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Annual Report 1999

Table of Contents

Our contacts with other research institutions in Sweden and internationally are well developed. Of major importance in this respect is our scientific journal, the TMH-QPSR, which has four volumes/year. Close to 900 copies are distributed to 56 countries. Abstracts from the contributions in the 1999 issues are included in this report.

We have several guest researchers staying half a year or longer, and we participate in a substantial number of international symposia, conferences, and workshops, as listed in the following sections.

Speech Group

The Speech group is engaged in European co-operation within the COST-program (European Co-operation in the Field of Science and Technical Research) in projects on

  • speech recognition (COST 249, Continuous speech recognition over the telephone),
  • speaker recognition (COST 250, Speaker recognition in telephony), and
  • speech synthesis (COST 258 - Naturalness of synthetic speech).
  • We are also part of several other European projects, such as projects on
  • speaker recognition (PICASSO),
  • spoken dialogue (DISC).

The department is the Swedish managing node for Elsnet, the Esprit-sponsored European Network for Language and Speech Research.

Within the current EC-program TIDE (Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly), we have been engaged in ENABL (ENABler for computer-based vocational tasks with Language and peech).

Another exponent of increased European co-operation in the speech research area is ESCA (European Speech Communication Association), where we are represented on the board. ESCA has recently been redefined as the international organization ISCA.

Outside Europe, we have contacts with several groups on a non-formal basis. Exchanges of students, guest researchers, shorter visits, and exchange of reports is the normal mode of operation. Of special interest is the long-lasting close contact with speech researchers at MIT, USA, and the increased contacts with ATR, Japan.

In the context of ISAAC (International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication), we have been very active, having had a member on the board of both the international organisation and the Swedish chapter.

We have had an important role in extending interdisciplinary contacts within Sweden, e.g., through almost weekly demonstrations, lectures, and open-house activities for schools and professional organisations.

Swedish dialogue systems (SDS) is studied in co-operation with Linköping, Lund and Gothenburg Universities. This work is carried out within the "Language Technology Program" jointly sponsored by NUTEK (Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development) and HSFR (Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences).

Contacts with Linköping University have been active, with joint education in speech technology and a project on spoken dialogue modelling.

We have also close technical and scientific contacts with

  • Telia Promotor (Infovox) AB, which markets speech technology products based on our research and development
  • the research department of Telia
  • the Swedish Telecom (Telia Research AB)
  • Special Instrument AB, which markets the tactile aid "Minivib4" and some of our aids for speech training;
  • Rehabmodul AB
  • Svenska ENTER Rehabilitering AB
  • Fonema AB
  • Statens Institut för Handikappfrågor i Skolan (SIH, the National Swedish Agency for Special Education), which market aids for motorically handicapped.
  • Within the main-phase of CTT we have formal co-operation with fourteen companies:
    • Ericsson Radio Systems AB
    • Hjälpmedelsinstitutet
    • Levande Böcker i Norden AB
    • Luftfartsverket
    • PipeBeach AB
    • Polycom Technologies AB
    • SAAB
    • Svenska Handelsbanken AB
    • Sveriges Radio AB
    • Telia Promotor AB
    • Telia Research AB
    • Trio Informationssystem AB
    • Vattenfall AB, and
    • Volvo Teknisk Utveckling AB.

Music Group

The music group is engaged in cooperation with the following external institutions:

  • Institute of Linguistics, Stockholm University
  • Institut für Stimmforschung, Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden, Germany
  • Italian Cultural Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
  • Department of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden
  • Ecole National Superieure de Télécommunications, Paris
  • The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • The Norwegian State Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway
  • University of Surrey Roehampton, London, GB
  • Vanderbilt Voice Centre, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Research activities associated with these contacts have been described above.

Hearing Technology Group

The Hearing Technology group is engaged in European co-operation as a full partner within two projects: LISCOM (Listening Comfort Systems for Hearing-Instruments and Telephones), and SPECO (A Multimedia Multilingual Teaching and Training System for Speech- and Hearing-Impaired Children). The group is also an associated partner in the NATASHA project (Network and Tools for the Assessment of Speech/Language and Hearing Ability). We also maintain a research exchange program with AG Medizinische Physik at the University of Oldenburg.

We have close contacts with the hearing-instrument industry. A group of companies (Danavox, ReSound, and Audiologic) has supported some of our work on signal processing algorithms for hearing aids.

We maintain close co-operation with Swedish audiological clinics and with all four educational programmes for clinical general audiologists in Sweden. We participate in teaching and research supervision related to signal processing in hearing aids and methods for the fitting and evaluation of personal aids for hearing-impaired persons. We also co-operate with teachers at schools for the deaf concerning methods for speech training.

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