6 September: fyi -- speech science PhD funding, TCD
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Post Specification
Post Title: Ph.D. Researcher in Speech Synthesis
Post Status: 3 years
Department/Faculty: Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS)
Location: Phonetics and Speech Laboratory
Salary: €16,000 per annum (plus fees paid)
Closing Date: 12 Noon on Friday 14th September 2012
Post Summary
A Ph.D. Researcher is required to work in the area of speech synthesis
at the Phonetics and Speech Laboratory, School of Linguistic, Speech
and Communication Sciences. The position will involve carrying out
research on the topic of Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based speech
synthesis. Specifically, we are looking for a researcher to work on
developing a source-filter based acoustic modelling for HMM-based
speech synthesis which is closely related to the human speech
production process and which can facilitate modification of voice
source and vocal tract filter components at synthesis time.
Background to the Post
Much of the research carried out to date in the Phonetics and Speech
Laboratory has been concerned with the role of the voice source in
speech. This research involves the development of accurate voice
source processing both as a window on human speech production and for
exploitation in voice-sensitive technology, particularly
synthesis. The laboratory team is inter-disciplinary and includes
engineers, linguists, phoneticians and technologists.
This post will the main be funded by the on-going Abair project which
has developed the first speech synthesisers for Irish (www.abair.ie),
and the researcher will exploit the current Abair synthesis
platform. In this project the aim is to deliver multi-dialect
synthesis with multiple personages and voices that can be made
appropriate to different contexts of use. The post will also be linked
to the FastNet project which aims at voice-sensitive speech
technologies. A specific goal of our laboratory team is to leverage
our expertise on the voice by improving the naturalness of parametric
speech synthesis, as well as making more flexible synthesis platforms
which can allow modifications of voice characteristics (e.g., for
creating different personalities/characters, different forms of
expression etc).
Standard duties of the Post
Initially the researcher will be
required to attend some lectures as part of the Masters programme on
Speech and Language Processing. This and a supervised reading
programme will provide a background in the area of voice production,
analysis and synthesis.
In the very early stages the researcher will be required to develop
synthetic voices, using the Irish corpora, with the standard HMM-based
synthesis platform (i.e. HTS). Note that to work with the Irish
corpora does not require a background in the Irish language, as there
will be collaboration with experts in this field.
The researcher will be required to familiarise themselves with
existing speech synthesis platforms which provide explicit modelling
of the voice source (e.g., Cabral et al. 2011, Raitio et al. 2011,
Anumanchipalli et al. 2010).
The researcher will then need to first implement similar versions of
these systems and then work towards developing novel vocoding methods
which would allow full parametric flexibility of both voice source and
vocal tract filter components at synthesis time.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science with
specialisation in speech signal processing, or related areas.
Knowledge & Experience (Essential & Desirable)
Strong digital signal processing skills (Essential)
Good knowledge of HTS including previous experience developing synthetic voices
(Essential)
Knowledge of speech production and perception (Desirable)
Experience in speech recognition (Desirable)
Skills & Competencies
Good knowledge of written and spoken English.
Benefits
Opportunity to work with a world-class inter-disciplinary speech
research group.
To apply, please email a brief cover letter and CV, including the
names and addresses of two academic referees, to: kanejo@tcd.ie and to
cegobl@tcd.ie
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