Lect
/Week
Day
Date
2007
ECE 537: Fundamentals of Speech Processing
Fall 2007

Prof Jont B. Allen
EDIT for 2008 Not edited beyond here (12/8/07)
EDIT for 2008 Not proofed beyond here (12/8/07)
1/1
W 8/22/
2007
Lecture:Introduction and overview of course: Acoustics, Psychophysics, Information processing
READ: Flanagan, Chapt. I pdf, original (pp 1-9), Front-matter djvu, Index djvu, References djvu
DJVU reader: http://www.djvuzone.org/, http://djvu.sourceforge.net
2
F
8/24
Lecture: Mechanisms of Speech production: Sounds of speech: Vowels and consonants; Acoustic Transmission lines; Intensity, speech power; sound level; dB, dB-SPL, Pressure, volume velocity, impedance.
READ: Flanagan, Ch. II (pp 9-15)
HW1: Basic Acoustics (due Fri 8/31) 8/29/07 pdf, original pdf
3/2
M
8/27
Lecture: Basic acoustics and the ABCD-Transmission (Chain) matrix; (Notes: 1-D Wave Equations);
READ: Flanagan, Ch. II (pp 15-17) pdf, original
4
W
8/29
Lecture: Solution of 1-D wave equation,  (Notes on: Waves and 1-Port Reflectance);
Upgraded homework on 8/29/07 to better explain Helmholtz resonators: pdf
READ: Flanagan, Ch II (pp 17-22) pdf, original
5
F
8/31
Lecture: Vowels, Formants; Intro to Matlab; filter design, bilinear Z, FIR, IIR, ...;
Read: Flanagan, Ch. III (pp 36-43) pdf, original
HW2: TL and reflectance  (due Fri 9/14)
-/3
M
9/3
Labor Day; No class
Read: Flanagan, Ch. III (pp 36-43) pdf, original(2.8MB), djvu(.9MB)]
6
W
9/5
Lecture: Reflectance on 1-D transmission lines;
Conversion tables for 2-ports (djvu)
Read: Model of Ear drum, Parent and Allen 2007 (pdf, djvu) (pp 918-920)
7
F
9/7
Lecture: Transmission Lines with complex loads and the Propagated Reflectance (Notes: 2-Port Reflectance/Transmittance)
HW3: TLs with complex terminations (due in two weeks on Fri 9/21; Extended to Wed 9/25)
HW3 Refs: Guinan and Peak ( djvu), Lynch et al. ( pdf, djvu )
Read: Flanagan, Ch. VI (Sect. 6.262, pp 272-276) [pdf, original, djvu]
Read: p. 1-15 from Bilbao PhD Thesis (pdf, djvu)
8/4
M
9/10
Lecture 2: Radiation impedance of tube junction (Karal [Ref: djvu] correction), and half-sphere (the mouth)
Read: Text Ch. 3, Sec. 3.3, pages 136-152 and p. 1-15 from Bilbao PhD Thesis (pdf, djvu)
9
W
9/12
Lecture : 3-port networks and the nasal tract;
Read: Text Chap. 3, sect. 3.4.1 pages 153-156 radiation impedance
Review: Rosowski, Carney and Peak (1988) on the cat middle ear (pdf, djvu)
10
F
9/14
Lecture: Signal processing review: Fourier Series, Fourier Transform, Laplace Transform, ZT, DTFT, DFT, FFT;
HW4: Vocal-Tract Simulation (Due Mon 9/28, 2 weeks! Extended to: Wed Oct 3)
PetersonBarney52.djvu
11/5
M
9/17
Lecture: Signal processing Review cont.
Network Postulates:djvu;
Optional Read:Thevenin; Norton;
12
W
9/19
Lecture:  STFT window methods; Inverse STFT;  STFT for speech processing with analysis/synthesis; filtering; Reading spectrograms
13
F
9/21
Lecture: History of acoustics:
BC: Pythagoras; Aristolle;
17C: Mersenne, Marin; Galilei, Galileo; Hooke, Robert; Boyle, Robert; Newton;
18C: Bernoulli, D.; Euler; d'Alembert;
19C: Gauss; Laplace; Fourier; Lagrange; Helmholtz; Heavyside; Strutt, William; Rayliegh, Lord;
20-21C: Campbell, George; Hilbert, David; Noether, Emmy; Fletcher, Harvey; Nyquist, Harry; Bode, Henrik; Dudley, Homer; Shannon, Claude; Flanagan, James;
14/6
M
9/24
Lecture: Bernoulli's equation, and the glottis as an oscillator
READ: Text Flanagan pp 41-53, van den Berg (1957) (djvu)
15 W
9/26
Lecture: Review of HW2-3; Reading spectrograms, Features in speech
Read: Flanagan Sec. 3.74 pages 69-72
16
F
9/28
Lecture: Linear prediction of speech; Allen on LPC: (pdf, djvu)
READ: Flanagan Sec. 8.112, pp 372-376; Sec. 8.13, pp 390-395; Atal and Hanauer (1971) (pdf, djvu)
HW5: LPC (Due Mon 10/9), Speech samples
17/7
M
10/1
Lecture: Cepstral analysis I;
Read: Flanagan Chap. 8, pp 361-363; (Continue working on Final-Section I)
HW4 due
18
W
10/3
Lecture: Cepstral analysis II; CELP coding;
Review for Exam I (In 2008, have the exam now!)
19
F
10/5
Lecture: Room acoustics; point source; 1, 2 and 6 wall Image method; Wall reflection coef.
20/8
M
10/8
No class due to Exam I
HW6: STFT/OLA/Speech coding (Due Mon 10/16)

Tues
10/9
Exam I: Acoustics, Modeling the VT, STFT, Signal processing of speech; 
Time: Tues night (Oct. 9), 7PM EH 106B1 (across the hall from our normal classroom, and south by one door); 1 8.5''x11'' crib sheet, two sides, hand written. No computer print sheets!! Leave cell phones home. Calculators on the floor and off when your not using them.
21
W
10/10
Lecture:  Psychoacoustics I: Intensity JND and the near-miss; Internal noise model of the JND Riesz pure-tone intensity JND (1928) djvu
Masking; Weber's and Fechner's Law; Introduction to loudness, Steven's Law;
Loudness Lecture notes (Allen): (pdf, djvu)
Read: Flanagan Chapter 4 (pdf, original pdf, djvu);
22
F
10/12
Lecture: Psychoacoustics II: Frequency JND, semitone, Internal noise and Masking; relation between the intensity and frequency JND (Cochlear frequency response and the slope of the tuning curve);
Read: Allen Review (pages 20-30) pdf, Fletcher and Munson (1933) (pp 82-94)
23/9
M
10/15
Lecture: Cochlear Physiology I:Middle ear and inner ear (Cochlear) anatomy, basilar membrane, 1D Models, Hair cells, Nonlinear basilar membrane;
Read: Review of Cochlear Modeling: Part II (pp 19-28): (pdf, djvu); Wegel and Lane (1924);
MIT/HST-725: The auditory system pdf,
24 W 10/17 Lecture:  Cochlear Physiology II:  traveling waves, neural tuning curves, critical bands, hair cells, neural masking, Upward spread of masking; Forward masking; Auditory Pathway I: Neural Tuning pdf
Read: Review of Cochlear Modeling (pp 1-19) (pdf, djvu); Part I
Supplement: Pitch: MIT HST725-5 Pitch models pdf Fletcher and Pitch djvu
25 F 10/19 Lecture: Cochlear Physiology III: Micromechanics, OHC, IHC
Lecture Notes: Modeling the Cochlea (pdf,, djvu), and Organ of Corti (pdf,, djvu), and a
Read: Wegel and Lane (1924), Part II
26/10
M
10/22
Lecture: Psychoacoustics III: Relations between Psychophysics and the cochlea; Greenwood's place-map function; forward masking; upward spread of masking;
Read: Fletcher and Munson (1933) (pp 82-94),
Review of Cochlear Modeling (pp 1-19) (pdf, djvu); Part I
27
W
10/24
Lecture: Cochlear Physiology IV: Nonlinear Cochlear model; supplement: The Auditory Nerve
Read: Representation of speech-like sounds ... auditory-nerve fibers (1980) djvu;
HW7: (Due Fri 11/3)
28 F 10/26 Lecture: Cochlear Critical bands: upward spread of masking; 2 tone suppression;
Read: French and Steinberg (1947) (pdf, djvu) (pp 90-100)
29/
11
M
10/29
Lecture: Wickesberg, Auditory Pathway (ppt, pdf)
READ: M. Bosi: Lecture on Speech coding (pdf, djvu); [Refs.]
30 W 10/31 Lecture: Pandya: The auditory system (pdf)
31
F
11/2 Lecture: Allen Review for Exam II;
32/12
M
11/5
Exam II: NO CLASS monday at 1PM
Psychoacoustics, Physiology, Speech coding, Tube models, Some Historical items;
one 8.5x11'' facts-sheet two sides, hand written, plus your facts-sheet from Exam I (two sheets total).
Date: 11/5/2007 Time: 7:00 PM Place: Eng. Hall Room 106B6
33
W
11/7
Lecture: Information theory I: Information, Entropy, Relative Entropy; Channel Capacity
DEMO Audio samples from ASA CDROM
Review of exam;
Read: pp 1-10 Shannon (1948) pdf, djvu
34
F
11/9
Lecture: Information theory II: Morse code example Shannon Channel
HW8: Information processing (Due Mon 11/25); Materials AULI.zip
Read: pp 10-15 (upto Sec. 8) Shannon (1948)
35/13
M
11/12
Lecture: Information theory III:; Entropy, Relative Entropy, Markoff models, State diagram;
36
W
11/14
Lecture:  EM algorithm: Example: Speech and noise separation
Read: French and Steinberg (1947) [pdf], [djvu];
37
F
11/16
No Class (Allen out of town)
Read: Miller, Heisen and Lichten (1951) [pdf], [djvu]
-

17-25
Thanksgiving Holiday
38/14
M
11/26
Lecture: Human speech recognition (HSR) and the Articulation Index (AI) [pdf], [djvu]
The confusion matrix; Confusions between sounds
Read: Continue with French and Steinberg (1947)
Read: Miller Nicely (1955);
Miller Nicely confusions as a function of the articulation index; entropy, grouping and chance
Discussion of the EM alg. with more examples, and a discussion of my solution. to HW8, problem 3.
Read:
Steeneken & Houtgast (1980) and modulation processing and detection: Houtgast (1989).
HW9: Speech recognition (Due: Fri 12/1, >2 weeks)
39
W
11/28
Lecture: Effects of language and semantic context Miller (1962), Boothroyd (1988), Allen Overview: Introduction (2004)
Lecture Notes: Events and the AI (djvu, ps.gz, pdf)
40
F
11/30
Lecture: Language context models, Bronkhorst93.djvu
41/15
M
12/3
Lecture: Allen Overview of speech features via live demos
42
W
12/5
Invited Lecture: Prof. M. Hasegawa-Johnson; Title: TBA
43
F
12/7
Open Discussion: Overview of course material, in preparation for your writing the final exam.
Come hungry. Free Pizza.
-/16
M
12/10
Exam Week: Final Due Dec 15

The final is a 15-25 page paper, written in the style and format (but single column) of a journal paper, that discusses everything that you have learned in this course. Writing style, spelling, figures, labels of figures, are all part of the grade.

The way I grade the final is based on a list of all the topics that I covered. If there is a paragraph that discusses each topic on my list, then you get at least 1 point, and if the discussion covers the topic effectively, you can get up to 5 points. There are at least 20 topics on the list. When you get to 100 points, you get an A+ on the exam. I expect that you draw on the homework as a starting point. Dont just dump the homework into the exam without modification, that wont get you points. Dont just dump a large number of unexplained figures (that you got from someone else for example) and expect to get points. I need words around each figure. I am looking for insightful comments that link the material together.

Your comments on the relevance of each of the topics I covered in this course, homework problems, exams, etc., are welcome. No points will be taken off, nor given, for strong opinions on my teaching style, or lack thereof, organization, or lack thereof, etc. Please put all such comments in a discussion section at the end of the paper, isolated from the rest of the material.