Developing intelligible public address announcements in emergencies based on speech production and perception

• Project/Area Number: 18K04666
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 25030:Disaster prevention engineering-related
• Research Institution: Tokai University
• Principal Investigator: Hodoshima Nao 東海大学, 情報通信学部, 准教授 (40453609)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
• Keywords: 音声 / 音声生成 / 音声知覚 / 明瞭度 / 残響 / 公共空間 / 高齢者 / 非母語話者 / 音声明瞭度 / 災害 / 発話

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims to develop intelligible public address announcements in reverberant public spaces such as train stations and airports. Since people modify the way they speak in challenging acoustic environments and by speakers' intentions, this study proposed two speech modification approaches; speech spoken in the presence of reverberation and speech spoken in urgent style. Listening tests and acoustical analyses were conducted in reverberant environments simulating public spaces. Both proposed approaches were more intelligible than normally spoken speech for younger and older adults under the specific speaker and listening conditions.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

駅・空港・大型商業施設などの屋内では、残響過多で災害時の緊急放送が不明瞭となる。残響は若年者よりも高齢者や非母語話者の音声明瞭度を低下させるため、我が国の超高齢化社会と在留・訪日外国人の増加に及ぼす影響は大きい。本研究結果を受けて、公共空間の音声案内を提案法で録音・合成した音声を用いる、もしくは緊急放送・誘導のための音声ガイドラインの作成により、災害時により多くの人に適切な情報伝達が可能になることが考えられる。

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Effects of urgent speech and congruent/incongruent text on speech intelligibility for older adults in the presence of noise and reverberation (2021)
  • Author(s): Hodoshima Nao
  • Journal Title: Speech Communication Volume: 134 Pages: 12-19
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.specom.2021.08.001
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] Improving intelligibility of speech spoken under reverberant environment conditions: Effect of reverberation frequency characteristics on speech intelligibility (2020)
  • Author(s): Kambayashi, C., and Hodoshima, N.
  • Journal Title: Acoustical Science and Technology Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Pages: 418-419
  • DOI: 10.1250/ast.41.418
  • NAID: 130007782721
  • ISSN: 0369-4232, 1346-3969, 1347-5177
  • Year and Date: 2020-01-01
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Effects of Urgent Speech and Congruent/Incongruent Text on Speech Intelligibility in Noise and Reverberation (2019)
  • Author(s): Hodoshima, N.
  • Journal Title: Proc. Interspeech 2019 Volume: - Pages: 3113-3117
  • DOI: 10.21437/interspeech.2019-1902
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Reverberation-induced speech improves intelligibility in reverberation: Effects of taker gender and speaking rate (2019)
  • Author(s): Nao Hodoshima
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics Volume: - Pages: 6225-6229
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Lombard効果を応用した残響下の発話音声に対する語音異聴分析 (2019)
  • Author(s): 神林千尋，程島奈緒
  • Organizer: 日本音響学会秋季研究発表会講演論文集
• [Presentation] Improving intelligibility of speech spoken under reverberant environment conditions: effect of reverberation frequency characteristics on speech intelligibility (2018)
  • Author(s): Kambayashi, C and Hodoshima, N.
  • Organizer: Proc. International Symposium on Universal Acoustical Communication 2018
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] 時間・周波数特性が異なる残響下での発話音声が明瞭度に与える影響 (2018)
  • Author(s): 神林千尋，程島奈緒
  • Organizer: 日本音響学会聴覚研究会