Abstract:
Parameters of speech produced during winter weather are analyzed to determine the potential influence of distorted voices due to common cold on automatic speaker recognition systems. This research examines speech recorded before, during, and after bouts with the common cold. ``Cold-affected'' speech shows noticeable acoustic and phonetic differences between test sessions. Examining the different states of one male speaker's voice allows an opportunity to address the speaker intersession problem that exists in speaker recognition technology. Specific emphasis is placed on the contrasts in various sessions of TIMIT inspired sentence ``She had your dark suit in greasy wash water all year.'' It also analyzes phonetic contrasts and looks at differences in formant patterns. Phonetic transcriptions of ``cold'' and ``normal'' sessions reflect changes in place of articulation. Perceptual and acoustic analyses reveal pauses and epenthetic syllables that are not constant throughout all sessions. ``Cold-speech'' also produces noise caused by hoarseness and coughing. Research presented here shows evidence of variability beyond ``normal'' speech patterns. Contributing to the information on intraspeaker variability, this work provides a preliminary analysis of ``cold-affected'' speech in an effort to include ``abnormal'' speech and speech affected by communications disorders into the framework of automatic speaker recognition.