Talking head, transparent articulation

The talking head has been developed between 2010 and 2020 at the Department of Automation of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Automation and Infocommunication of the Miskolc University, Hungary under the leadership of László Czap, based on an audiovisual speech synthesizer. The sound is produced by the ProfiVox-diad speech synthesizer developed at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. To this is added an image of the speaking head that mimics articulation. Every detail of the three-dimensional head model is meticulously crafted, it breathes, it blinks, and its facial expressions are emotional.

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However, the real novelty is not only how lifelike the head model is, but also how the head can be made transparent, so the face is transparent and the movement of the tongue can be seen not only from the front but also from the side, so it can show articulatory movements, that is, how the tongue and lips move during speech. This can be of tremendous importance in the speech teaching of the deaf and hard of hearing people. However, with the help of the new program, they can practice fluent speech.

Paper in Hungarian

Jó napot kívánok! (Good afternoon)

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Búvárszemüveg (Diving goggles)

The articulatory movements of the spoken Hungarian word “búvárszemüveg” /b u: v a: r s E m y v E g/ (diving goggles) can be seen in the demo
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