A television with built-in speech rate converter
A television which slows down news speech for easier
listening
Background and purpose
Many elderly people have difficulty in clearly hearing the voices in
broadcast programs because the speech is often too fast. We have focused
on the development of a device which slows down rapid speech without
affecting the sound quality--the effect is as if the speaker had begun
to speak more slowly. In this exhibition, we show a prototype of a more
human-friendly television with built-in speech rate converter that is
applicable to digital Hi-Vision broadcasting.
Features
This TV enables the user to reduce the rate of speech in broadcast programs
in real time. The slowed-down speech does not, even so, overrun the
original time-frame of the program and no extra processing of the video
signals required. It makes the speech more intelligible, particularly
for news announcements, which provide a variety of novel information
items every day. The system:
- Reduces the speech rate of voices on broadcast programs at the receiver.
- Retains the original voice pitch and personality with high quality
sound.
- Absorbs the time delay due to speech rate reduction automatically
without overrun.
- Is applicable to speech in any language.
Future activities
We plan to apply the speech rate conversion technique to a wide range
of broadcast programs besides news announcements, and efforts will be
made to develop this human-friendly TV service for practical use with
a manufacturer and other participants.
|
The principle of absorbing the delay relative
to the picture |
A Super-Sensitive Microphone Picking Up Even Insect
Footsteps
Insect Microphone
Background
and purpose
This microphone has been developed to pick up the sounds of crawling
insects like ants, which was impossible until now. It has added greater
realism to TV programs featuring microscopic views of natural life.
Special Features
This microphone picks up the vibrations caused on the surface of the
object where the insect crawls. Air-borne sounds attenuate quickly and
cannot be heard from a distance, whereas sounds spread through a solid
body without much loss. Thus, a very small sound, like the crawling
of insects, can be picked up efficiently with the Insect Microphone.
The microphone is of the moving coil type, and the contact pin attaches
directly to the moving coil, which conducts the vibration of the solid
body to the electro-magnetic circuit of the microphone.
This Insect Microphone has been used to pick up the sounds of ants,
antlions and the heartbeat of snails.
|
Insect Microphone |
|