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Science 13 December 1963:
Vol. 142. no. 3598, pp. 1455 - 1456
DOI: 10.1126/science.142.3598.1455
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Articles

Forms of Sounds as Shown on an Oscilloscope by Roulette Figures

George W. Barton Jr. 1 and Stephen H. Barton 2

1 Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Livermore
2 Rancho Romero School, Alamo, California

It has been found that with an oscilloscope driven through a simple network of two resistors and two capacitors it is possible to produce recognizable pictures from speech sounds. These pictures thus become a natural phonetic alphabet, with which both standard pronunciation and the nuances of dialect and accent can be represented. While a given speech sound has certain invariant characteristics, it has also an overlay of accent, which can be represented in the alphabetic character. It is suggested that the technique may be useful in teaching deaf children to speak.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)