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KYUSHU INSTITUTE OF DESIGN


4-9-1 Shiobara, Minami-ku
Fukuoka-shi, 815 Japan



CONTENTS:

THE INSTITUTE

TEXT TO SPEECH SYNTHESIS (1981-   )

ARTIFACTS

BIOGRAPHIES


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PURPOSE OF THE INSTITUTE


"Art was born from the human desire to express the human spirit
thoroughly, and technology in modern society has been born from
the application of science to life. Therefore, technology should
be based on a combination of art and science so that we may make
use of it completely. To study and develop technology, designers
in modern society must have a good sense of art and a sufficient
knowledge of not only natural sciences but the humanities and
social sciences. To train students to be designers with such
qualifications, Kyushu Institute of Design, a national
university, was established in April, 1968."  (K.S.)


HISTORY SUMMARY


"April 1, 1968, establishment of Kyushu Institute of Design,
Departments of Environmental, Industrial, Visual Communication,
and Acoustic Design. May 2, 1977, establishment of the Graduate
Schools (master course) of Living Environmental Studies and of
Audio and Visual Communication Studies."  (K.S.)

Successive Presidents:

1968  Dr. Shinji Koike
1974  Dr. Hirotaro Ohta
1978  Dr. Yasumi Yoshitake
1986  Dr. Yoshinori Ando


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PROJECT: TEXT TO SPEECH SYNTHESIS (1981-   )


The text-to-speech project at the Kyushu Institute of Design was
started in 1980 under the direction of Prof. Teranishi. Until
that time, the group studied basic speech topics.  However, with
the upgrading of the computing system in the information center,
they were able to realize a large-scale speech synthesis system.

Their first system (GK-SS1) adopted the formant synthesizer
proposed by D.H. Klatt. In 1981, they adopted the LSP parameters
proposed by F. Itakura, et al. At first, they used phonemic
synthesis units (GK-SS2), then in 1983 they changed the synthesis
units to syllabic ones (GK-SS3). The quality of the synthesized
speech was consequently much improved.

One of the most important issues in this field is to synthesize
speech with natural prosody.  The present system (GK-SS4/SS5) was
designed and developed with this in mind.  Presently under
development is a system that synthesizes speech with various
prosody styles. (K.S.)


1985 Shiraki, K., M. Ueno, and R. Teranishi, "Text-to-speech
     system in Japanese,", Proc. Spring Meeting of Acoust. Soc.
     Japan, pp 145-146, March 1985. (In Japanese)


     Kaburagi, T., K. Suzuki, K. Shiraki, M. Ueno, and R. Teran-
     ishi, "A system for speech synthesis by rule in Japanese-
     Conversion from Kana-text to speech," Trans. of Comm. on
     Sp. Research, Acoust. Soc. Japan, S85-44, October 17, 1985,
     pp 333-340 (in Japanese). (SSSHP 46 Reprint)

     SSSHP 45 Tape: "Text-to-Speech in Japanese (standard read-
          ing)", R. Teranishi, 10/17/85
          (examples at standard reading rate and quick speaking)
          Cassette, some print-through, playback amplitude changes
          during playback


1986 Suzuki, K., T. Kaburagi, and R. Teranishi, "Speech rate
     changing study with a text-to-speech-system in Japanese",
     Proc. Spring Meeting of Acoust. Soc. Japan, pp 203-204,
     March 1986. (In Japanese)


1987 Ishida, Y., and R. Teranishi, "A system for speech synthe-
     sis of verse by rule in Japanese," Proc. Spring Meeting of
     Acoust. Soc. Japan, pp 201-202, March 1987. (In Japanese)
     Synthesized verse recitation of "Kuroda-bushi" (see SSSHP 42
     Tape, below)


     Suzuki, K., R. Teranishi, "Naturalness rating for prosody of
     synthesized speech sentences," Proc. Spring Meeting of
     Acoust. Soc. Japan, 203-204, March, 1987. (In Japanese)


     Teranishi, R., "A speech synthesis system by rule in Japa-
     nese; GK-SS4", Annual meeting of the Information Processing
     Center, Kyushu Inst. of Design, No. 6, pp 17-29, 1987. (In
     Japanese)


1988 Suzuki, K., R. Teranishi, "Parsing algorithm for text-to-
     speech in Japanese," J. Acoust. Soc. Japan, Vol. 44, pp 335-
     343, 1988. (In Japanese with English abstract)


     Horioka, A., J. Kiyama, and R. Teranishi, "Improvement in a
     synthesizing method for quick speaking speech", Proc. Fall
     Meeting of Acoust. Soc. Japan, pp 145-146, Oct. 1988. (In
     Japanese) Smoothed effects of control signals for the LSP
     synthesizer were demonstrated.


     Ishida, Y., J. Kiyama, and R. Teranishi, "Implantation of a
     text-to-speech system to personal computers," Proc. Fall
     Meeting of Acoust. Soc. Japan, pp 159-160, 1988. (In Japa-
     nese).


     Teranishi, R., "A speech synthesis system by rule in Japa-
     nese," Proc. Second Joint Meeting of ASA and ASJ, Poster
     Session J14, Nov. 1988. (SSSHP 24 Reprint, 2 copies)


     Teranishi, R., "A speech synthesis system by rule in Japa-
     nese at Kyushu Geikodai: GK-SS4/5," Preprints for the Sec-
     ond Symposium on Advanced Man-Machine Interface Through
     Spoken Language, Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii, Nov. 1988. (SSSHP 23
     Reprints, 2 copies)

     SSSHP 42 Tape: "A SPEECH SYNTHESIS SYSTEM BY RULE IN JAPA-
          NESE, Sample of the Synthesized Speech. by R.Teranishi",
          (story: "Grand tour of a rain drop", 3.5 min; story
          at 4 speeds, 2.5 min; LSP control signal smoothing,
          1.5 min; poem: "Kuroda-bushi", 1 min)
          Cassette, good quality


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ARTIFACTS


     "An original text-to-speech system in Japanese, GK-SS4/5
     (1988, 10) Series No. 03", Text-to-speech system GK-SS4/5
     on 5" computer diskette for NEC PC-9800 machine, or
     equivalent. (SSSHP 40)


     "GK-SS4/5 Sample Data".  Computer data on 5" computer
     diskette. (SSSHP 41)


     "An original text-to-speech system in Japanese, GK-SS4/5
     (1988,10)". Operation manual of the system. (SSSHP 43)


     Diskettes are formatted by NEC PC 9801 VX or 9801 RX machines
     available only in Japan. NEC Powermate SX/20 machines are
     compatible with IBM system and are available only in the USA.
     A Toshiba 3100-J may be able to read either format.
     Specifications of the 2HD diskettes and diskette drives are:

                     NEC PC 98  IBM
     Bytes/Sector      1024     512
     Sectors/Track        8      15
     No. of Tracks       77      80
     No. of Heads         2       2
     Capacity (KBytes) 1232    1200



     Computer Program: "A text-to-speech system in Japanese
     (revised), GK-SS5 (1991,03) Series No. 10". Text-to-speech
     speech system GK-SS5 on 5.25" 2HD computer diskette for NEC
     PC-9801 machine (or equivalent). (SSSHP 101)


     Computer Data: "GK-SS5 (1991,03) Series No. 10". Sample files
     files on 5.25" 2HD computer diskette for NEC PC-9801 machine
     machine. (SSSHP 102)


     Computer Program: "GK-SS5 System, source files are stored for
     the access on IBM PC-AT". 3.5" 2DD 720 kB computer diskette.
     (SSSHP 103)


     Manual: "A Text-To-Speech System in Japanese (revised).
     GK-SS5 (1991,03) Series No. 10". Operation manual of the
     system of SSSHP 101, listings of source text files, and
     directory listing of PC-9801 diskettes. (SSSHP 104)


     Items 101-104 received 8/20/91 from Prof. K. Fukudome, Kyushu
     Institute of Design (in SSSHP JAPAN Kyushu Institute of Design
     file).



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BIOGRAPHIES


ATSUSHI HORIOKA

1987 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1989 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
     Matsusita Elect. Co., Osaka


YUKIHIRO ISHIDA

1986 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1988 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
     CSK Research Inst., Tokyo


TOKIHIKO KABURAGI

1984 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1985 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
     Musachino Elec. Comm. Laboratory, N.T.T.


JIRO KIYAMA

1987 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1989 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
     Sharp Elec. Co., Osaka


KOICHI SHIRAKI

1983 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1985 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
1985 Research Laboratory, Mitsubishi Electric Co., Kamakura


KAZUHIRO SUZUKI

1985 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1987 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
     Tokyo Research Laboratory, IBM Japan


RYUNEN TERANISHI

1950 B.A. and M.A. in Psychology, The Univ. of Tokyo
     Research assistant, Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo
1958 ETL Japan (except 1965-66 P.D. Fellow, NRC Ottawa)
1962 Ph.D. in Psychology, The Univ. of Tokyo
1965-66 P.D. Fellow, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa
1973 Professor, Kyushu Inst.of Design, Fukuoka
1975 Biography, photo in IEEE Trans ASSP, April 1975
1988 Fellow, Acoust. Soc. of America
1991 retired


MASAHIRO UENO

1983 graduation, Kyushu Inst. of Design
1985 M.S., Kyushu Inst. of Design
1985 Matsushita Electric Co., Osaka


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CONTRIBUTIONS AND REVIEW BY:

Prof. Ryunen Teranishi     (outline and tapes)
2-17-26-702 Kego
Fukuoka City, Japan

Mr. Kazuhiro Suzuki        (history of Institute)
Tokyo Research Laboratory
ESI/UIR/Speech Processing
IBM Japan, Ltd.
5-19, Sanban-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102, Japan

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