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Abstract

A system and apparatus for teaching prosodic features of speech senses and extracts prosodic or suprasegmental variables of a user's speech segment. Prosodic features of speech include pitch and loudness variations, as opposed to articulatory or sequential features of speech which are the primary determinants of phoneme variations. Once prosodic variables have been extracted from a speech segment, the variables are used to modulate a quasiperiodic waveform such as a sinusoid, a pulse-train, or a synthesized vowel-like waveform, or the parameters can be used to modulate a random-noise-like waveform. A modulated waveform can be played acoustically, and the user can hear the variation of the prosodic parameters without interference from the articulatory parameters of a complete waveform. This auditory feedback can be combined with visual feedback of the speech segment to teach proper prosodic speech formation. Auditory feedback for teaching prosodic features can also be formed without a modulation process by removing articulatory information from a speech segment, and non-acoustic measures sensors of prosodic feature, such as an electroglottograph, can also be employed.

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First Claim