Digital Pattern Playback for education in digital signal processing and speech science

We developed a digital version of Pattern Playback to convert a spectrographic representation of speech back into a speech signal. Pattern Playback was originally developed by Cooper and his colleagues from Haskins Laboratories in the late 1940s. We used our Digital Pattern Playback (DPP) for instruction in digital signal processing and speech science. The original DPP used two different algorithms: amplitude modulation and fast Fourier transform. The new DPP uses additive synthesis of sinusoidal harmonics, which is easier for undergraduate college students to understand. We also designed a scientific exhibition with DPP at a science museum for children and adults. DPP is educational for a wide variety of people, from children to technical students.