Professor Holub's research revealed that some communication technologies transmit female voices less well than male voices. The results of his work have led to technical recommendations for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). They are crucial for the development of secure and inclusive communications systems. The selection of his project within NATO confirms the importance of this issue in defence and security.
Future coders should transmit female and male voices with equal quality
When measuring the quality of voice transmission in telecommunication networks, one possible aspect to evaluate is the so-called listening effort. Increased listening effort causes premature listener fatigue and an increased risk of errors when other activities are performed during communication: this is particularly relevant for professions such as drivers, pilots, air traffic controllers and other professions.
"Our research over the past few years has shown that even modern wideband voice coders exhibit increased listening effort for female voices compared to male voices. The NATO project aims to verify the dependence of listening effort on the gender of the speaker for military secure low-bitrate voice channels. The validation will be carried out by statistically evaluating a series of listening tests on two world languages, used officially for NATO alliance command, for native and non-native speakers/listeners, using simulated transmission conditions (ambient noise/motion, transmission paths and their defects, etc.)," explained Prof. Jan Holub, whose research seeks to influence future designs so that male and female voices are transmitted equally well by the new encoders and thus do not unnecessarily disadvantage anyone.
Prof. Holub's success in this prestigious competition is not only a significant personal award, but also a confirmation of the high quality of scientific research at FEL CTU. Thanks to this support, it will be possible to further develop innovative solutions in the field of communication technologies with a real impact on security applications within NATO.
The NATO Chief Scientist Grants programme is part of a broader NATO initiative to support innovation in key areas of science and technology. This year, projects were supported in themes such as deterrence and defence, new and disruptive technologies, scientific and technological foresight and diversity in STEM for NATO's strategic advantage.
More about Prof. Holub's research in the report
Photo credit: Petr Neugebauer
