Proposals of noise-robust spoken words for a broadcast via outdoor loudspeakers

Spoken words used in a broadcast via outdoor loudspeakers were analyzed in terms of word frequency, word familiarity, and phoneme composition to clarify their characteristics. Based on the analysis, we identified 13 original words that are frequently used but probably difficult to listen to and proposed alternative words having higher word familiarity and a lesser number of noise-intolerant phonemes. To verify the proposal, a listening experiment was conducted. Thirteen each of the original and proposed words were presented with and without pink noise (SNR = 0 dB) to 21 participants with normal hearing ability. Error ratios of word identification were obtained from participants’ responses. In a with-noise condition, the error ratio of the proposed words (7.1%) was significantly lower than that of the original words (18.3%), but no difference in error ratio was observed between the original and proposed words in a without-noise condition. These results indicate that the proposed words have higher noise rob...