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Vocal Features XIAOCHANG LI and MARA MILLS

This article considers machine methods used in the collection, processing, and application of vocal recordings for speaker identification and speech recognition between 1908 and 1970. The first phonographic archives featured collections of “vocal portraits” that prompted international investigations into the essential features of human voices for individual identification. Visual records of speech later found the same applications, but as “voiceprint identification” via sound spectrography began to achieve legal and commercial success in the 1960s, the procedure attracted more widespread scientific attention, which ultimately discredited both its accuracy and its rationale. At the same time, spectrogram collections spurred a new application—speech recognition by machine. The changing status of the speech spectrogram, from a record of unique features of individual voices to a model of fundamental invariants in speech sounds, was rooted in the demands of automated processing and a corresponding shift from the sound archive to the acoustic database.

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2019.0066

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Audio

Songs and Calls of Our Native Birds No. 3

Gorst, Charles. 1915. “Songs And Calls Of Our Native Birds No. 3”. 17735-A. RCA Victor.

Audio

Voices of the Loon

Barklow, William, and Robert J. Lurtsema. 1980. “Voices Of The Loon”. North American Loon Fund and the National Audubon Society.

Audio

The Wrens

1977. “The Wrens”. A Guided Tour Of The Voices Of Over 40 Species In Perhaps The Ultimate Songbird Family. Gainesville, Florida: Published privately by John William and Carol K. Hardy.

Audio

Sounds of Nature Vol. 8

Borror, Donald J., and William W.H. Gunn. 1963. “Sounds Of Nature Vol. 8”. Thrushes, Wrens, & Mockingbirds Of Eastern North America. Federation of Ontario Naturalists.

Person

H. J. L. Struycken

H. J. L. Struycken was a Dutch otolaryngologist, phonetician, and acoustician. After studying medicine in Groningen, in 1893 he started working at the Voorburg psychiatric hospital near Vught, where he attempted to distinguish psychiatric conditions from neurological speech disorders. His interest in phonetics and acoustics took Struycken to France and Germany, to visit clinics and approach instrument makers who could produce tuning forks for him to use in his clinical research.

1896

1950

Person

Adriaan Daniël Fokker

Adriaan Daniël Fokker was a prominent Dutch theoretical physicist. He is known in theoretical physics for the Fokker-Planck equation and his work on the theory of relativity. In the years around 1930, however, Fokker also became interested in room acoustics and the tuning of musical instruments. He designed several sound reflectors, which amplify the sound reaching the audience, especially in churches, but his work on musical instrument tuning is what made him more widely known.

1887

1972

Person

Cornelis Zwikker

Cornelis Zwikker was a Dutch physicist and one of the initiators of the Dutch Sound Foundation. After studying chemistry, mathematics, and physics in Amsterdam, he worked with Philips in Eindhoven until 1929, when he was appointed professor of theoretical and applied physics at the Delft University of Technology. Zwikker was responsible for the acoustic design of many buildings, among them the studios of the Dutch broadcasting organization AVRO.

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1900

1985

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Publicatie No. 29 van de Geluidstichting

1941. “Publicatie No. 29 Van De Geluidstichting”. 29. Geluidstichting. Zwikker, C., Van Den Eijk, J. & Kosten, C. W. (1941). Absorption Of Sound By Porous Materials Ii. Delft: Geluidstichting.

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Explanatory Note and Acknowledgments:

The archival documents concerning the history of the Geluidstichting (Sound Foundation) and Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap (Dutch Society for Acoustics) in the “Sound & Science” database include a digitized selection of the documents held at the archives of the Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap (located at the office of M+P Consultants, Vught, The Netherlands). The sequence of the selected and digitized documents follows that of the original paper archive, but the numbering of the digitized documents has been added by us to facilitate digital storage. The dates of the newspaper clippings in the archive were tracked down using the online retrieval system for Dutch newspapers, magazines, and books, www.delpher.nl.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Board of the Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap (NAG), Gijsjan van Blokland (chair NAG and senior consultant at M+P Raadgevende Ingenieurs, Vught, The Netherlands), and M+P managing director Jan Hooghwerff for their excellent help in making the digitization possible. We would also like to thank Karin Bijsterveld for selecting and describing the documents, and Jonathan Haid for doing the actual digitization work.

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Publicatie No. 30 van de Geluidstichting

1941. “Publicatie No. 30 Van De Geluidstichting”. 30. Geluidstichting. Kosten, C. W. & Zwikker, C. (1941). Theory Of The Absorption Of Sound By Compressible Walls With A Non-Porous Surface-Layer. Delft: Geluidstichting.

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Publicatie No. 40 van de Geluidstichting

Geluidstichting,. 1942. “Publicatie No. 40 Van De Geluidstichting”. 40. Ontwerp Akoestische Begrippen En Grootheden. Omschrijvingen En Definities. Delft: Geluidstichting.

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