Toward an education and learning support environment: Study of speech communication mechanisms based on the understanding of human biological functions

Abstract

Human speech acts as vehicles of thought, communication, emotional state, and physical identity; these functions together contribute to the life and social organization. The value of speech is given by its versatility, which is derived basically from innate biological abilities equipped to humans. If the machinery emerged that handled all the speech functions, it would deserve human-equivalent significance. Towards evolution of spoken language automata as a prospective goal, a research project is launched to look into biological functions underlying human speech in the three areas; form and function of the speech organs, biophysical modeling of speech production mechanisms, and functional imaging of speech-related pathways.