Long-term voice monitoring with smartphone applications and contact microphone

In recent years, the growing interest in the recognition of voice disorders as occupational diseases has required screening methods adaptable to the clinical requirements, capable to extend the collection of baseline data. In this framework, the use of smartphones has gained increasing interest, thanks to advancements in digital technology, which made them suitable for recording and analyzingacoustic signals. Two smartphone applications, based on the Voice Care® technology, have been developed for long-term monitoring of voice activity when combined with a cheap contact microphone embedded in a collar. The applications have been tested in laboratory and used for the monitoring of teachers at kindergarten, primary school, and university. Vocal Holter App allows the selection of short and long term monitoring mode, and three different clusters of vocal parameters related to intensity, intonation, and load, respectively. Most of the results are based on the distributions of occurrences of vocal parameters. A headlight informs the person under monitoring of pathologic voice. Vocal Holter Rec allows data recording and to perform a personalized analysis based on updated parameters. The equipment allows downloading and saving data on a dedicated web site for further processing, comparisons over time, or sharing with physicians or rehabilitators

Vocal health assessment by means of Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed distribution in continuous speech

This work deals with an investigation on the Cep- stral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS) as a discriminator of vocal health in continuous speech. Individual CPPS distribu- tion and its descriptive statistics in reading and free speech acquired with a headworn microphone were investigated. Two groups of subjects were involved: 72 dysphonic and 39 control volunteers according to videostroboscopy examinations. The 95th percentile showed the highest diagnostic precision in both the speech materials (Area Under Curve of 0.86), with lower values indicating a pathological status of voice. Similar best thresholds were found for both reading and free speech (18.1 dB and 17.9 dB, respectively), but the identical phonemic contents of the reading task allowed higher sensitivity and specificity to be obtained. The voice self-assessment was also evaluated in the healthy and pathological groups by means of a questionnaire, namely the Italian version of the Voice Activity And Participation Profile. Significantly different scores were obtained by the two groups in all the sections of the questionnaire, thus highlighting that vocal problems are actually perceived by dysphonic people. Moreover, the 95th percentile resulted in a strong correlation with the sections of self-perceived voice problem and daily communication

Monitoraggio della voce per la valutazione della salute vocale e dell’influenza dell’acustica dell’ambiente

Il Politecnico di Torino, in collaborazione con S.C. ORL 2U dell’Università di Torino e PR.O.VOICE srl, start-up incubata in I3P del Politecnico di Torino, ha progettato e sta validando un dispositivo indossabile che consente il monitoraggio dell’attività vocale sul lungo periodo basato sulla tecnologia Voice Care® [1]. Attualmente sono disponibili due versioni del dispositivo. Quella a basso costo consiste in un applicativo, denominato Vocal Holter® App, da installare su un comune smartphone collegato ad un microfono a contatto da indossare durante il monitoraggio (Figura 1a). La versione professionale, denominata Vocal Holter® Med, consiste in un dispositivo rivolto ai professionisti ed in grado di effettuare analisi più avanzate (Figura 1b). Per entrambe le versioni, l’output del monitoraggio fornisce parametri vocali classici connessi ad intensità, intonazione e carico vocale, e innovativi come il Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), che è considerato molto promettente nella previsione della disfonia e della sua gravità. Le analisi si basano sulla distribuzione di occorrenze di tali parametri al fine di ottenere maggiori e più affidabili informazioni sulle caratteristiche vocali del campione in esame. Ambedue le versioni consentono di trasmettere i dati su sito web dedicato per ulteriori elaborazioni, confronti nel tempo o condivisione con l’eventuale curante o riabilitatore. Il dispositivo, nella sua versione professionale, è stato recentemente applicato in studi e ricerche che hanno dimostrato la sua efficacia nella discriminazione fra pazienti sani e malati, e nella valutazione dei cambiamenti in alcuni parametri vocali dovuti all’acustica dell’ambiente

CPPS distributional shape and parameters as effective tools to discriminate dysphonic and healthy voice

Objective. Voice is the main professional tool for many people, therefore it is important to preserve it and to prevent damages at the vocal apparatus. Voice monitoring and objective measures of the vocal behavior and vocal health can warn a talker against risky situations and highlight existing problems at the vocal apparatus. Previous works have investigated the parameter Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS) as a possible indicator of vocal health status, giving its mean value and standard deviation as promising results. The objective of this work is to determine whether the CPPS distributional shape and its parameters can discriminate dysphonic and healthy voice. Methods. Authors are building a well-assessed vocal database in order to validate the proposed parameters. Vocal data is collected at the San Giovanni Battista hospital in Turin. First, an otolaryngologist performs the laringostroboscopy exam and the perceptual assessment of voice (GIRBAS scale) to voluntary patients. Then, three different speech materials (vocalization, reading and free-speech) are simultaneously acquired at a microphone in air, placed at a fixed distance from the mouth, and at a contact microphone attached at the jugular notch. Last, each patient is asked to fill in a questionnaire about its perception of voice in daily life (PAPV). Results. At the moment, 25 patients make up our study group and 8 subjects belong to the control group. Recruitment will end in November. Associations between the presence/absence of any type of dysphonia, the values of the CPPS parameters, the perceptual evaluation of voice and the disability level felt in everyday life due to vocal problems will be investigated. Furthermore, new techniques of classification and data mining based on CPPS distributional shape will be performed Conclusions. The proposed approach can have implications both on clinical practice and on the prevention of vocal problems, especially for voice professionals

CPPS distributional shape and parameters as effective tools to discriminate dysphonic and healthy voice

Objective. Voice is the main professional tool for many people, therefore it is important to preserve it and to prevent damages at the vocal apparatus. Voice monitoring and objective measures of the vocal behavior and vocal health can warn a talker against risky situations and highlight existing problems at the vocal apparatus. Previous works have investigated the parameter Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS) as a possible indicator of vocal health status, giving its mean value and standard deviation as promising results. The objective of this work is to determine whether the CPPS distributional shape and its parameters can discriminate dysphonic and healthy voice. Methods. Authors are building a well-assessed vocal database in order to validate the proposed parameters. Vocal data is collected at the San Giovanni Battista hospital in Turin. First, an otolaryngologist performs the laringostroboscopy exam and the perceptual assessment of voice (GIRBAS scale) to voluntary patients. Then, three different speech materials (vocalization, reading and free-speech) are simultaneously acquired at a microphone in air, placed at a fixed distance from the mouth, and at a contact microphone attached at the jugular notch. Last, each patient is asked to fill in a questionnaire about its perception of voice in daily life (PAPV). Results. At the moment, 25 patients make up our study group and 8 subjects belong to the control group. Recruitment will end in November. Associations between the presence/absence of any type of dysphonia, the values of the CPPS parameters, the perceptual evaluation of voice and the disability level felt in everyday life due to vocal problems will be investigated. Furthermore, new techniques of classification and data mining based on CPPS distributional shape will be performed Conclusions. The proposed approach can have implications both on clinical practice and on the prevention of vocal problems, especially for voice professionals

Il monitoraggio dei parametri vocali degli insegnanti

Il rumore prodotto dalle voci e dalle attività dei bambini, incrementato dall'eccessiva riverberazione nelle aule, espone gli insegnanti a rischio di eccessivo sforzo e carico vocale