

Re: Directional characteristics of the human voice

Dear Angélique,

I made my PhD about the topic directivity of sound sources. During this
study, we measured the complete directivity of a real human speaker every
15° Horizontally and 10° vertically . There are some data plotted in my
thesis on p.110 and appendix D (see pdf attachments).  

Complete reference for my thesis can be found at: http://www.shaker.de

The editor is German but the dissertation is in English.

Franck Giron 
Investigations about the Directivity of Sound Sources 

Reihe:  Berichte aus der Elektrotechnik  
Schlagwörter:  Akustik; Schallquellen; Hörversuche  
Seitenzahl:  199  
ISBN:  3-8265-1876-4  
Erscheinungs-datum:  November 1996  

Concerning the choice of a loudspeaker which replicates the directivity of a
human speaker, it could be difficult to find one. It depends what kind of
experiments you want to do exactly. There are some mouth simulators around
which have been designed for this purpose and are adequate to playback some
speech signals, for example:


I was satisfied for my research more concerned with room acoustics with the
2 ways loudspeaker from JBL: LSR25P,


which is a real studio loudspeaker with a very flat frequency
characteristics. The directivity index is relatively similar for the lower
frequencies but becomes more directional for the higher ones. It is also a
powered speaker which can be of advantage for some measurements (you don't
have to carry out a separate amplifier and can directly connect it to the PC
line-out or headphone for example). But if you want to reproduce the same
speech spectrum as a real human from data recorded with a microphone, you
will have to eventually equalize the recorded file, before playing it back
trough the loudspeaker, I don't know if the mouth simulator is doing it.

Hope it helps somehow,


Franck Giron, Dr.-Ing.
Principal Scientist
Sony Deutschland GmbH
Stuttgart Technology Center
EuTEC - Speech&Sound Project
Hedelfinger Str. 61            
D-70327 Stuttgart
Phone:  +49-711-5858-504
Fax:    +49-711-5858-740
E-mail: giron@xxxxxxx


>From: Scharine, Angelique (Civ,ARL/HRED) 
>Sent: Mittwoch, 15. Juni 2005 03:19
>To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Directional characteristics of the human voice
>I'm hoping that someone could help me find articles describing 
>the directional characteristics of the human voice. I'm 
>selecting loudspeakers for an experiment, and I want to be 
>sure that they replicate the directionality of human speech. 
>Can anyone point me in the right direction?
>I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my 
>sails to always reach my destination. - Jimmy Dean, American 
>Singer/Television Performer/Sausage Entepreneur
>Angélique A. Scharine Ph. D.
>Army Research Lab/HRED
>Building 520
>Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
>Office: (410) 278-5957
>DSN: 298-5957
>Fax: (410) 278-3587

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