lulich21@interspeech_2021@ISCA

Total: 1

#1 Accelerometer-Based Measurements of Voice Quality in Children During Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercise with a Narrow Straw in Air [PDF] [Copy] [Kimi1]

Authors: Steven M. Lulich ; Rita R. Patel

Non-invasive measures of voice quality, such as H1-H2, rely on oral flow signals, inverse filtered speech signals, or corrections for the effects of formants. Voice quality measures play especially important roles in the assessment of voice disorders and the evaluation of treatment efficacy. One type of treatment that is increasingly common in voice therapy, as well as in voice training for singers and actors, is semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs). The goal of SOVTEs is to change patterns of vocal fold vibration and thereby improve voice quality and vocal efficiency. Accelerometers applied to the skin of the neck have been used to investigate subglottal acoustics, to inverse-filter speech signals, and to obtain voice quality metrics. This paper explores the application of neck-skin accelerometers to measure voice quality without oral flow, inverse filtering, or formant correction. Accelerometer-based measures (uncorrected K1-K2 and corrected K1*-K2*, analogous to microphone-based H1-H2 and H1*-H2*) were obtained from typically developing children with healthy voice, before and during SOVTEs. Traditional microphone-based H1-H2 measures (corrected and uncorrected) were also obtained. Results showed that K1-K2 and K1*-K2* were not substantially affected by vocal tract acoustic changes in formant frequencies.