Introduction to Sound, Speech, and Hearing
Introduces students to the acoustics, anatomy, physiology, and mechanics related to speech and hearing. Focuses on how humans generate and perceive speech. Topics related to speech, explored through applications and challenges involving acoustics, speech recognition, and speech disorders, include acoustic theory of speech production, basic digital speech processing, control mechanisms of speech production and basic elements of speech and voice perception. Topics related to hearing include acoustics and mechanics of the outer ear, middle ear, and cochlea, how pathologies affect their function, and methods for clinical diagnosis. Surgical treatments and medical devices such as hearing aids, bone conduction devices, and implants are also covered.
Fall 2004 · Acoustics of Speech and Hearing
Topics
- Introduction to the Course
- Sound Measurement: Amplitude, Frequency and Phase of Simple and Complex Sounds (rms vs peak, FFT and Spectrum, Relationship between Time Waveform, FFT and Impulse Response), Lumped Elements and Waves
- Sound Propagation in Space 1: Plane Waves, Characteristic Impedance, Traveling Waves, Trading of Time and Space
- Demonstration of Sound Measurement, Spectral Analysis and Traveling Waves
- Sound Propagation in Space 2: Spherical Waves, Multiple Sources
- Diffraction of Sound, Localization Cues
- Review of Waves and Diffraction
- Psychoacoustics 1: Localization and Binaural Hearing
- Psychoacoustics 2: Thresholds and Discrimination
- Psychoacoustic and Methods
- Circuits 1: Lumped Elements
- Circuits 2: Combinations of Elements
- Circuit Elements
- Circuits 3: Equivalent Circuits
- Circuits 4: The Loudspeaker
- Circuit Theory
- Circuits 5: Microphones and Middle Ears
- The Normal and Diseased Middle Ear
- Speakers and Microphones: Lab 2 Introduction
- Psychoacoustics 3: Masking and Frequency Selectivity
- Psychoacoustics 4: Frequency Selectivity and Hearing Loss
- Demonstration of Psychoacoustics
- Tubes 1: Dimensional Equations, Natural Frequencies
- Tubes 2: Perturbation Theory
- Demonstration of Natural Frequencies and Traveling Waves
- Tubes 3: Non-Uniformities and Losses
- Cochlear Mechanics 1: Hair Cells
- Cochlear Models
- Cochlear Mechanics 2: The Passive Cochlea
- Speech Lab Prep/Cochlear Mechanics
- Speech Production 1: Vowels
- Cochlear Mechanics 3: The Active Cochlea
- Speech Production 2: Fricative Sources and Consonants
- Spectrogram Reading
- Speech Sound Production 3: More Consonants
- Speech Perception
- Review and Integration
- Psychoacoustics and Physiology: Gold 1948
Readings
- The recommended (but not required) textbook for the course is:
- Denes, P. B., and E. N. Pinson. The Speech Chain: The physics and biology of spoken speech _._ 2nd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1993. ISBN: 9780716722564.
- Kinsler, Frey, Coppens, and Saunders. Fundamentals of Acoustics _._ San Diego: Academic Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780471029335.
- Beranek, Leo. Acoustics _._ New York: American Institute of Physics, 1986. ISBN: 9780883184943.
- Rosen, Stuart, and Peter Howell. Signals and System for Speech and Hearing _._ San Diego: Academic Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780125972314.
- Fletcher, Neville. Acoustic Systems in Biology _._ New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780195069402.
- Yost, William. Fundamentals of Hearing Science _._ 3rd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780127726908.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 9.016[J] Prereq: ( 6.3000 and 8.03 ) or permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 4-0-8 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2004
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.