• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• 제45권5호
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• pp.13-20
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• 2008

Although digital hearing aid algorithms have been developed to compensate hearing loss and to help hearing impaired people to communicate with others, digital hearing aid user still complain about difficulty of hearing the speech. The reason could be the quality of speech through digital hearing aid is insufficient to understand the speech caused by feedback, residual noise and etc. And another thing is masking effect among formants that makes sound quality low. In this study, we measured the masking characteristics of normal listeners and hearing impaired listeners having presbyacusis to confirm masking effect in speech itself. The experiment is composed of 5 tests; pure tone test, speech reception threshold (SRT) test, word recognition score (WRS) test, puretone masking test and speech masking test. In speech masking test, there are 25 speeches in each speech set. And log likelihood ratio (LLR) is introduced to evaluate the distortion of each speech objectively. As a result, the speech perception became lower by increasing the quantity of formant enhancement. And each enhanced speech in a speech set has statistically similar LLR, however speech perception is not. It means that acoustic masking effect rather than distortion influences speech perception. In actuality, according to the result of frequency analysis of the speech that people can not answer correctly, level difference between first formant and second formant is about 35dB, and it is similar to result of pure tone masking test(normal hearing subject:36.36dB, hearing impaired subject:32.86dB). Characteristics of masking effect is not similar between normal listeners and hearing impaired listeners. So it is required to check the characteristics of masking effect before wearing a hearing aid and to apply this characteristics to fitting.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.78-85
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• 1989

This paper describes a statistical methods and perception test for extracting the parameters to be used for the synthesis-by-rule of Korean plosives. Formant synthesizer is chosen for the synthesis of the phonemes. Speech materials for the analysis consists of 72 CV monosyllables from the single male speaker. The analysis is done mainly focused on the variation of parameters in time and frequency domain, then perception tests are executed to estimate the effects of variations of the formant transitions.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.137-157
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to help classifying Sasang Constitution through correlation with sound characteristic. This study was done it under the suppose that Sasang Constitution has correlation with sound spectrogram. The following result were obtained about correlation between sound spectrogram and Sasang Constitution by comparison and analysis 1. Soeumin answered his voice low tone, smooth and quiet in the survey. Soyangin answered his voice high, clear, fast and speaking random. Taeumin answered his voice low, thick and muddy. 2. Taeyangin was significantly slow compared with the others in the time of reading composition. Taeyangin was significantly slow compared with the others in Formant frequency 1. Taeyangin was significantly discriminated from Soeumin in Formant frequency 5. Taeyangin was significantly low compared with the others in Bandwidth 2. Soeumln was significantly low compared with Taeyangin in Pitch Maximum and Pitch Maximum-Pitch Minimum. Taeyangin was significantly high compared with the others in Energy mean. 3. In list of specification, the discrimination rate was higher than that by lists of 13 in the results of Multi-dimensional 4-class minimum-distance. The discrimination rate of three disposition except Soyangin was higher than that of four disposition in the results of One way ANOVA and Analysis of dis crimination in SPSS/PC+. In CART, the estimate rate of Sasang Constitution discrimination was higher than any other method. It is considered that there is a correlation between sound spectrogram and Sasang constitution according to the results. And method of Sasang constitution classification through sound spectrogram analysis can be one method as assistant for the objectification of Sasang constitution classification.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.292-299
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• 2007

In this paper, we present a speech recognition system using a throat microphone. The use of this kind of microphone minimizes the impact of environmental noise. Due to the absence of high frequencies and the partial loss of formant frequencies, previous systems using throat microphones have shown a lower recognition rate than systems which use standard microphones. To develop a high performance automatic speech recognition (ASR) system using only a throat microphone, we propose two methods. First, based on Korean phonological feature theory and a detailed throat signal analysis, we show that it is possible to develop an ASR system using only a throat microphone, and propose conditions of the feature extraction algorithm. Second, we optimize the zero-crossing with peak amplitude (ZCPA) algorithm to guarantee the high performance of the ASR system using only a throat microphone. For ZCPA optimization, we propose an intensification of the formant frequencies and a selection of cochlear filters. Experimental results show that this system yields a performance improvement of about 4% and a reduction in time complexity of 25% when compared to the performance of a standard ZCPA algorithm on throat microphone signals.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

The purpose of the present study was to explore the radiological and acoustic characteristics of "Arae-a" (/${\cdot}$/) articulation in two male Jeju language speakers, focusing on selected measures in radiological images derived from computed tomography scans, as well as the first and the second formant measures in selected vowels. An elderly male speaker (a 78-year-old) and a young male speaker (a 34-year-old) participated in the study. During the production of four selected vowels, the shape of the vocal tract was identified, and selected measures were obtained from the elderly participant's computed tomography (CT) scans. For acoustic analysis, the participants were given a list of near-minimal pairs consisting of 112 words and asked to read them aloud. The results indicated that the "Arae-a" (/${\cdot}$/) articulation of the elderly speaker showed unique acoustic and radiological characteristics compared to other similar vowels, thus presenting substantial consistency with the descriptions of the "Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon." In contrast, the F1 and F2 measures of the young male's /${\cdot}$/ articulation were not distinguished from those of /ㅗ/. Current results, in part, support the scientific principles underlying the invention of "Arae-a," which reflects the shape of the vocal tract during production, and the necessity for further research.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.140-144
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• 2001

Backgrounds & Objectives : Prolonged hearing loss was considered as one of the factors which have the potential to cause vocal changes. However, the analysis of quality of phonation in hearing loss patients has not been achieved enough. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the difference in objective acoustic parameters between long-term hearing impaired patients and normal control group. Material & Methods : The material of this investigation comprised a group of 20 patients (M : F=10 : 10) with moderate or profound hearing loss(over 50dB). The duration of all hearing loss was over 1 year. All of them underwent the acoustic examinations comprising electroglottography, multidimensional voice program and formant analysis during phonation of the bowels /a/ with free confortable tone and /i/ with voluntary high tone. The results of the acoustic examinations were compared with those of a control group, composed of 20 sex- and age-matched normal hearing subjects. Results : In the male hearing loss subjects, the significant increase was detected in pitch and shimmer during phonation of /a/ and in pitch during phonation of /i/. In addition, this group was characterized by decreased fundamental frequency during phonation of /i/. In female, there was no difference between hearing loss group and normal control group except a decreased formant 1 frequency. Conclusion : Long-term moderate and profound sensorineural hearing loss could affect the objective voice parameters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.52-58
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• 2002

The pitch range of the human voice is variable, extending from chest register to falsetto. Although numerous studies have investigated after laryngeal mechanism description of registers, systematic and objective studies were lack. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare head register with chest register of singers acoustically. Fifteen healthy tenor major students were selected. Fifteen healthy untrained adults were the control group for this study. Long term average(LTA) power spectrum using the Fast Fourier transform(FFT) algorithm and Linear predictive coding (LPC) filter response were made during /a/ sustained in both head(G4, 392Hz) md chest registers (C3, 131Hz). Statistical analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney test. In the LTA power spectrum, head register of singer has increased level(energy gain) in the frequency band of 2.2-3.4kHz(p<0.01), and 7.5-8.4kHz(p<0.01, p<0.05). Chest register of singer has increased level in the frequency band of 2.2-3.1kHz(p<0.01), 7.8-8.4kHz(p<0.05) and around 9.6kHz(p<0.01). LTA power spectrum reveals a peak of acoustic energy around 2500Hz known as the singer's formant and another peak of acoustic energy around 8000Hz in singer's voice.

• Speech Sciences
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.131-141
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to find out the acoustic variation on the pre-and post respiration and oral motor for children with cerebral palsy. Five children with spastic CP at the age of 6 in average were practiced by a caregiver at home each for 25 minutes, in total, 45 times. The sustained of vowel /a/ and vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ were recorded on CSL and MDVP and analyzed by acoustic parameters. As a result, the maximum phonation time(MPT) was increased from 2.06 to 6.31 and the formant of vowels(F1, F2, F3) had significant differences in F1(/a, i/), F2(/i.u.o/), and F3(/a/) between the controls and the children with CP in pre-treatment. The total average value of vowels had significant differences between the pre-and post-treatment (p< .05). The energy of vowels had significant differences in the vowels /i, u, e, o/ and the total average value between the pre-and post-treatment(p< .001). The jitter percent, shimmer percent, and noise to harmonic ratio had significant differences between the pre-and post-treatment(p< .05). As the respiration and the oral motor improved MPT, voice quality, and articulation of vowel, and the variation of the formant(F1, F2, F3) showed the changes in the shape of lips, the place and the height of the tongue, the various development of therapy programs and the consistent intervention of treatment is needed for the children with cerebral palsy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.104-111
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• 2015

Background and Objectives : Acoustic analysis of voice could be influenced so much by the quality of voice files which were recorded by recording device. In clinical practice, voice files that were recorded by analysis program directly or portable digital recording device were analyzed mostly. This study examined the feasibility of using Galaxy smartphone recordings for acoustic analysis of voice. Materials and Methods : Acoustic measures were compared between voice signals recorded from 30 normal speakers (15 males and 15 females) through Galaxy smartphone, portable digital recording device and CSL. Fo, jitter, shimmer, NHR (Noise-Harmony ratio) and Formant frequencies were analyzed by MDVP. Results : Fo, Jitter, Shimmer, NHR and formant frequencies from 3 devices were no significantly difference. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was higher between each of the voice perturbation measures. Conclusion : The findings indicated that Galaxy smartphone recording system was useful device for acoustic analysis of voice. Furthermore, Galaxy smartphone can be applied widely in various way for acoustic analysis of voice.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• 제34권10B호
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• pp.1062-1069
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• 2009

The kidney diseases is a big social problem what is suffering sequela of metabolic syndrome due to obesity. Therefore, it is most important that early to take the appropriate action; it does not have symptoms Abnormalities of the kidney. With this, in mind, this paper wish to propose the method to can diagnosis by non self-consciousness, non-imprisonment, analgesia of kidney disease through the voice analysis. To configure the entire system is developed to combines the voice analysis, watching the face color and this paper is designed the method to diagnosis kidney disease based on labial. In this paper, organized each kidney disease patients and healthy people group and we would like to analyze, compare with output in experiment morphology analysis and numerical value analysis of voice information. Secondly, auscultation theory of Oriental medicine and linguistic, phonetics analyze out interrelation to extraction peculiar elements of kidney about voice deduction deduced relation of the first formants frequency. Such result of experimentation, deduced widely to be formed the first formants frequency bandwidth value of kidney patients group than normal group. Finally, diagnosing an kidney diseases in only labial sound, calculated about misdiagnosis probability.