LINGUIST List 17.401

Mon Feb 06 2006

Qs: Simple and Affordable Voice Analyzer?

Editor for this issue: James Rider <riderlinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Joe Yatae, Simple and Affordable Voice Analyzer?

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Message 1: Simple and Affordable Voice Analyzer?
Date: 06-Feb-2006
From: Joe Yatae <ubkirihotmail.com>
Subject: Simple and Affordable Voice Analyzer?


Hello,

I'm an English language instructor looking to develop a web-based application that helps learners to efficiently master vocabulary & phrase lists.

This system will incorporate speech recognition/TTS engines, but I'm having trouble finding affordable vendors who can create the ''voice analyzer'' function.

Since I'm not an engineer by trade, I'm feeling overwhelmed with my search for this function. Everything out there seems to be too sophisticated for my students' needs and too expensive for me.

The voice analyzer function should be able to compare (the user's voice with the SR engine's), analyze and rate/score the following:

* basic phonemes * intonation * voice strength (audibility?)

In effect, it would be slightly more effective (and reliable) than the scoring system in a karaoke machine.

As far as the type of visual display I'd like for the learners, I've seen some really fancy ones, though they may be too much for the needs of my learners.

My goal is primarily to activate the students vocal cords (a big goal in Japan!) and to make them realize that they can in fact speak.

My secondary, lesser goal is just to give them an awareness of where their pronunciation/articulation stands compared with their peers. I will leave the teaching of pronunciation to another class.

Thus, the visual display could be a simple wave comparison (b/wn learner & model SR voice) or even some kind of Windows Media Player Visualization-like effect. I don't know - What do you suppose would be most practical for my learners?

What I've been finding so far (it's early 2006) are products aimed mostly for speech therapy or corporate telephony. All of them entail per user- or yearly- licensing. I'm working independently and can't afford their high costs. Perhaps I'm willing to pay no more than US$1000 for such a voice analyzer program?

Please tell me that what I'm looking for is out there!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Joe Yatae ubkirihotmail.com

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics Language Acquisition