Psychological stress measurement through voice output analysis

Audio tape recordings of selected Skylab communications were processed by a psychological stress evaluator. Strip chart tracings were read blind and scores were assigned based on characteristics reported by the manufacturer to indicate psychological stress. These scores were analyzed for their empirical relationships with operational variables in Skylab judged to represent varying degrees of situational stress. Although some statistically significant relationships were found, the technique was not judged to be sufficiently predictive to warrant its use in assessing the degree of psychological stress of crew members in future space missions

Blood Pressure Estimation from Speech Recordings: Exploring the Role of Voice-over Artists

Hypertension, a prevalent global health concern, is associated with cardiovascular diseases and significant morbidity and mortality. Accurate and prompt Blood Pressure monitoring is crucial for early detection and successful management. Traditional cuff-based methods can be inconvenient, leading to the exploration of non-invasive and continuous estimation methods. This research aims to bridge the gap between speech processing and health monitoring by investigating the relationship between speech recordings and Blood Pressure estimation. Speech recordings offer promise for non-invasive Blood Pressure estimation due to the potential link between vocal characteristics and physiological responses. In this study, we focus on the role of Voice-over Artists, known for their ability to convey emotions through voice. By exploring the expertise of Voice-over Artists in controlling speech and expressing emotions, we seek valuable insights into the potential correlation between speech characteristics and Blood Pressure. This research sheds light on presenting an innovative and convenient approach to health assessment. By unraveling the specific role of Voice-over Artists in this process, the study lays the foundation for future advancements in healthcare and human-robot interactions. Through the exploration of speech characteristics and emotional expression, this investigation offers valuable insights into the correlation between vocal features and Blood Pressure levels. By leveraging the expertise of Voice-over Artists in conveying emotions through voice, this study enriches our understanding of the intricate relationship between speech recordings and physiological responses, opening new avenues for the integration of voice-related factors in healthcare technologies

Sound and noise

Sound and noise problems in space environment and human tolerance criteria at varying frequencies and intensitie

Fog Computing in Medical Internet-of-Things: Architecture, Implementation, and Applications

In the era when the market segment of Internet of Things (IoT) tops the chart in various business reports, it is apparently envisioned that the field of medicine expects to gain a large benefit from the explosion of wearables and internet-connected sensors that surround us to acquire and communicate unprecedented data on symptoms, medication, food intake, and daily-life activities impacting one's health and wellness. However, IoT-driven healthcare would have to overcome many barriers, such as: 1) There is an increasing demand for data storage on cloud servers where the analysis of the medical big data becomes increasingly complex, 2) The data, when communicated, are vulnerable to security and privacy issues, 3) The communication of the continuously collected data is not only costly but also energy hungry, 4) Operating and maintaining the sensors directly from the cloud servers are non-trial tasks. This book chapter defined Fog Computing in the context of medical IoT. Conceptually, Fog Computing is a service-oriented intermediate layer in IoT, providing the interfaces between the sensors and cloud servers for facilitating connectivity, data transfer, and queryable local database. The centerpiece of Fog computing is a low-power, intelligent, wireless, embedded computing node that carries out signal conditioning and data analytics on raw data collected from wearables or other medical sensors and offers efficient means to serve telehealth interventions. We implemented and tested an fog computing system using the Intel Edison and Raspberry Pi that allows acquisition, computing, storage and communication of the various medical data such as pathological speech data of individuals with speech disorders, Phonocardiogram (PCG) signal for heart rate estimation, and Electrocardiogram (ECG)-based Q, R, S detection.Comment: 29 pages, 30 figures, 5 tables. Keywords: Big Data, Body Area Network, Body Sensor Network, Edge Computing, Fog Computing, Medical Cyberphysical Systems, Medical Internet-of-Things, Telecare, Tele-treatment, Wearable Devices, Chapter in Handbook of Large-Scale Distributed Computing in Smart Healthcare (2017), Springe

Vocal fold vibratory and acoustic features in fatigued Karaoke singers

Session 3aMU - Musical Acoustics and Speech Communication: Singing Voice in Asian CulturesKaraoke is a popular singing entertainment particularly in Asia and is gaining more popularity in the rest of world. In Karaoke, an amateur singer sings with the background music and video (usually guided by the lyric captions on the video screen) played by Karaoke machine, using a microphone and an amplification system. As the Karaoke singers usually have no formal training, they may be more vulnerable to vocal fatigue as they may overuse and/or misuse their voices in the intensive and extensive singing activities. It is unclear whether vocal fatigue is accompanied by any vibration pattern or physiological changes of vocal folds. In this study, 20 participants aged from 18 to 23 years with normal voice were recruited to participate in an prolonged singing task, which induced vocal fatigue. High speed laryngscopic imaging and acoustic signals were recorded before and after the singing task. Images of /i/ phonation were quantitatively analyzed using the High Speed Video Processing (HSVP) program (Yiu, et al. 2010). It was found that the glottis became relatively narrower following fatigue, while the acoustic signals were not sensitive to measure change following fatigue. © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

CENTRAL NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL CORRELATES OF VOICE SECONDARY TO INDUCED UNILATERAL VOCAL FOLD PARALYSIS

Understanding the involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) in voice production is essential to incorporating principles of neuroplasticity into therapeutic practice for voice disorders. Early steps to attaining this goal require the identification of specific neural biomarkers of the changes occurring in the CNS from a voice disorder and its subsequent treatment. In the absence of an adequate animal vocalization model, the larynx has not been acutely and reversibly perturbed to concurrently examine the effect on both peripheral and central processing of the altered input/output. Using a unique, reversible perturbation approach, it was the purpose of this study to perturb the larynx to mimic a voice disorder and study short-term neuroplastic response. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was the neuroimaging tool of choice for this study due to its superior spatial and temporal resolution. The voice was perturbed by anesthetizing the right recurrent laryngeal nerve, with a solution of lidocaine hydrochloride and epinephrine to induce a temporary right vocal fold paralysis. The paralysis lasted for approximately 90 minutes and had an overt presentation similar to that of a true vocal fold paralysis. Behavioral and fMRI data were obtained at three time points- baseline, during the vocal fold paralysis and one hour after recovery. Patterns of activity on fMRI during the three time points were found to be distinct on both subjective examination and statistical analysis. The regions of interest examined had distinct trends in activity as a function of the paralysis. Interestingly, males and females responded differently to the paralysis and its subsequent recovery. Strong correlation was not observed between the behavioral measures and fMRI activity reflecting a disparity between the overt presentation and recovery of vocal fold paralysis and cortical activity as seen on fMRI. The fictive paralysis model employed in this study provided a perturbation model for phonation that allowed us to examine behavioral and central neural correlates for disordered phonation in a controlled environment. Although this data is representative of acute changes from a transient paralysis, it provides an insight into the response of the cortex to sudden perturbation at the peripheral phonatory mechanism

Timesharing performance as an indicator of pilot mental workload

Attentional deficits (workloads) were evaluated in a timesharing task. The results from this and other experiments were incorporated into an expert system designed to provide workload metric selection advice to non-experts in the field interested in operator workload

Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications: 5th International Workshop: December 13-15, 2007, Firenze, Italy

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies. The Workshop has the sponsorship of: Ente Cassa Risparmio di Firenze, COST Action 2103, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Journal (Elsevier Eds.), IEEE Biomedical Engineering Soc. Special Issues of International Journals have been, and will be, published, collecting selected papers from the conference

Metabolic Mechanisms of Vocal Fatigue

Vocal fatigue is among the most debilitating conditions affecting individuals with voice disorders. Impressions about mechanisms potentially underlying vocal fatigue have varied depending on how fatigue is defined, participants studied, and measures made, thereby impacting the selection of treatment strategies that may alleviate the condition. However, little is currently known about actual metabolic mechanisms of vocal fatigue. The current study aimed to address this issue by investigating the hypothesis that neuromuscular inefficiency, cardiovascular recovery deficits, or both, may play a role in fatigue. The approach replicated well-vetted approaches in exercise physiology. Metabolic profiles of subjects with vocal fatigue were assessed using gas exchange measures in comparison to two non-fatigue groups: vocally healthy and cardiovascular trained individuals, recruited based on results from a newly vetted questionnaire, the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) and laryngeal examination. Participants read out loud at two different loudness levels for a duration of 5 minutes for each task with periods of rest between tasks. Metabolic cost for and recovery time from reading were same across all groups. Oxygen uptake and recovery kinetics (EPOC), ratings of perceived exertion revealed interesting patterns in individuals with vocal fatigue compared to cardiovascular trained individuals in particular. Specifically, slow oxygen uptake kinetics in the vocal fatigue compared to the cardiovascular trained group pointed to utilization of anaerobic energy source to meet the demands of the reading task in the vocal fatigue group, suggesting neuromuscular inefficiency. In contrast, rapid oxygen uptake kinetics in the cardiovascular trained group pointed to utilization of aerobic energy sources and greater neuromuscular efficiency. Similarly, a greater number of individuals in vocal fatigue and vocally healthy groups showed an increase in oxygen consumption post reading (EPOC) compared to the cardiovascular trained group, indicating possible cardiovascular recovery deficits in the former groups. In addition to uncovering potential mechanisms underlying vocal fatigue, including neuromuscular inefficiency and cardiovascular recovery deficits, results from the present study highlight the potential importance of aerobic training to generate aerobic energy required for vocal task demands for both ease of task performance and recovery from it