Reflecting research in the fields of speech sciences, hearing and phonetics
at the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, UCL.
 

Welcome to the fourth online edition of Speech Hearing and Language: Work in Progress.

The year 2000 has brought several significant developments.

New staff joining in 2000 were Dr Paul Iverson, who has come to us from the University of Iowa as lecturer in Speech Sciences, and Research Fellow Tim Green, who has just completed a PhD in the Psychology Department at the University of Leeds.

New funding awarded in 2000 included: An EPSRC: project grant to V Hazan, A Faulkner, R Campbell entitled "Acoustic and Visual enhancement of speech for computer-based auditory training" An EPSRC bridging grant to J House to continue the work of the Prosynth project. A project grant awarded by RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People) to A Faulkner and S Rosen for work on "Optimisation of voice pitch information in cochlear implant speech processing".

Other landmarks include Mark Huckvale's release of new and substantially updated tools for speech analysis for Windows-based PCs. These are freely available for downloading. WASP is a simple integrated Windows package for basic speech recording and analysis. The latest version of the Speech Filing System (SFS) is enhanced by a Windows interface that gives access to the most common SFS functions, whilst maintaining the ultimate flexibility and user control of a command line interface for more specialised functions.

The year 2000 also saw the completion of the EU project Natasha (Network and Tools for the Assessment of Speech and Hearing Ability). The Natasha consortium has been concerned with the potential for harmoniseding methods in audiology for the assessment of functional ability and the effectiveness of prostheses. It has produced a survey of the assessment methods used across Europe, and presented proposals for a range of harmonised assessments of speech reception ability and of psychoacoustic and physiological measures of hearing function. Both documents are accessible at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/andyf/natasha/

We gratefully acknowledge research support from EPSRC, The Wellcome Trust, Defeating Deafness, and DG XIII of the CEC.

Andrew Faulkner
Stuart Rosen
Martyn Holland
February 2000

Designed and built by
Martyn Holland
July 2000.
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