Makoto Shozakai

Title: Makoto Shozakai: Speech Processing and Sound-Sampling Innovations.

Introduction

Makoto Shozakai is an inventor associated with Atsugi, Japan. His work includes inventions in speech recognition, acoustic-model generation, and sound sampling. He is credited with 5 patents.

Latest Patents

One of Shozakai’s latest patents, “Speech Data Process Unit and Speech Data Process Unit Control Program for Speech Recognition,” concerns generating acoustic models for unspecified speakers while accounting for variations in speaker characteristics, speech lexicons, speaking styles, and recording environments. The disclosed system includes components for classifying and storing data, generating and converting pattern models, calculating mathematical distances, displaying models, dividing and selecting regions, and generating specific pattern models. The invention is intended to support acoustic models for general speakers as well as models adapted to a particular person’s speech.

Another patent, “Flesh Conducted Sound Microphone, Signal Processing Device, Communication Interface System and Sound Sampling Method,” describes a microphone placed on the skin immediately below the mastoid. It is designed to sample non-audible murmurs, whispers, or audible speech. A contact portion with acoustic impedance close to that of soft body tissue is tightly joined to the condenser microphone, without an intervening air space, to conduct speech from the skin surface to the microphone.

Career Highlights

Shozakai’s listed organizational affiliations include Asahi Kasei Corporation and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. His patent work reflects an interest in speech-processing systems and methods for capturing speech through contact with the body.

Collaborations

His listed coworkers include Goshu Nagino and Tomohiro Tani. Their names are associated with the collaborative context of his work.

Conclusion

Makoto Shozakai’s inventions address both the modeling of speech for recognition and the capture of speech through tissue-conducted sound, highlighting his contributions to speech technology.