Convention Paper
Synthesising Prosody with Variable Resolution
AES Convention 110 · Paper 5332 · May 2001
Abstract
This paper highlights some of the challenges involved in predicting the spatial reproduction performance of surround sound systems serving large and acoustically live listening areas and highlights the shortcomings of current objective assessment methods. This paper presents a technique for synthesising prosody based upon information extracted from spoken utterances. We are interested in designing systems that learn how to speak autonomously, by interacting with humans. Our motivation for an in-depth investigation on prosody is prompted by the fact that infants seem to have acute prosodic listening during the first months of life. We presume that any system aimed at learning some form of speaking skills should display this fundamental capacity. This paper addresses two fundamental components for the development of such systems: prosody listening and prosody production. It begins with a brief introduction to the problem within the context of our research objectives. Then it introduces the system and presents some commented examples. The paper concludes with final remarks and a brief discussion on future developments.
