Computational Models for Speech Production

Major speech production models from speech science literature and a number of popular statistical “generative” models of speech used in speech technology are surveyed. Strengths and weaknesses of these two styles of speech models are analyzed, pointing to the need to integrate the respective strengths while eliminating the respective weaknesses. As an example, a statistical task-dynamic model of speech production is described, motivated by the original deterministic version of the model and targeted for integrated-multilingual speech recognition applications. Methods for model parameter learning (training) and for likelihood computation (recognition) are described based on statistical optimization principles integrated in neural network and dynamic system theories.