Dr Stuart Cunningham

BEng, PhD

School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery

Senior Lecturer

s.cunningham@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2421

Room 127, 362 Mushroom Lane

Full contact details

Dr Stuart Cunningham
School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Room 127
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS

Profile

Dr Cunningham is a senior lecturer in Human Communication Sciences. Prior to joining the department he worked as a research associate in the department of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering at Barnsley Hospital.

He has previously worked as a research associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield.

He obtained a BEng in Software Engineering and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sheffield.

Research interests

Robust automatic speech recognition. The use of speech technology in assistive technology and speech and language therapy.

Auditory-inspired representations of speech signals and their application in automatic speech recognition.
The perception of speech in adverse acoustic conditions.

Current projects

Speech Therapy through Articulation Therapy - with Mark Hawley, Peter Cudd, Rebecca Palmer, and Pam Enderby.
University of Sheffield.
Natural Speech Technology - PI Steve Renals (University of Edinburgh). EPSRC Programme Grant.
Voice Input Voice Output Communication Aid - PI Mark Hawley. NIHR i4i programme.
Development of test of audio visual speech perception for children - with Dilys Treharne and Harriet Crook. British Society of Audiology.

Collaborators

Mark Hawley, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield.
Pam Enderby, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield.
Phil Green, Department of Computer Science, The University of Sheffield.

Publications

Journal articles

Alhinti L, Christensen H & Cunningham S (2020) Acoustic Differences in Emotional Speech of People with Dysarthria. Speech Communication.
Jeffery T, Cunningham S & Whiteside SP (2018) Analyses of Sustained Vowels in Down Syndrome (DS): A Case Study Using Spectrograms and Perturbation Data to Investigate Voice Quality in Four Adults With DS. Journal of Voice, 32(5), 644.e11-644.e24. View this article in WRRO
Judge S, Hawley MS, Cunningham S & Kirton A (2015) What is the potential for context aware communication aids?. Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 39(7), 448-453. View this article in WRRO
Herrmann F, Cunningham SP & Whiteside SP (2014) Speaker sex effects on temporal and spectrooral measures of speech. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 44(1), 59-74.
Weinel J, Cunningham S, Griffiths D, Roberts S & Picking R (2014) Affective Audio. Leonardo Music Journal, 24(24), 17-20.
Cunningham S & Grout V (2014) Data reduction of audio by exploiting musical repetition. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 72(3), 2299-2320.
Creer S, Cunningham S, Green PD & Yamagishi J (2012) Building personalised synthetic voices for individuals with severe speech impairment. Computer Speech and Language, 27(6), 1178-1193.
Hawley M, Cunningham S, Green P, Enderby P, Palmer R, Segal S & O'Neill P (2012) A Voice-Input Voice-Output Communication Aid for People with Severe Speech Impairment. IEEE Transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 1(21), 23-31.
Creer S, Cunningham S, Hawley M & Wallis P (2011) Describing the interactive domestic robot setup for the SERA project. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 25(6), 445-473.
Ahmad Khan Z, Green P, Creer S & Cunningham S (2011) Reconstructing the voice of an individual following laryngectomy. AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 27(1), 61-66.
Payr S, Wallis P, Cunningham S & Hawley M (2009) Research on social engagement with a rabbitic user interface. Roots for the Future of Ambient Intelligence - Adjunct Proceedings, 3rd European Conference on Ambient Intelligence, AmI 2009, 65-68.
Herrmann F, Whiteside SP & Cunningham S (2009) An acoustic investigation into coarticulation and speech motor control: High vs. low frequency syllables.. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustical Society of America..
Herrmann F, Whiteside SP & Cunningham S (2008) An acoustic investigation into coarticulation and speech motor control: High vs. low frequency syllables. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 4.
Hawley MS, Enderby P, Green P, Cunningham S, Brownsell S, Carmichael J, Parker M, Hatzis A, O'Neill P & Palmer R (2007) A speech-controlled environmental control system for people with severe dysarthria.. Med Eng Phys, 29(5), 586-593.
Cooke M, Barker J, Cunningham S & Shao X (2006) An audio-visual corpus for speech perception and automatic speech recognition.. J Acoust Soc Am, 120(5 Pt 1), 2421-2424.
Parker M, Cunningham S, Enderby P, Hawley M & Green P (2006) Automatic speech recognition and training for severely dysarthric users of assistive technology: the STARDUST project.. Clin Linguist Phon, 20(2-3), 149-156.
Hawley MS, Green P, Enderby P, Cunningham S & Moore RK (2005) Speech technology for e-inclusion of people with physical disabilities and disordered speech. 9th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology, 445-448.
Palmer R & Enderby P (2004) The effect of three practice conditions,on the consistency of chronic dysarthric speech. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 12(4), 183-188. View this article in WRRO
Pennington L, Cunningham S, Hiu S, Khattab G & Ryan V () The impact of the Speech Systems Approach on intelligibility for children with cerebral palsy: a secondary analysis. Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation, 1-94.
Alhinti L, Cunningham S & Christensen H () The Dysarthric Expressed Emotional Database (DEED): An audio-visual database in British English. PLOS ONE, 18(8), e0287971-e0287971.
Clarke ZC, Judge S, Fryer K, Cunningham S, Toogood J & Hawley MS () A qualitative study exploring the effect of communicating with partially intelligible speech. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1-13.
Green PD () A voice-input voice-output communication aid for people with severe speech impairment.. IEEE Trans on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

Cunningham S, Nicholls S & Owens S (2017) The development of new technology in creative music applications, SpringerBriefs in Computer Science (pp. 57-66).
Rutter B & Cunningham S (2013) The Recording of Audio and Video Data. In Muller N & Ball M (Ed.), Research Methods in Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics A Practical Guide John Wiley & Sons
Creer S, Green PD, Cunningham S & Yamagishi J (2010) Building personalised synthetic voices for individuals with dysarthria using the HTS toolkit In Mullennix J & Stern S (Ed.), Computer Synthesized Speech Technologies Medical Info Science Reference
Creer S, Green PD, Cunningham SP & Yamagishi J (2010) Building personalized synthetic voices for individuals with dysarthria using the HTS toolkit In Mullennix JW & Stern SE (Ed.), Computer Synthesized Speech Technologies: tools for aiding impairment (pp. 92-115). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Cunningham S, Grout V & Picking R () Emotion, Content, and Context in Sound and Music, Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction (pp. 235-263). IGI Global

Conference proceedings papers

Charlie M, Fryer K, Judge S, Cunningham S, Palmer R & Hawley M (2024) Incorporating voice activated communication aids into everyday communication. Communication Matters - The Journal of Communication Matters / ISAAC (UK), Vol. 38(2) (pp 22-25). Leeds, UK, 8 September 2023 - 8 September 2023. View this article in WRRO
Davies L, Vagapov Y, Grout V, Cunningham S & Anuchin A (2021) Review of Air Traffic Management Systems for UAV Integration into Urban Airspace. 2021 28th International Workshop on Electric Drives: Improving Reliability of Electric Drives (IWED), 27 January 2021 - 29 January 2021.
Sehgal S, Cunningham S & Green P (2019) Phase-Based Feature Representations for Improving Recognition of Dysarthric Speech. 2018 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT) (pp 13-20), 18 December 2018 - 21 December 2018. View this article in WRRO
Sehgal S, Cunningham S & Green P (2018) Phase-Based Feature Representations for Improving Recognition of Dysarthric Speech. 2018 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), 18 December 2018 - 21 December 2018.
Coy A, Green P, Cunningham S, Christensen H, Atria JJ, Rudzicz F, Malavasi M & Desideri L (2018) Embedding speech technology into intelligent tutoring systems using the CloudCAST speech technology platform. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 10858 LNCS (pp 421-424)
Owens S & Cunningham S (2017) “More Cowbell”: Measuring beat consistency with respect to tempo and metronome variations. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Vol. Part F131930
Weinel J & Cunningham S (2017) Simulating auditory hallucinations in a video game: Three prototype mechanisms. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Vol. Part F131930
Cunningham S, Green P, Christensen H, Atria JJ, Coy A, Malavasi M, Desideri L & Rudzicz F (2017) Cloud-Based Speech Technology for Assistive Technology Applications (CloudCAST). Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol. 242 (pp 322-329) View this article in WRRO
Nicolao M, Christensen H, Cunningham S, Green P & Hain T (2016) A framework for collecting realistic recordings of dysarthric speech - The homeService corpus. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2016 (pp 1993-1997) View this article in WRRO
Sehgal S & Cunningham S (2015) Model adaptation and adaptive training for the recognition of dysarthric speech. Proceedings of SLPAT 2015: 6th Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies, Vol. W15-5112 (pp 65-71). Dresden, Germany, 11 September 2015 - 11 September 2015. View this article in WRRO
Green P, Marxer R, Cunningham S, Christensen H, Rudzicz F, Yancheva M, Coy A, Malavasi M & Desideri L (2015) Remote Speech Technology for Speech Professionals - the CloudCAST initiative. Proceedings of SLPAT 2015: 6th Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies, September 2015 - September 2015.
Herrmann F, Cunningham S & Whiteside SP (2015) Bark and Hz scaled F2 Locus equations: Sex differences and individual differences.. pp.1-5 retrieved from: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2015/Papers/ICPHS0351.pdf. Glasgow, UK: the University of Glasgow
Christensen H, Nicolao M, Cunningham S, Green P, Deena S & Hain T (2015) Speech-enabled environmental control in an AAL setting for people with speech disorders: a case study. IET International Conference on Technologies for Active and Assisted Living (TechAAL)
Gemmeke JF, Sehgal S, Cunningham S & Van hamme H (2014) Dysarthric vocal interfaces with minimal training data. 2014 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), 7 December 2014 - 10 December 2014.
Christensen H, Casanueva I, Cunningham S, Green P & Hain T (2014) Automatic selection of speakers for improved acoustic modelling: recognition of disordered speech with sparse data. 2014 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), 7 December 2014 - 10 December 2014.
Stockton R & Cunningham S (2014) An investigation into user perceptions of privacy and trust and their real-world practices. Proceedings of the 10th International Network Conference, INC 2014 (pp 139-149)
Griffiths D, Cunningham S & Weinel J (2013) A discussion of musical features for automatic music playlist generation using affective technologies. Proceedings of the 8th Audio Mostly Conference
Cunningham S, Weinel J, Roberts S, Grout V & Griffiths D (2013) Initial objective & subjective evaluation of a similarity-based audio compression technique. Proceedings of the 8th Audio Mostly Conference
Christensen H, Casanuevo I, Cunningham S, Green P & Hain T (2013) HomeService: Voice-enabled assistive technology in the home using cloud-based automatic speech recognition. SLPAT 2013 - 4th Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies, SLPAT 2013, Workshop Proceedings (pp 29-34)
Christensen H, Cunningham S, Fox C, Green P & Hain T (2012) A comparative study of adaptive, automatic recognition of disordered speech. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association 2012, INTERSPEECH 2012, Vol. 2 (pp 1774-1777)
Cunningham S, Grout V & Hebblewhite R (2012) Computer game audio: The unappreciated scholar of the half-life generation. Audio Mostly 2006: A Conference on Sound in Games, AM 2006 - Proceedings (pp 9-14)
Allemand S, Wright M & Cunningham S (2011) Implementation of ambisonics technology for surround sound performance. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications, ITA 11 (pp 609-610)
Cunningham S & Grout V (2009) Audio compression exploiting repetition (ACER): Challenges and solutions. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications, ITA 09 (pp 359-366)
Creer SM, Cunningham SP, Green PD & Fatema K (2009) Personalizing synthetic voices for people with progressive speech disorders: judging voice similarity. INTERSPEECH 2009: 10TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPEECH COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION 2009, VOLS 1-5 (pp 1451-1454)
Herrmann F, Whiteside SP & Cunningham S (2008) An acoustic investigation into coarticulation and speech motor control: high vs. low frequency syllables. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 123(5) (pp 3071-3071)
Grout V, Cunningham S & Hebblewhite R (2008) An illustrative discussion of different perspectives in network engineering. Proceedings of the 7th International Network Conference, INC 2008 (pp 91-104)
Davies G, Cunningham S & Grout V (2007) Visual stimulus for aural pleasure. Audio Mostly 2007 - 2nd Conference on Interaction with Sound, Conference Proceedings (pp 25-30)
Robinson N & Cunningham S (2007) Security enhancement in public ICT services in wales. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications, ITA 07 (pp 495-504)
Hawley M, Cunningham S, Cardinaux F, Coy A, O'Neill P, Seghal S & Enderby P (2007) Challenges in developing a Voice Input Voice Output Communication Aid for People with Severe Dysarthria. CHALLENGES FOR ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 20 (pp 363-367) View this article in WRRO
Hawley MS, Enderby P, Green P, Cunningham S & Palmer R (2006) Development of a voice-input voice-output communication aid (VIVOCA) for people with severe dysarthria. COMPUTERS HELPING PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 4061 (pp 882-885)
Cunningham S, Grout V & Hebblewhite R (2006) Computer game audio: The unappreciated scholar of the half-life generation. Audio Mostly 2006 - Proceedings of the Audio Mostly Conference: A Conference on Sound in Games (pp 9-14)
Grout V, Picking R, Cunningham S & Hebblewhite R (2006) Realistic large-scale network optimisation. Proceedings of the 6th International Network Conference, INC 2006 (pp 121-129)
Hatzis A, Green PD, Carmichael J, Cunningham SP, Palmer R, Parker M & O'Neill P (2003) An integrated toolkit deploying speech technology for computer based speech training with application to dysarthric speakers.. INTERSPEECH
Cunningham S & Cooke M (2000) On the intelligibility of bandpass-filtered speech. BRITISH JOURNAL OF AUDIOLOGY, Vol. 34(2) (pp 104-105)
Alhinti L, Cunningham S & Christensen H () Recognising Emotions in Dysarthric Speech Using Typical Speech Data. Interspeech 2020
Green P, Marxer R, Cunningham S, Christensen H, Rudzicz F, Yancheva M, Coy A, Malavasi M, Desideri L & Tamburini F () CloudCAST — Remote Speech Technology for Speech Professionals. Interspeech 2016
Creer SM, Cunningham SP, Green PD & Fatema K () Personalizing synthetic voices for people with progressive speech disorders: judging voice similarity. Interspeech 2009
Alhinti L, Christensen H & Cunningham S () Towards the Understanding of Communicating Emotions for People with Dysarthria. Workshop in Speech and Hearing Disorders (WSPD 2018)