Smartphone Use in Clinical Voice Recording and Acoustic Analysis: A Literature Review.

Objective: With the increase of smartphone use and availability over the last decade, mobile healthcare applications have become more accessible. Many of these applications allow users to track behaviors and goals, and acquire feedback and information while on the go. Recent studies appearing in the literature suggest that smartphones may offer a means of augmenting clinical voice assessment by recording individuals with voice disorders outside the clinic for the purpose of extracting acoustic characteristics.

Relating Cepstral Peak Prominence to Cyclical Parameters of Vocal Fold Vibration from High-Speed Videoendoscopy Using Machine Learning: A Pilot Study.

Objective: Smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPs) has been shown to be an effective indicator of breathiness (Hillenbrand and Houde, 1996). High-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) is frequently being used as a complement to stroboscopy especially when asymmetric or aperiodic vocal fold vibration is present in dysphonic voices. In an HSV image data set obtained with normal (nondisordered) voice subjects, we have observed that some degree of asymmetry is present in many of the vocal fold displacement curves extracted from the HSV exam videos; therefore, we have used this data set for a pilot study to investigate the relationship of CPPs to cyclical vocal fold vibration parameters, including left-right vocal fold (LVRF) phase asymmetry, in subjects with normal (nondisordered) voices.

Investigation of Flexible High-Speed Video Nasolaryngoscopy.

Objective: High-speed videolaryngoscopy is widely used in voice practices as a complement to videostroboscopy, especially when it is desired to visualize asymmetric and nonperiodic vocal fold vibration or voice onset and offset. Because of the requirement for greater illumination at higher frame rates, the high-speed exam is usually performed with a rigid transoral laryngoscope. Although it is possible to obtain color high-speed video images with a flexible fiberoptic nasoendoscope, the results are often disappointing because of the inability to provide adequate lighting inside the larynx.

Towards a self-rating tool of the inability to produce soft voice based on nonlinear events: a preliminary study.

The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate the feasibility of a tool to compare a severity index of nonlinear events and vocal self-rating over a long period of time. One hundred and ninety-seven phonations were analyzed to quantify the severity of instabilities in the voice attributed to nonlinear dynamic phenomena, including voice breaks, subharmonics, and frequency jumps. Instabilities were first counted; then a severity index was calculated for the instabilities in each phonation.

Qualification of a quantitative laryngeal imaging system using videostroboscopy and videokymography.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether full-cycle glottal width measurements could be obtained with a quantitative laryngeal imaging system using videostroboscopy, and whether glottal width and vocal fold length measurements were repeatable and reliable.

Methods: Synthetic vocal folds were phonated on a laboratory bench, and dynamic images were obtained in repeated trials by use of videostroboscopy and videokymography (VKG) with an imaging system equipped with a 2-point laser projection device for measuring absolute dimensions. Video images were also obtained with an industrial videoscope system with a built-in laser measurement capability.

Adaptation of a Pocket PC for use as a wearable voice dosimeter.

This article deals with the adaptation of a commercially available Pocket PC for use as a voice dosimeter, a wearable device that measures the vocal dose of teachers or other individuals on the job, at home, and elsewhere during the course of an entire day. An engineering approach for designing a voice dosimeter is described, and design data are presented. Technical issues include transducer selection, dynamic range, frequency response, memory requirements, power requirements, attachment, cables, connections, and data collection.

Estimation of sound pressure levels of voiced speech from skin vibration of the neck.

How accurately can sound pressure levels (SPLs) of speech be estimated from skin vibration of the neck? Measurements using a small accelerometer were carried out in 27 subjects (10 males and 17 females) who read Rainbow and Marvin Williams passages in soft, comfortable, and loud voice, while skin acceleration levels (SALs) and SPLs were simultaneously registered and analyzed every 30 ms. The results indicate that the mean SPL of voiced speech can be estimated with accuracy better than +/-2.8 dB in 95% of the cases when the subjects are individually calibrated.

Vocal range and intensity in actors: a studio versus stage comparison.

A voice range profile (VRP) was obtained from each of eight professional actors and compared with two speech range profiles (SRPs). One speech profile was obtained during the dramatic reading of a scene in the laboratory and the other during a performance on stage in a professional theater. The objective was to determine the pitch and loudness ranges used by the actors in speech relative to the VRP.

Measurement of vocal doses in speech: experimental procedure and signal processing.

An experimental method for quantifying the amount of voicing over time is described in a tutorial manner. A new procedure for obtaining calibrated sound pressure levels (SPL) of speech from a head-mounted microphone is offered. An algorithm for voicing detection (kv) and fundamental frequency (F0) extraction from an electroglottographic signal is described.

Vocal dose measures: quantifying accumulated vibration exposure in vocal fold tissues.

To measure the exposure to self-induced tissue vibration in speech, three vocal doses were defined and described: distance dose, which accumulates the distance that tissue particles of the vocal folds travel in an oscillatory trajectory; energy dissipation dose, which accumulates the total amount of heat dissipated over a unit volume of vocal fold tissues; and time dose, which accumulates the total phonation time. These doses were compared to a previously used vocal dose measure, the vocal loading index, which accumulates the number of vibration cycles of the vocal folds. Empirical rules for viscosity and vocal fold deformation were used to calculate all the doses from the fundamental frequency (F0) and sound pressure level (SPL) values of speech.