• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.91-97
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• 2017

This study categorizes several voice characteristics by subjective listening assessment, and investigates correlation between voice characteristics and speech feature parameters. A model was developed to classify voice characteristics into the defined categories using SVM algorithm. To do this, we extracted various speech feature parameters from speech database for men in their 20s, and derived statistically significant parameters correlated with voice characteristics through ANOVA analysis. Then, these derived parameters were applied to the proposed SVM model. The experimental results showed that it is possible to obtain some speech feature parameters significantly correlated with the voice characteristics, and that the proposed model achieves the classification accuracies of 88.5% on average.

• Korean Journal of Bronchoesophagology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2001

Background and Objectives： Total laryngectomy is often required for advanced cases. But this operation induced the many inconvenience of basic daily life. Early diagnosis of laryngeal cancer is very important to prevent from this disastrous condition. In this point of view, mass screening test for early detection of laryngeal cancer is necessary. Screening test using voice has many advantages such as simple, less interventional. Voice collection by Automatic Response System(ARS) is comfortable and easy to got acoustic sample. Thus author tried to got the acoustic parameters which can differentiate normal, benign. and malignant laryngeal diseases and also checked the availability of parameters on neural network system. Materials and Methods: Author has evaluated the voice from 17 laryngeal cancer patients and 45 benign laryngeal disease patients who visited at Department of Otolaryngology, Pusan National University Hospital from May 1998 to April 2001, and 15 normal control. Author chose the sir Parameters (Jitt. vFo, Shim, vAm, NHR, SPI) that was thought to be related with voice collected by ARS among thirty-three parameters analysed by a Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP). Two-step neural network was used for the availability of six parameters. Results: The detection rate of normal voice by ARS voice analysis is 78.5% and detection rate of abnormal voice was 97.1 o/o. Among abnormal voice, the detection rate of benign laryngeal diseases and laryngeal cancers were 82.4 o/o, 70.6% respectively. Conclusion: Author concluded that six parameters and Matlab based neural network software may be effective in development of acoustic screening system for laryngeal cancer and further study should be necessary for development of new acoustic parameters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 1996

The preservation of the voice-producing mechanism is an important feature in the management of laryngeal cancer by radiotherapy. But, radiation therapy has certain side effects such as mucositis, tissue edema, necrosis and fibrosis which could effect on normal voice production. Several subjective studies that used questionnaires and auditory perceptual judgements of voice have been interpreted to mean that radiation results in a normal or near-normal voice. Objective evidence of the status of vocal function after radiation treatment, however, is still lacking. We analyzed the changes that occur in voice parameters in a group of patients undergoing radiation therapy, in order to determine the effect of radiation on voice quality. In this study acoustic, aerodynamic measures of vocal function were used to determine the characteristics of voice production. We found that voice parameters in early glottic cancer changed meaningfully comparing to normal larynx with or without radiation and radiation therapy has an little effect on normal larynx.

• Journal of Clinical Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.229-234
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• 2018

Background and Objectives : Vocal nodules occur with a 12-22% prevalence in pediatric populations. Most otolaryngologists recommend voice therapy as the primary treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate patient compliance with voice therapy and its effect on vocal nodules in children. Materials and Methods : We retrospectively reviewed 44 pediatric patients between 3 and 11 years old diagnosed with vocal nodules between March 2015 and December 2017. We evaluated the treatment adoption rate, dropout rate during voice therapy, and reasons for dropout. For patients who completed voice therapy, we measured the changes in nodule size, perceptual parameters, and acoustic parameters. We evaluated patient satisfaction using the pediatric voice handicap index (P-VHI). Results : Of the 44 pediatric patients diagnosed with vocal nodules, 22 (50%) agreed to voice therapy. Of the 22 patients who started voice therapy, 5 (22.7%) dropped out during therapy because they were unsatisfied with their treatment. Another 4 patients discontinued therapy for reasons unrelated to treatment effectiveness. Vocal nodule disappeared or decreased in all 13 patients who completed voice therapy. All voice parameters were improved and statistically significant changes were observed in perceptual, acoustic, and P-VHI parameters. Conclusions : Although compliance to voice therapy among the pediatric patients with vocal nodules was low, there were significant improvements in voice parameters for those who completed voice therapy. A change toward a positive perception of voice therapy is necessary and a multidisciplinary approach is needed to improve the effect of voice therapy on pediatric patients with vocal nodules.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.77-83
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• 2015

Voice complication without the laryngeal nerve injury can occur after thyroidectomy. The purpose of this study is to investigate voice changes according to extent of thyroidectomy with acoustic analysis. Thirty-five female patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma took voice evaluation at before and 1 month, and 3 months after thyroidectomy. Acoustic analysis parameters were speaking fundamental frequency(SFF), min $F_0$, max $F_0$, dynamic range $F_0$, jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonic ratio(NHR), and Cepstral prominence peak(CPP). Repeated-measured analysis of variance was applied. Time-related voice changes showed significant differences in all parameters except NHR. At 1 month after surgery, voice quality was worse and pitch was decreasing, but voice quality and pitch were improving at 3-month follow-up. Voice changes according to the extent of surgery were in SFF, max $F_0$, and dynamic range $F_0$. Time by surgery-related voice change existed only in min $F_0$. The result showed that the severity of voice complication depended on the extend of thyroidectomy which had a negative impact on $F_0$-related parameters. The deterioration of voice quality at 1 month after thyroidectomy may be affected by the loss of thyroid hormone in the blood. The descent of $F_0$-related parameters may be impacted by laryngeal fixation of surgical site adhesion.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.06a
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• pp.893-898
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• 1994

In this paper, the influence of voice source estimation and modeling on speech synthesis and coding is examined and then their new estimation and modeling techniques are proposed and verified by computer simulation. It is known that the existing speech synthesizer produced the speech which is dull and inanimated. These problems are arised from the fact that existing estimation and modeling techniques can not give more accurate voice parameters. Therefore, in this paper we propose a new voice source estimation algorithm and modeling techniques which can not give more accurate voice parameters. Therefore, in this paper we propose a new voice source estimation algorithm and modeling techniques which can represent a variety of source characteristics. First, we divide speech samples in one pitch region into four parts having different characteristics. Second, the vocal-tract parameters and voice source waveforms are estimated in each regions differently using sequential SVD. Third, we propose composite source model as a new voice source model which is represented by weighted sum of pre-defined basis functions. And finally, the weights and time-shift parameters of the proposed composite source model are estimeted uning EM(estimate maximize) algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the proposed estimation and modeling methods can estimate more accurate voice source waveforms and represent various source characteristics.

• MALSORI
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• no.57
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• pp.73-84
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore the acoustic characteristics of sexy voice. In this study, we measured acoustic parameters (fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, and nasalance) of a sustained vowel sound produced by 40 actors (20 males and 20 females) and 40 non-actors (20 males and 20 females). Digital audio recordings were made in the sustained vowel |a| for acoustic analyses using Praat (version 4.1.9) and Nasal View (version 4.5). Twenty voice pathologists participated in the listening experiment and judged the degree of sexiness on a 7-point scale. The results showed that fundamental frequency, shimmer and nasalance had significant differences between actors and non-actors. The acoustic parameters of sexy voice matched perceptual aspects of a previous study: Low fundamental frequency-low pitch and high shimmer-husky voice. On the other hand, the nasalance score did not match that of the previous study: Decreased nasalance had a higher score on sexiness scale judged by the listeners. It would be desirable to study the voice quality by analyzing and controlling more acoustic and auditory parameters for practical applications in the future.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.2
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• pp.25-44
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• 1997

When listening the various speech synthesis systems developed and being used in our country, we find that though the quality of these systems has improved, they lack naturalness. Moreover, since the voice color of these systems are limited to only one recorded speech DB, it is necessary to record another speech DB to create different voice colors. 'Voice Color' is an abstract concept that characterizes voice personality. So speech synthesis systems need a voice color control function to create various voices. The aim of this study is to examine several factors of voice color control rules for the text-to-speech system which makes natural and various voice types for the sounding of synthetic speech. In order to find such rules from natural speech, glottal source parameters and frequency characteristics of the vocal tract for several voice colors have been studied. In this paper voice colors were catalogued as: deep, sonorous, thick, soft, harsh, high tone, shrill, and weak. For the voice source model, the LF-model was used and for the frequency characteristics of vocal tract, the formant frequencies, bandwidths, and amplitudes were used. These acoustic parameters were tested through multiple regression analysis to achieve the general relation between these parameters and voice colors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2011

Background and Objectives : Clinically, as a tool for voice assessment before and after the operation or the voice treatment, acoustic analysis is widely used. However, in clinical situations, acoustic parameters vary according to how the assessment is made. Thus, with voice disease patients as subjects, we are to investigate what influence intensity increase exerts on acoustic parameters and how to reduce variation according to the way of assessing. Material and Method : At the voice clinic of the department of otorhinolaryngology in Gangnam Severance Hospital, with 30 female voice-disease patients (40.6 years old on the average) and 23 male voice-disease patients (40.1 years old on the average) as subjects, using the Dr Speech vocal-assessment program, we statistically tested the significance of the difference in each of acoustic parameters between when the "Ah" vowel is produced with a normal voice and when the "Ah" vowel is produced with a loud voice. Results : Acoustic parameters that showed a statistically significant difference according to intensity increase were Jitter, SD F0, and NNE for females, and Jitter, SD F0, HNR, SNR, and NNE for males. Voice quality estimates showed a statistically significant difference according to intensity increase in female hoarse voice, female breathy voice, and male breathy voice. Conclusion : In this research, acoustic analysis, which is generally used for voice assessment before and after the operation or the voice treatment, showed a tendency that acoustic parameters became better under the influence of intensity increase except for the cases where a voice disease was severe. Thus, to raise the reliability of voice assessment, the range of intensity needs to be set up. This should be the topic for the future research.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.159-163
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to conduct a correlational analysis among pitch, nasalance, and acoustic quality parameters estimated by two speech analysis softwares NasalView(version 1.31), Dr. Speech 4.5(Tiger Electronics). Thirty females and 25 males with normal voice participated in the study. The Pearson correlation coefficient was determined through a statistical analysis. The results came out as follows; Firstly, there was a correlation between $F_0$ and voice quality parameters, however there was no correlation between $F_0$ and nasalance. Secondly, nasalance showed a correlation with voice quality parameters.