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Dr. Catherine Watson

Senior Lecturer
Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Research Interests:

  • Speech generation in humans and machines, in particular this covers:
  • Accent change
  • Accent analysis
  • Speech production
  • Intonation modeling
  • Speech synthesis and the applications of these in phonetics, robotics and speech language learning aids.

 Q1. What is your role within the healthbots project?

 I am in charge of developing the robot's voice. I'm interested in providing a voice platform which gives us the ability to create empathetic speech. To date we have focused on having voices with different accents of English and on being able to change the emotional state of the voice.

Q2. What excites you about the healthbots project?

The healthbots project is a chance for me to use my engineering skills and to contribute to a system that will improve people's quality of life. Additionally, it is a fantastic opportunity to work with a group of people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Finally, it is an ideal project to explore the academic discipline of human-machine interfaces and the use of speech in this area.

Recent publications:

MacLagan, M., Watson, C I., Harlow, R., King, J., & Keegan, P. (2009). /u/ fronting and '/t/ aspirations in Mäori and New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change, 21, 175-192.

Watson, C.I., Thorpe, C.W., & Lu, X. (2009). A comparison of two techniques that measure vocal tract shape. Acoustics Australia, 37(1), 7-11.

Igic, A., Watson, C.I., Teutenberg, J., Broadbent, E., Tamagawa, R., & MacDonald, B. (2009). Towards a flexible platform for voice accent and expression selection on a healthcare robot. In proceedings of the 7th Australasian Language Technology Association Workshop, December 3-4. Sydney, Australia.

Li, X., Watson, C.I., Igic, Aleksandar., & MacDonald, B. (2009). Expressive speech for a virtual talking head. In proceedings of the 2009 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, December 2- 4. Sydney, Australia.

Li, X., MacDonald, B., & Watson, C. I. (2009). Expressive facial speech synthesis on a robotic platform. In proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, October 11- 15. IROS: St Louis, United States of America.

Teutenberg, G.J. & Watson, C.I. (2009). Flexible and efficient harmonic re-synthesis by modulated sinusoids. In proceedings of the 17th European Signal Processing Conference, August 24-28. Glasgow, Scotland. 

To view a comprehensive list of my publications please click here.
 


Dr. Waleed Abdulla

Senior Lecturer
Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Research Interests:

  • Human Biometrics
  • Speech and Speaker Recognition
  • Audio Watermarking
  • Speech Enhancement and Active Noise Control
  • Biomedical Signal Analysis
  • Intelligent Environments

 Q1. What is your role within the healthbots project?

 My responsibility is to develop a domain restricted speech recognition system, which will be one of the components within the robot's human dialogue system.

Q2. What excites you about the healthbots project?

I am excited about the multidisciplinary nature and challenges associated with large multidisciplinary research.

Recent publications in 2009:

Abdulla, W. H., Yu, P., & Calverly, P. (2009). Lips Tracking Biometric for Speaker Recognition. International Journal of Biometrics, Vol. 1(3), 288-306.

Chen, O., Abdulla, W. H., & Salcic, Z. (2009) Hardware-Software Co-design of Automatic Speech Recognition System for Embedded Real-time Applications. Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

Wang, K-I., Abdulla, W. H., & Salcic, Z. (2009). Ambient intelligence platform using multi-agent system and mobile ubiquitous hardware. Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal, 5, 558-573.

Chen, O, Abdulla, W. H., & Salcic, Z. (2009). Hardware/Software Co-design of Speech Recognition System for Embedded Real-time Applications.   In proceedings of the IEEE- ISSPIT Annual Conference, Ajaman, UAE. 

Abdulla, W. H., Guan, Z., & Chi Sou, H. (2009), Noise Robust Speech Activity Detection.  In proceedings of the IEEE- ISSPIT Annual  Conference, Ajaman, UAE. 

Ardekani, I. T., Abdulla, W. H., & Nguang, S. K. (2009). All Pass Filtered Reference LMS Algorithm for Adaptive Feedback Active Noise Control. In proceedings of the APSIPA Annual Conference, October 4-7. Sapporo, Japan.

Zeng, Q. & Abdulla, W. H. (2009). Speech Enhancement Using GSC with Multi-channel Crosstalk Resistant Adaptive Signal Cancellation. In proceedings of the Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition and Applications (SPPRA) Annual Conference, February 17-18. Innsbruck, Austria.

Ardekani, I.T., Abdulla, W.H. & Nguang, S.K. (2009). A New Subb and Algorithm for Active Attenuation of Broadband Noise.  In proceedings of the ACTIVE International Symposium, August 20-22. Ottawa, Canada.

Rowe, G., Smaill, C., Godfred, E., Carter, L., Guillemin, B., Andrews M., & Abdulla, W. (2009). Dealing with the Tail: Remedial tutorials for second-year electrical-engineering Students. In proceedings of the AAEEE Conference. Adelaide, Australia.


 

Aleksandar Igic

Master Candidate in Engineering

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Research Interests:

  •  Signal Processing
  • Telecomunications

 Q1. What is your role within the healthbots project?

 My role is to implement a flexible speech generation functionality for the robot. I have been focusing on implementing a method that will allow us to modify the speech expressiveness and to do this with minimal loss of quality in speech.

 Q2. What excites you about the healthbots project?

 I am extremely happy to be a part of a project that brings together people from such different backgrounds and professions.  I am also very excited about working on a robotic project where the primary function is for the robot to interact with people.
Recent publications in 2009:

Li, X., Watson, C.I., Igic, Aleksandar., & MacDonald, B. (2009). Expressive speech for a virtual talking head. In proceedings of the 2009 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, December 2- 4. Sydney, Australia.

Igic, A., Watson, C.I., Teutenberg, J., Broadbent, E., Tamagawa, R., & MacDonald, B. (2009). Towards a flexible platform for voice accent and expression selection on a healthcare robot. In proceedings of the 7th Australasian Language Technology Association Workshop, December 3-4. Sydney, Australia.

Wei Liu


Master Candidate in Engineering

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Research Interests:

  • Speech
  • Telecomunications

 Q1. What is your role within the healthbots project?

 Q2. What excites you about the healthbots project?

Recent publications:

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