Audio-Text Multimodal Speech Recognition via Dual-Tower Architecture for Mandarin Air Traffic Control Communications

In air traffic control communications (ATCC), misunderstandings between pilots and controllers could result in fatal aviation accidents. Fortunately, advanced automatic speech recognition technology has emerged as a promising means of preventing miscommunications and enhancing aviation safety. However, most existing speech recognition methods merely incorporate external language models on the decoder side, leading to insufficient semantic alignment between speech and text modalities during the encoding phase. Furthermore, it is challenging to model acoustic context dependencies over long distances due to the longer speech sequences than text, especially for the extended ATCC data. To address these issues, we propose a speech-text multimodal dual-tower architecture for speech recognition. It employs cross-modal interactions to achieve close semantic alignment during the encoding stage and strengthen its capabilities in modeling auditory long-distance context dependencies. In addition, a two-stage training strategy is elaborately devised to derive semantics-aware acoustic representations effectively. The first stage focuses on pre-training the speech-text multimodal encoding module to enhance inter-modal semantic alignment and aural long-distance context dependencies. The second stage fine-tunes the entire network to bridge the input modality variation gap between the training and inference phases and boost generalization performance. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed speech-text multimodal speech recognition method on the ATCC and AISHELL-1 datasets. It reduces the character error rate to 6.54% and 8.73%, respectively, and exhibits substantial performance gains of 28.76% and 23.82% compared with the best baseline model. The case studies indicate that the obtained semantics-aware acoustic representations aid in accurately recognizing terms with similar pronunciations but distinctive semantics. The research provides a novel modeling paradigm for semantics-aware speech recognition in air traffic control communications, which could contribute to the advancement of intelligent and efficient aviation safety management.

A NOVEL APPROACH OF SECURE COMMUNICATION BASED ON THE TECHNIQUE OF SPEECH INFORMATION HIDING

The proposed secure communication approach adopts the proposed algorithm of Analysis-By- Synthesis （ABS） speech information hiding to establish a Secret Speech Subliminai Channel （SSSC） for speech secure communication over PSTN （Public Switched Telephone Network）, and employs the algorithm of ABS speech information extracting to recovery the secret information, This approach is more reliable, covert and securable than traditional and chaotic secure communication.

Channel Modeling for Air-to-Ground Wireless Communication

In this paper, we discuss several large-scale fading models for different enviromnents. The COST231-Hata model is adapted for air-to-ground modeling. We propose two criteria for air-to- ground channel modelling based on test data derived from field testing in Beijing. We develop a new propagation model that is more suitable for air-to-ground communication that previous models. We focus on improving this propagation model using the field test data.

Comparison of culture in English (Learning) Speech Communication

This paper mainly talks about the differences of speech communication betweenChina and Britain- In comparison of status, Conditions and actions of speech with culture, we getto know that culture is different in China and Britain- lf Chinese learners want to learn Englishwelt they must know some thing about its culture. otherwise, we cannt say that thcy haveleamed English well. As to how culture is learned and tapht, it needs us English teachers to havefurther research on culture in the comng days.

Communication of Internal Speech with Communicative Associative Robot via Spectral Neurointerface

Thought communications with an associative-communicative robot are carried out through the spectral neurointerface of internal speech.Internal speech is an energy physiological process.Internal speech is vibration from the mental vibration of thought.Mental vibration of thought is a process in the mental ethereal field.The vibrations of thoughts are reflected and observed by the mind in the form of semantic sensual images.Vibrations of semantic sensual images generate vibrations of internal speech action(internal speech)in the form of language communicative and associative stereotypes which are perceived by a touch zone of a brain of Wernicke.In­ternal speech is a linguistic mental vibration.It is felt and becomes internal­ly audible and drawn to attention.The perception of vibrations of internal speech is carried out through energy channels,such as the internal posterior median canal of the spine.The spectral neurointerface perceives these vi­brations.Neocortex makes us a reasonable person-allows us to think and talk.The spectral neurointerface is based on the principles of biosensors,bioenergy detectors,spectral analyzers and electrocorticography for neuro­imaging parts of the brain that record vibrations of internal speech,such as the lower frontal gyrus,the upper and middle temporal gyrus,the medial prefrontal cortex,the hind parts of the wedge and precline and the dark temporal region,including the posterior Internal speech activity is associat­ed with the semantic memory of the neocortex.

The Speech Acts in Cross-cultural Communication

In cross-cultural communication, miscommunication or misunderstanding is a common phenomenon because peoplefrom different backgrounds have different rules of speech acts and cultural conventions. In order to overcome the difficulties of mis-communication and improve effective cross-cultural communication, more research is needed to study the speech acts from cultureto culture. In this paper, the author mainly studies three patterns of speech acts studied by previous researchers, including apology,greeting, and compliment, discusses what previous researchers studied on the three speech acts in cross-cultural communication,and then analyzes them with real examples in cross-cultural communication.

A Study of ISA in Chinese Cultural Communication

The paper tentatively studies the function of the indirect speech act in Chinese cultural communication, namely, domestic communication. Two aspects are shown in this paper： communication between people of different social status, genders and casual relationships, and communication between people of same social status, genders and close relationships. Therefore, the study result can be concluded like this： whether the use of indirect speech act is successful or not always influences people＇s communication significantly.

Physical Layer Security for UAV Communications:A Comprehensive Survey

Due to its high mobility and flexible deployment,unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is drawing unprecedented interest in both military and civil applications to enable agile and ubiquitous connectivity.Mainly operating in an open environment,UAV communications benefit from dominant line-of-sight links;however,this on the other hand renders the communications more vulnerable to malicious attacks.Recently,physical layer security(PLS)has been introduced to UAV systems as an important complement to the conventional cryptography-based approaches.In this paper,a comprehensive survey on the current achievements of UAV-PLS is conducted.We first introduce the basic concepts including typical static/-mobile UAV deployment scenarios,the unique air-toground channel and aerial nodes distribution models,as well as various roles that a UAV may act when PLS is concerned.Then,we start by reviewing the secrecy performance analysis and enhancing techniques for statically deployed UAV systems,and extend the discussion to the more general scenario where the UAVs’mobility is further exploited.For both cases,respectively,we summarize the commonly adopted methodologies,then describe important works in the litera ture in detail.Finally,potential research directions and challenges are discussed to provide an outlook for future works in the area of UAV-PLS.

Detecting Threats of Acoustic Information Leakage Through Fiber Optic Communications

Information leaks through regular fiber optic communications is possible in the form of eavesdropping on conversations, using standard fiber optic communications as illegal measuring network. The threat of leakage of audio information can create any kind of irregular light emission, as well as regular light beams modulated at acoustic frequencies. For information protection can be used a means of sound insulation, filtration and noising. This paper discusses the technical possibilities of countering threats by monitoring the optical radiation to detect eavesdropping.

High Performance Speech Compression System

Since Pulse Code Modulation emerged in 1937, digitized speech has experienced rapid development due to its outstanding voice quality, reliability, robustness and security in communication. But how to reduce channel width without loss of speech quality remains a crucial problem in speech coding theory. A new full-duplex digital speech communication system based on the Vocoder of AMBE-1000(TM) and microcontroller ATMEL 89C51 is introduced. It shows higher voice quality than current mobile phone system with only a quarter of channel width needed for the latter. The prospective areas in which the system can be applied include satellite communication, IP Phone, virtual meeting and the most important, defence industry.

Celebrities Acting up: A Speech Act Analysis in Tweets of Famous People

Twitter has become very popular among celebrities. It is the main platform used by them to publish press releases and, especially, to reach out to their fans. Given the pervasiveness of celebrities on the site, people with related interests may be especially likely to start using the service due to the perception of direct access to a famous person. As for the celebrities, it is a way of being close to the public and giving them an insight in to the life of a celebrity. Although most celebrity Twitter accounts are only used for promotion purposes, many celebrities use their personal accounts for the purpose of communicating with their fans, friends and other celebrities. These celebrities tweet personal photos and share their inner thoughts for various reasons and to different audiences. Thus in this study I ask: What are celebrity speech patterns on Twitter? Are they talking mostly to fans, and if not, who are they talking to? How are they talking to these different audiences? I address these questions by analyzing the tweets publicly available on four active celebrities’ Twitter timelines. The findings support that these celebrities indeed address different audiences on Twitter, including fans, friends, family and other celebrities. The findings further reveal that celebrities tend to communicate using different speech acts when talking to these different audiences. In light of this evidence, I attempt to highlight patterns that may be relevant with regards to the celebrities’ gender.

Speech Suppression with EEMD_WP

In non-cooperation communication, speech suppression is an important link of aircraft type recognition based on shortwave speech communication. Ensemble mean and ensemble variance for analyzing physical characteristics of aircraft cockpit background sound has been proposed in this paper. Some important peak feature is revealed from the ensemble mean and ensemble variance, which has important guiding significance to further researches on speech suppression of aircraft type recognition based on shortwave speech communication. The two algorithms of speech suppression are proposed which are empirical mode decomposition and wavelet transform(EMD_WT) and the algorithm of ensemble empirical mode decomposition and wavelet packet (EEMD_WP). In the process of speech suppression, EMD_WT produced extra noise pollution, and EEMD_WP kept the aircraft cockpit background sound and weakened the effect of the speech largely. The contrast test proves that EEMD_WP has better performance by in time domain and in frequency domain.

Effect of face masks on speech understanding: A clinical perspective during speech audiometry

The objective was to measure the effect of various face masks on speech recognition threshold and the word recognition score in the presence of varying background noise levels.20 normal-hearing adult subjects(a total of 40 ears)participated.Pure tone audiometry followed by speech recognition threshold and word recognition score at the most comfortable level in varying signal-to-noise ratios(SNR0,SNR10,and SNR15)using surgical,pleated cloth,and N95 masks.Using surgical,cloth,and N95 masks,speech recognition thresholds increased by 1.8 dB,4.4 dB,and 5.05 dB,respectively.Word recognition scores decreased by 32%without a mask,43.7%in a surgical mask,46.3%in a cloth mask,and 46.7%in N95 mask conditions,between SNR15 and SNR0.The speech recognition threshold was negatively affected with cloth and N95 masks.Surgical masks do not affect the word recognition scores at lower background noise levels.However,as the signal-to-noise ratio decreased,even the surgical,cloth,and N95 masks significantly impacted the word recognition score even in normal-hearing individuals.

Teaching Speech Acts in EFL Classrooms： An Implicit Pedagogy

Language teaching is a combination of teaching syntax, content of language in use, and the social background of that language. As the study of the act in speech, speech acts naturally exist in social and interpersonal discourses. Thus it is of vital importance to let language learners to acquire its concept and principles. This paper is a brief introduction to the theories and approaches on speech acts as well as its application for ELT pedagogy. The paper is made up of three parts. In the first part, former investigations and theories on speech acts would be introduced and discussed. The second part is a discussion on communicative competence in English language teaching. In the third part, two sample tasks of implicit pedagogy for speech acts would be introduced. A conclusion of teaching speech acts implicitly is given out in the fourth part.

Evaluating Room Acoustics for Speech Intelligibility

Room acoustics play an important role in the intelligibility of speech. The main aspect of acoustics that is usually studied is the duration of the reverberation decay, since a long decay causes a blurring of phonemes. However, other parameters of the acoustics such as the strength of the reverberation can actually improve intelligibility. These factors do not receive the same attention. In many common practical situations such as classrooms and residential rooms, it would be of value to quantitatively study the acoustics to optimize the room’s function, but this is not done routinely due to the expected expense or difficulty involved. This research explores inexpensive first-principle methods to quantitatively measure three key parameters of a room’s acoustics: the reverberation decay time RT60, the reverberant intensity IR, and the room’s total absorption A. The required equipment includes two laptops installed with certain free softwares. Generation of the required noise signal and level detection are carried out using the REW software, and long-duration recordings are carried out using the Audacity software. The procedures are simple enough to be performed without specialized training and do not require specialized equipment, only commonly available household resources. This research also sheds light on the fact that not all reverberation is bad and that strong but short-duration reverberation can enhance communication. This information can be expected to benefit schools and other venues where speech intelligibility is vital.

Analysis of“Versailles Literature”from the Perspective of Speech Act Theory

Versailles literature,which can be understood as fake humble in English,is a kind of internet catchphrase which became popular on a Chinese social media,Weibo,last year.This paper aims to explore the communicative intention of uploader as well as the communicative effect from the perspective of speech act theory so as to draw researcher’s attention on internet catchphrase and social media study.The result shows that sometimes people’s locutionary act do not correspondence with their illocutionary act.Also,since perlocutionary act has uncertainty,the communicative effect can be either an expected or an unexpected effect.

Obstacles for Chinese EFL Learners to Improve Speech Intelligibility

As the primary means of communication,speech is an essential aspect for humans to interact and build connections in the social world.Speech intelligibility is critical in social communication;unintelligibility may lead to confusion,misunderstanding,and frustration.Many Chinese learners of English find it challenging to apply English into social interaction and reach mutual intelligibility with international communicators.This article analyzes the obstacles impeding Chinese EFL learners’speech intelligibility development,from the aspects of phonology(segmental and suprasegmental features)and pragmatics.Some strategies are proposed to help Chinese learners ameliorate phonology and pragmatics problems and improve speech intelligibility in English communication.

Chinese EFL Learners' Public Speaking Skills: An Investigation of Impromptu Speeches at the “FLTRP Cup” English Speaking Contest in the Light of Communication Models

The current study applied classic communication models to investigating 34 laureate impromptu speeches at the 2010 and 2011 ＂FLTRP （Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press） Cup＂ English Speaking Contest, one of the most influential of its kind in China, to identify the features of public speaking skills of Advanced Chinese EFL learners. The speech scripts and video excerpts from the subsequent manuscript collection with the CD-Rom published by FLTRP were studied. Lucas＇ framework of speech communication process was borrowed to bridge elements of the communication models and speech delivery process. Three key aspects of the speakers＇ encoding endeavors were under close examination： the verbal preferences, the non-verbal preferences, and the topic selection for exemplification. It was found that successful speakers demonstrated a clear and strong audience orientation. They chose more first person pronouns, fewer abstract words, a controlled number of dependent clauses, clear transition words, and limited figures of speech. They used very few verbal fillers, slips of tongue, a moderate speech rate and varied tone inflections. The speakers also showed distinctive features in gestures, eye contact and facial expressions. They employed anecdotes which shared a common field of experience. Pedagogical implications on the teaching of public speaking were discussed.

Communication Between Speech Production and Perception Within the Brain--Observation and Simulation

Realization of an intelligent human-machine interface requires us to investigate human mechanisms and learn from them. This study focuses on communication between speech production and perception within human brain and realizing it in an artificial system. A physiological research study based on electromyographic signals （Honda, 1996） suggested that speech communication in human brain might be based on a topological mapping between speech production and perception, according to an analogous topology between motor and sensory representations. Following this hypothesis, this study first investigated the topologies of the vowel system across the motor, kinematic, and acoustic spaces by means of a model simulation, and then examined the linkage between vowel production and perception in terms of a transformed auditory feedback （TAF） experiment. The model simulation indicated that there exists an invariant mapping from muscle activations （motor space） to articulations （kinematic space） via a coordinate consisting of force-dependent equilibrium positions, and the mapping from the motor space to kinematic space is unique. The motor-kinematic-acoustic deduction in the model simulation showed that the topologies were compatible from one space to another. In the TAF experiment, vowel production exhibited a compensatory response for a perturbation in the feedback sound. This implied that vowel production is controlled in reference to perception monitoring.

Study of low bit rate speech codec algorithm in underwater acoustic communication

At medium or long distance （〉 10 kin） underwater acoustic speech communication, information transfer rate is constrained by the complicated, time varying channel and limited bandwidth. The bit rate of speech coding is required to be as low as possible. The time delay of underwater acoustic wave propagation can be used for low bit rate speech coding. After investigating the Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction （MELP） standard and taking account of the auditory perceptual features, a variable and adjustable bit rate speech codec algorithm has been proposed, whose average bit rate is about 600 bps. The average Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality Mean Opinion Score （PESQ MOS） of synthesized speeches is about 2.8. It has been proved by the computer simulation and sea trial that the performance of the proposed algorithm is well and robust when bit error rate is no more than 10-3. The synthesized speech is vivid and intelligible, and keeps main individual characteristics of speaker.