• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.155-162
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• 2012

The population of Korea is ageing as the number of elderly people increases due to improvements in health care and diet. Accordingly, it is expected that interest in how to live actively during the years after retirement and how to communicate effectively will increase the demand for voice improvement methods and technology. However, the criteria to evaluate the voice strength and characteristics of the elderly are lacking. In this study, we analyzed the acoustic characteristics of elderly women living in the community according to residential status and mental health status (e.g. depressive mood). Accordingly, we selected women (n=63) above the age of 65 age who were living in the Seoul metropolitan area and Daegu Gyeongbuk. The selected subjects were divided into two groups: a normal speaker group (n=40) and a speaker group comprised of those suffering from depressive mood (n=23). This study analyzed the voice characteristics of subjects based on collected data through the sustained phonation of the vowel /a/. It was shown that there were differences among MPT, F0, Jitter, Shimmer and NHR depending on location of residence but no difference with regard to depressive mood. Therefore, we must consider location of residence in elderly as the key factor in demonstrating the voice norms of seniors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.135-139
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• 2005

Summary: This study evaluated the relationship between voice complaint and deviant vocal fold status with special regard to presbylarynx, in patients aged more than 60 years with pharyngeal-laryngeal complaint. The material consisted of clinical histories and images obtained by laryngoscopies of 75 patients aged more than 60 years, who had sought otorhinolaryngologic treatment. Indicative glottic characteristics of the presbylarynx, such as vocal fold bowing(VFB), prominence of vocal processes (PVP), and membranous spindle shaped glottic chink(MSC) and the presence or absence of voice complaint were analyzed Also, acoustic parameters such as fundamental frequency(Fo), jitter percent and shimmer percent were analyzed. VFB showed a strong correlation with voice complaint in male. Jitter and shimmer were correlated with VFB, PVP, MSC in female.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.99-107
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• 2009

In view of the hypothesis that the effects of Parkinson disease on voice production can be detected before pharmacological intervention, the voice differences of patients with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease and a healthy aging group were diagnostically analyzed with the long term object of establishing, for clinical purposes, early disease-progression biomarkers. Fifteen patients with Idopathic Parkinson's disease (prior to pharmacological intervention) and a healthy control group of 15 were selected and every voice was recorded three times using praat (ver. 5022) with a headset mic. Relevant parameters - acoustic measure of /a/ phonation, F0 related parameters, MPT related parameters, articulatory ratio, VOT - were then analyzed by MANOVA. Significant differences were found in the F0 related (low F0, high F0, F0 range) and MPT related parameters. There were also significant differences in acoustic measurements (intensity, shimmer, HNR, jitter), AMR (/$t{\Lambda}$/,/$k{\Lambda}$/) and VOT (/ta/), The findings indicated that the voice production of patients with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease have normal pitch but bad quality. In particular, with slow articulatory ratios and VOT values, the tongue tip functioning of patients was lower than for the healthy group.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.544-546
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• 2021

Recently, the number of unmanned stores is increasing due to COVID-19. In unmanned stores, payments are mainly made using kiosks, but some people with physical disabilities or people with disabilities who use wheelchairs are not easy to use it. Also, young children and the elderly are also having difficulty using new technologies such as kiosks as they get older. In this study, in order to compensate for these problems, we intend to design and implement a system capable of performing order by a speech recognition function as well as a visual system when a user interacts with a kiosk.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2018

As population aging progresses, there is a growing demand for IT technology that can relieve the psychological anxiety of the elderly living alone, recognize the dangerous situation, and check the family members' affection. In this paper, we describe the development of a speech recognition speaker that enable senior users to give simple interactive commands by voice and monitor the status of the user. The speaker analyzes the user's voice, grasps the conversation contents through the chatbot, connects the desired service to the user, and provides the result again by voice. By using this speaker, senior users can feel relaxed by natural conversation, and can monitor the status of danger more easily.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.923-930
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• 2002

This study aims at developing dialog system to improve the quality of life of the elderly with a dementia. The proposed system mainly consists of three modules including speech recognition, automatic search of the time-sorted dialog database, and agreeable responses with the recorded voices of caregivers. For the first step, the dialog that dementia patients often utter at a nursing home is first investigated. Next, the system is organized to recognize the utterances in order to meet their requests or demands. The system is then responded with recorded voices of professional caregivers. For evaluation of the system, the comparison study was carried out when the system was introduced or not, respectively. The occupational therapists then evaluated a male subjects reaction to the system by photographing his behaviors. The evaluation results showed that the dialog system was more responsive in catering to the needs of dementia patient than professional caregivers. Moreover, the proposed system led the patient to talk more than caregivers did in mutual communication.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2024

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a condition wherein the cerebrospinal pressure in the brain is within the normal range, but the cerebrospinal fluid increases above the normal level, causing ventriculomegaly. In patients with NPH, the articulatory system exhibits reduced mobility and range, which may affect diadochokinesis (DDK) and speech intelligibility. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of DDK, including accurate-token DDK and all-token DDK including inaccurate tokens, in patients with NPH and healthy elderly adults (HE). We also examined the classification accuracy of DDK between the two groups. Finally, we investigated whether there was a correlation between speech intelligibility and DDKs in the NPH group. The results showed that NPH and HE groups differed significantly in both accurate-token DDK and all-token DDK, and their classification accuracy was relatively high. However, there was no correlation between speech intelligibility and DDK. The findings suggest that the DDK is a useful method for sensitively assessing speech motor performance in patients with NPH.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 2011

Background and Objectives: Vocal polyps arc one of the most frequent benign laryngeal diseases. They arc usually found at the midpoint of the vocal fold. They are mainly caused by vocal overuse. Vocal polyps arc usually removed surgically. Generally, age-related changes to speech are attributed to change in anatomy and physiology of the speech mechanism. These changes result in increased variability in the acoustic properties of speech with age. Still, not 'all studies of age-related changes in speech have taken differences between the young group and adult group after laryngeal microsurgery into account. The aim of this investigation was to compare improvement of acoustic analysis in young patients and elderly patients with vocal polyps, before and after the laryngeal microsurgery. Materials and Method: One hundred and twenty-eight patients who underwent laryngeal microsurgery for vocal polyps from 2008 through 2011 were reviewed retrospectively. 105 of the 128 patients under age 60 were classified as adult group (AG), and remaining 23 patients as elderly group (EG). The speech of AG and EG were evaluated before and after surgery for identification of differences for age group across measures of fundamental frequency (F0), Jitter, Shimmer and Maximum phonation time (MPT). Results: There were not significant differences between two groups for improvement of F0, Jitter, Shimmer, NHR, and MPT before and after surgery. The findings suggest that elderly group compares quite well with adult group in effectiveness of surgery. However, comparison between elderly group and young group (Age under 40) there was significant difference of improvement in Jitter and Shimmer. Conclusion: In general, the results of the present research showed significant improvement in vocal quality after phonosurgery of vocal polyp in both elderly and adult group. However, comparison of improvement between elderly group and young group, there were significant differences of improvement in jitter and shimmer. Therefore, in treatment planning of elderly group, we should consider age related changes of vocal cord.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.879-881
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• 2010

For the rapid development of society, such as small family, one-people family is following. The traditional family is being changed, so the older stay home alone. That makes it more and more. Staying home alone, the older's health and safety are worth considering by us. With the rapid development of RFIDRadio Frequency Identification) technology, its applications have extended to all areas of our lifes. RFIDRadio Frequency Identification) has became a major topic of concern in multi-industry. With the high-speed economic growth and the development of science, medicine, the old people's life expectancy is increasing slightly. So it is necessary to design a protective system for the older's safety. In this thesis, self-care system is made by using RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) technology to authenticate an user and using TTS(test to speech) to convert character information to voice information and also using infrared radiation technology to protect home effectively, and using e-blood pressure monitors to examination the older's bodies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.472-474
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• 2022

This content prevents the elderly living in nursing homes from going out or traveling due to the long-term COVID-19 situation. Through the content, it was designed to allow visitors to see the Sokcho City Museum, where objects that can reminisce about the elderly's childhood are displayed. It is expected that the explanation inside the city museum will be delivered through voice through narration, so that even the elderly who do not know Korean will be able to enjoy the content with interest. And after enough time to look around, it is intended to represent the elements that interact, so that the gap with reality is felt a little less. In the current long-term COVID-19 situation, not only can the elderly living in nursing homes prevent depression, but also can practice remembering their childhood memories, which will have a positive effect on dementia prevention.