Fumito Higuchi

A corpus-based speech synthesis system with emotion

We propose a new approach to synthesizing emotional speech by a corpus-based concatenative speech synthesis system (ATR CHATR) using speech corpora of emotional speech. In this study, neither emotional-dependent prosody prediction nor signal processing per se is performed for emotional speech. Instead, a large speech corpus is created per emotion to synthesize speech with the appropriate emotion by simple switching between the emotional corpora. This is made possible by the normalization procedure incorporated in CHATR that transforms its standard predicted prosody range according to the source database in use. We evaluate our approach by creating three kinds of emotional speech corpus (anger, joy, and sadness) from recordings of a male and a female speaker of Japanese. The acoustic characteristics of each corpus are different and the emotions identifiable. The acoustic characteristics of each emotional utterance synthesized by our method show clear correlations to those of each corpus. Perceptual experiments using synthesized speech confirmed that our method can synthesize recognizably emotional speech. We further evaluated the methods intelligibility and the overall impression it gives to the listeners. The results show that the proposed method can synthesize speech with a high intelligibility and gives a favorable impression. With these encouraging results, we have developed a workable text-to-speech system with emotion to support the immediate needs of nonspeaking individuals. This paper describes the proposed method, the design and acoustic characteristics of the corpora, and the results of the perceptual evaluations.

Thermal bleaching of rhodamine 6G in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)

Abstract Thermal bleaching of rhodamine 6G in PMMA is investigated at temperatures between 65°C and 83°C with a heating time of over 300 hours. The obtained thermal bleaching rate is found to show a sudden change around 70°C.

On the photobleaching quantum yields of heat-treated rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) molecules in the copolymer of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with methacrylic acid (MA)

Abstract An analysis is presented to explain photobleaching of heat-treated Rh6G/P (MMA + MA) in which photo product as well as two types of dye molecules with different quantum yields for photodegradation are taken into account. It is found that the values of the above two quantum yields for photobleaching remain unchanged, while a fraction of the molecules with higher quantum efficiency decreases with heat treatment time.

Kirifuki: Inhaling and Exhaling Interaction with Visual Objects

This paper proposes a novel system called “Kirifuki” which has an ability of operating a computer by breathing in and blowing out. The principle of this system is as follows; the computer screen is projected onto the physical desk, and when the user blows onto it, the open visual objects on the screen can be manipulated by breathing without using hands and any of physical pointing devices. In this paper, we describe our prototype system and demonstrate its application sub-systems which especially applied to entertainment fields.

Colouration of rhodamine B in PMMA by aqueous HCl solution and in the copolymer of methyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid

Abstract A rhodamine B doped PMMA sample is made by the solution polymerization method. It is found that the reddish colour of rhodamine B molecules reduces greatly during polymerization and that the once reduced colour of rhodamine B recovers by immersion of the sample in aqueous HCl solution. Discolouration of rhodamine B is diminished in the copolymer of methyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid.