5,859 research outputs found

    A Pattern Recognition Approach to Spasmodic Dysphonia and Muscle Tension Dysphonia Automatic Classification

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    Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) and muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) are two voice disorders that present similar characteristics. Usually, they can be differentiated only by experienced voice clinicians. There are many reasons that support the idea that SD is a neurological disease, requiring surgical treatments or, more usually, laryngeal botulinum toxin A injections as a therapeutic option. On the other hand, MTD is a functional disorder correctable with voice therapy. The importance of a correct diagnosis of these two disorders is critical at the treatment-selection moment. In this article, we present and compare the results of neural network and support vector machine-based methods that can help the clinicians to confirm their diagnosis. As a preliminary approach to the problem, we used only a sustained vowel /a/ to extract eight acoustic parameters. Then, a pattern recognition algorithm classifies the voice as normal, SD, or MTD. For comparison with previous works, we also separated the voices into normal and pathological (SD and MTD) voices with the methods proposed here. The results overcome the best classification rates between normal and pathological voices that have been previously reported, and demonstrate that our methods are very effective in distinguishing between MTD and SD.Fil: Schlotthauer, Gaston. Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Matemática e Informática. Laboratorio de Señales y Dinámicas no Lineales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Torres, Maria Eugenia. Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Matemática e Informática. Laboratorio de Señales y Dinámicas no Lineales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Jackson Menaldi, María Cristina. Wayne State University (wayne State University); Estados Unido

    An Investigation of Multidimensional Voice Program Parameters in Three Different Databases for Voice Pathology Detection and Classification

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    Background and Objective Automatic voice-pathology detection and classification systems may help clinicians to detect the existence of any voice pathologies and the type of pathology from which patients suffer in the early stages. The main aim of this paper is to investigate Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) parameters to automatically detect and classify the voice pathologies in multiple databases, and then to find out which parameters performed well in these two processes. Materials and Methods Samples of the sustained vowel /a/ of normal and pathological voices were extracted from three different databases, which have three voice pathologies in common. The selected databases in this study represent three distinct languages: (1) the Arabic voice pathology database; (2) the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary database (English database); and (3) the Saarbruecken Voice Database (German database). A computerized speech lab program was used to extract MDVP parameters as features, and an acoustical analysis was performed. The Fisher discrimination ratio was applied to rank the parameters. A t test was performed to highlight any significant differences in the means of the normal and pathological samples. Results The experimental results demonstrate a clear difference in the performance of the MDVP parameters using these databases. The highly ranked parameters also differed from one database to another. The best accuracies were obtained by using the three highest ranked MDVP parameters arranged according to the Fisher discrimination ratio: these accuracies were 99.68%, 88.21%, and 72.53% for the Saarbruecken Voice Database, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary database, and the Arabic voice pathology database, respectively

    Characterization of Healthy and Pathological Voice Through Measures Based on Nonlinear Dynamics

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    In this paper, we propose to quantify the quality of the recorded voice through objective nonlinear measures. Quantification of speech signal quality has been traditionally carried out with linear techniques since the classical model of voice production is a linear approximation. Nevertheless, nonlinear behaviors in the voice production process have been shown. This paper studies the usefulness of six nonlinear chaotic measures based on nonlinear dynamics theory in the discrimination between two levels of voice quality: healthy and pathological. The studied measures are first- and second-order Renyi entropies, the correlation entropy and the correlation dimension. These measures were obtained from the speech signal in the phase-space domain. The values of the first minimum of mutual information function and Shannon entropy were also studied. Two databases were used to assess the usefulness of the measures: a multiquality database composed of four levels of voice quality (healthy voice and three levels of pathological voice); and a commercial database (MEEI Voice Disorders) composed of two levels of voice quality (healthy and pathological voices). A classifier based on standard neural networks was implemented in order to evaluate the measures proposed. Global success rates of 82.47% (multiquality database) and 99.69% (commercial database) were obtained.Publicad

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

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    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

    Automatic acoustic analysis of waveform perturbations

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