MELPAR, INC.

3000 Arlington Boulevard
Falls Church VA

19?? a subsidiary of Westinghouse Air Brake Co.
19?? Melpar Division of E-Systems, Dallas, TX
1995 E-Systems acquired by Raytheon Electronic Systems, Bedford, MA


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HISTORY

Melpar was a defense and aerospace services and products company 
providing a wide range of technologies in communications, acoustics,
signal analysis, radar, and electronic warfare. The company also
provided flight and weapon simulators and trainers.

Melpar's communications technology included vocoder research and
design, leading to a formant-tracking vocoder and a speech 
synthesizer, called "EVA".


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PROJECT: EVA-I, ELECTRONIC VOCAL ANALOG - I  (19   - 19   )


Formant synthesizer operated by a multi-channel function generator.
Experimental test bed for work on a formant-tracking vocoder for 
the U.S. government. Synthesizer was modeled after the synthesizer
OVE-II in Sweden. (See SSSHP SWEDEN Royal Institute of Technology.)
Formant circuits were tuned with electrically adjustable inductors.

Multi-channel function generator used a resistive roller on a 
manually-constructed pattern of conducting ink. (See SSSHP UK 
Signals Research and Development Establishment for invention and 
SSSHP SWEDEN Royal Institute of Technology for a later "flat bed"
version.)


1962 Early, D.M., D.C. Coulter, R.E. Irons, S.J. Campanella, and
     L.A.  Barnes, FORMANT TRACKING VOCODER SYSTEM, Report NR.
     1, First Quarterly Report, 1 Sept. 1962 to 30 Nov. 1962,
     Melpar, Inc., Falls Church, VA, Defense Documentation Center 
     No. AD406128. Released for public distribution March 24, 1999,
     National Archives Declassification Number NND993040. Circuit 
     design of transistorized formant synthesizer modeled after 
     OVE-II.


1963 Early, D.M., D.C. Coulter, R.E. Irons, S.J. Campanella, and
     L.A.  Barnes, FORMANT TRACKING VOCODER SYSTEM, Report NR.
     2, Second Quarterly Report, 1 Dec. 1962 to 28 Feb. 1963,
     Melpar, Inc., Falls Church, VA, Defense Documentation Center 
     No. AD409099. Released for public distribution March 24, 1999,
     National Archives Declassification Number NND993040. Twelve-
     channel analog function generator based on OVE-II function 
     generator at RIT. Five seconds of speech with conducting 
     ink patterns. Six-parameter synthesis, no nasal tract. 
     Photographs of formant synthesizer and function generator.

     Tape ?  (male: "I enjoy the simple life", copy of Holmes
              spectrogram from RIT work on OVE II)
             (female: "Neat plans fail without luck")

     Artifacts: Mr. Coulter has the pre-production laboratory 
             model of EVA-I. He also has photograph of its 
             demonstration at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.


1965 Campanella, S.J., D.C. Coulter, D.M. Speaker, FORMANT TRACKING
     SPEECH BANDWIDTH COMPRESSION SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS, Technical
     Report AFAL-TR-65-5, Melpar, Inc., Defense Documentation
     Center No. AD461490. Released for public distribution March 
     24, 1999, National Archives Declassification Number NND993040.
     Formant tracking vocoder, improvements to speech synthesizer.


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PROJECT: EVA-II, COMMERCIAL FORMANT SYNTHESIZER  (19   - 19   )


Commercial formant synthesizer and function generator, modeled
after OVE II (See SSSHP SWEDEN Royal Institute of Technology). A 
cascaded five-pole model of the vocal tract with parallel analogs
for nasal and fricative resonances. Transistorized inductance-
tuned formant circuits. About 10 models sold.


1964 Rack mounted synthesizer $10,000, function generator $15,000. 
     
     "Speech Synthesizer, Product Data", Melpar, Inc., 1964.
     Summary of product specifications, photos, 4 pp.

     "Graphic Playback Unit, Product Data", Melpar, Inc. Summary
     of function generator specifications, photos, 3 pp. 
     (photocopy).

     SSSHP 132.6 Tape: "Archival Tape - H.D. Maxey, 3/65" IBM copy.
               ("This voice is the result of scientific
                discovery")
               7" reel, 7.5 ips (Maxey Tape T65.6)

     Artifact: Mr. Coulter has National Security Agency's model. It 
         was retrieved from a dump and has water and physical damage.


1965 Integration of speech synthesizer and function generator in a
     single unit for $10,000.

     EVA MARK II INSTRUCTION MANUAL, Melpar, Inc., 35 pp., January
     1966.        (******** need copy *********)


1965 Pickett, J.M., "Some acoustic cues for synthesis of the
     /n-d/ distinction", JASA 37, 474-477.

     Tape ?


1966 "EVA-MK III Electronic Vocal Analog", product specification
     summary, photo, 2 pp., 1966. (Photocopy)
     

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BIOGRAPHIES


LAURENCE A. BARNES, JR.

         Chemical Engineering, Cornell Univ.
         Instructor, U.S. Navy
         B.S.E.E., George Washington University
    1955 Melpar, Inc.


S. JOSEPH CAMPANELLA

         B.S.E.E., Catholic University of America
         M.S., University of Maryland
         Ph.D., Catholic University of America
    1950 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
    1953 Melpar, Inc., communication systems, vocoders    
    1962 Head, Electronics Research Laboratory, Melpar, Inc.
    1988 COMSAT


DAVID C. COULTER

    1951 B.S. in Physics/Math, American University
    1951 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
    1954 Melpar, Inc., vocoder systems
    1965 Research Leader, Melpar, Inc.
    1966 returned to U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
    1978 President, Coulter Associates, Inc., Fairfax, VA,
         consultant on speech processing
    1983 Metavox, Inc., devices for hearing impaired 


DOUGLAS M. EARLY

   ?1947 B.E.E., George Washington University
   ?1947 U.S. Coast Guard
    1953 Melpar, Inc.,
    1962 Project Engineer, Melpar, Inc. 


RONALD E. IRONS

    1955 B.S. in Radio Engineering, Tri-State College, Angola, IN
    1955 Goodyear Aircraft Corp.
    1956 Senior Engineer, Melpar, Inc.
    1961 Senior Engineer, Bernard Electronics Co.
    1962 Principal Engineer, Melpar, Inc.


JAMES M. PICKETT

1944 A.B. from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
1951 Ph.D. from Brown Univ., Providence RI
1950 Instructor in Psychology, Univ. of Conn., Storrs CN
1952 Research Psychologist, U.S. Air Force, Bolling Field
1959 Research Psychologist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
1961 Research Fellow, Speech Trans. Lab, Royal Inst. of Tech,
     Stockholm, Sweden
1962 Research Psychologist, Air Force Cambridge Research Labs,
     Bedford MA, and Melpar, Inc., Falls Church VA
1964 Prof. of Speech Comm. Research, Gallaudet University, 
     Washington, D.C.
1987 Proprietor, Windy Hill Lab, Morgan Bay Road, Surry ME;
     Emeritus Professor of Speech Communication Research, Gallaudet
     University


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CONTRIBUTIONS AND REVIEW BY:

David C. Coulter
Coulter Assoc., Inc.
Fairfax, VA

James M. Pickett
Windy Hill Lab
Surry, ME