control of articulators to form an intricate upper vocal tract geometry, which yields different speech sounds. The existing computational vocal tract models have significant limitations concerning acoustic precision and simulation performance. The high-dimensional vocal tract models can compute precise acoustic wave propagation at the expense of simulation run-time. This thesis aims to fill these lacunae through two major contributions. Firstly, we introduce a novel vocal tract that extends the existing two-dimensional (2D) vocal tract modelling approach while having three-dimensional behaviour. The proposed model (2.5D FDTD) employs the Finite-Difference Time-Domain numerical scheme to discretize and compute acoustic components on a staggered grid. The simulated acoustic outputs of our new model are shown to match with the 2D FDTD vocal tract model at a low spatiotemporal resolution for open static vocal tract shapes. Contrary to 2D FDTD, the model adds tube depth as an additional impedance parameter to the acoustic wave solver by lumping off-plane waves. This technique offers an excellent balance between computational cost and acoustic precision while promising better geometrical flexibility for vocal tract modelling. Secondly, we tested the model's basic capabilities through the acoustic simulation of cardinal English vowel sounds. For realistic modelling of vowel sounds, we built a vocal tract radiation model. We also couple the 2.5D vocal tract with a self-oscillatory lumped-element vocal fold model to illustrate a fully connected articulatory speech synthesizer. This study offers a speech synthesis tool that can generate static vowel sounds and set up a new pathway for lightweight vocal tract modelling and other computational acoustic research.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/77911
note: Talking Tube: A Novel Approach for Vocal Tract AcousticModelling using The Finite-Difference Time-DomainMethodbyDebasish Ray MohapatraB.Tech, Electronics and Communication Engineering, S‘O’A University, 2013A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMaster of Applied ScienceinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORALSTUDIES(Electrical and Computer Engineering)The University of British Columbia(Vancouver)April 2021c© Debasish Ray Mohapatra, 2021The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Fac-ulty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled:Talking Tube: A Novel Approach for Vocal Tract Acoustic Modellingusing The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Methodsubmitted by Debasish Ray Mohapatra in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of Master of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engi-neering.Examining Committee:Sidney Fels, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBCSupervisorBryan Gick, Department of Linguistics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractThe human voice is a complex but unique physiological process. It involves theneuromuscular control of articulators to form an intricate upper vocal tract ge-ometry, which yields different speech sounds. The existing computational vocaltract models have significant limitations concerning acoustic precision and simu-lation performance. The high-dimensional vocal tract models can compute preciseacoustic wave propagation at the expense of simulation run-time. This thesis aimsto fill these lacunae through two major contributions.Firstly, we introduce a novel vocal tract that extends the existing two-dimensional(2D) vocal tract modelling approach while having three-dimensional behaviour.The proposed model (2.5D FDTD) employs the Finite-Difference Time-Domainnumerical scheme to discretize and compute acoustic components on a staggeredgrid. The simulated acoustic outputs of our new model are shown to match with the2D …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0396919
language: eng
degree discipline: Electrical and Computer Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/77911