| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The goal of this research project was to develop educational tools and programs simulating speech production mechanisms. Toward this aim, we implemented a series of physical models of the human vocal-tract. First, we analyzed articulatory data we measured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then we designed and developed a head-shaped model with a flexible tongue, a new lung model with a torso, and a sliding three-tube model with a lip model which uses a reed-type sound source.
To investigate current research and explore possibilities for future collaboration, we visited several museums : the Shizuoka Science Museum, the Hamamatsu Science Museum, the National Science Museum and the Science Museum. At the National Science Museum we organized a science workshop for children with the Acoustical Society of Japan, where participants made their own vocal-tract models. We also visited a group of high-school physics teachers who showed us demonstrations geared toward understanding how students grasp physics and making simple tools that are exciting, essential and pleasant.
Finally, we demonstrated our models in college and graduate level classrooms and in science workshops, conferences and meetings, discussing their possibilities for education purposes. In a summer seminar on acoustics organized by the Acoustical Society of Japan, I used the models while teaching an introductory course on speech. I also organized a workshop where participants made a vocal-tract model. At the joint meeting of the Acoustical Societies of America and Japan, we organized three sessions on education where we demonstrated our models and shared ideas. Our models were also used in TV programs for children.
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