User interface, system, and method for automatically labelling phonic symbols to speech signals for correcting pronunciation
First Claim
1. A method of automatically labeling an speech signal with phonic symbols for correcting pronunciation, comprising:
- A step of establishing a phoneme-feature database, including using sample sound signal to establish a plurality of phoneme clusters;
A step of phonic symbol labeling, comprising;
Partitioning one sound signal into a plurality of frames, and calculating a feature set for each frame; and
Determining the phoneme cluster to which each frame belongs and labeling the frame with the corresponding phonic symbol; and
A step of pronunciation comparison, which compares the frames of two sound waves corresponding to the same phonic symbol or syllable, and perform grading and providing suggestion for improvement.
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Abstract
A user interface, a system and a method are provided to automatically compare the speech signal of a language learner against that of a language teacher. The system labels the input speech signals with phonic symbols and identifies the portions where the difference is significant. The system then gives grades and suggestions to the learners for improvement. The comparison and suggestions include articulation correctness, timing, pitch, intensity, etc. The method comprises three major stages. In the first stage, a phoneme-feature database is established. The phoneme-feature database contains the statistic data of phonemes. In the second stage, the speech signals of a language learner and a language teacher are labeled with phonic symbols that represent phonemes. In the third stage, the corresponding sections in the student and teachers'"'"' speech signals are identified and compared. Grades and suggestions for improvement are given on articulation correctness, timing, pitch, intensity, etc.
20 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of automatically labeling an speech signal with phonic symbols for correcting pronunciation, comprising:
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A step of establishing a phoneme-feature database, including using sample sound signal to establish a plurality of phoneme clusters;
A step of phonic symbol labeling, comprising;
Partitioning one sound signal into a plurality of frames, and calculating a feature set for each frame; and
Determining the phoneme cluster to which each frame belongs and labeling the frame with the corresponding phonic symbol; and
A step of pronunciation comparison, which compares the frames of two sound waves corresponding to the same phonic symbol or syllable, and perform grading and providing suggestion for improvement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A user interface for automatically labeling speech signals with phonic symbols for correct pronunciation, comprising:
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Waveform graphs, obtained by analyzing the sound signals;
Intensity variation graphs, obtained by analyzing the sound signals;
Pitch variation graphs, obtained by analyzing the sound signals;
Multiple pronunciation intervals on the waveform, intensity variation, and pitch variation graphs, where each interval corresponds to a phonic symbol and is bounded by two partitioning line segments; and
Phonic symbol labeling areas, which display the phonic symbols corresponding to the pronunciation intervals. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A system for automatically labeling speech signals with phonic symbols to correct a language learner'"'"'s pronunciation, comprising:
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An input device, to input a text string and a corresponding sound signal;
An electronic phonetic dictionary, which is used to look up the string of phonic symbols that correspond to a text string;
An audio cutter that partitions the sound signals into multiple frames. The frames may be overlapping;
A feature extractor, which extract a set of features from each frame;
A phoneme-feature database, including multiple phoneme clusters, where each of the phoneme clusters corresponds to a phonic symbol;
A phonic symbol labeler, which labels intervals of a speech signal with phonic symbols; and
An output device, which displays a waveform graph, a pitch variation graph, an intensity variation graph and phonic symbols corresponding to each pronunciation interval of the input sound signals.
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Specification