• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.111-125
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• 2007

It is important to examine patients' subjective evaluation as well as objective measures and clinician's rating to assess voice disorders. This study aimed to evaluate validity and reliability of Korean-version of Voice Handicap Index (KVHI) and Voice-Related Quality of Life (KVQOL) with 113 adults with voice disorders and 111 normal adults. Content validity was verified by three experienced speech-language pathologists. Concurrent validity was revealed by examining the correlation among KVHI, KVQOL, and Voice Rating Scale as well as item discrimination coefficients. Total scores of KVHI and KVQOL of adults with voice disorders were significantly different from those of normal adults. Test-retest reliability and internal consistencies were significantly high in both KVHI and KVQOL. Correlations among scores of each subscale and total score were also significantly high in each tool. The study revealed that KVHI and KVQOL are suitable tools to be used in clinics and research areas in Korea, which can subjectively evaluate the effects of voice disorders on daily life as well as on quality of life.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.342-350
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• 2022

In this paper, actual drone noise samples are collected for speech processing in disaster environments to build noise-corrupted speech database, and speech enhancement performance is evaluated by applying spectrum subtraction and mask-based speech enhancement techniques. To improve the performance of VoiceFilter (VF), an existing deep neural network-based speech enhancement model, we apply the Self-Attention operation and use the estimated noise information as input to the Attention model. Compared to existing VF model techniques, the experimental results show 3.77%, 1.66% and 0.32% improvements for Source to Distortion Ratio (SDR), Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ), and Short-Time Objective Intelligence (STOI), respectively. When trained with a 75% mix of speech data with drone sounds collected from the Internet, the relative performance drop rates for SDR, PESQ, and STOI are 3.18%, 2.79% and 0.96%, respectively, compared to using only actual drone noise. This confirms that data similar to real data can be collected and effectively used for model training for speech enhancement in environments where real data is difficult to obtain.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.06a
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• pp.93-97
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• 1993

본 논문은 한국어 문어변환(TTS:Text-to-Speech) 시스템내에서의 음성합성시 음질 및 자연성 개선을 위한 연구 결과이다. 합성음 평가방법으로는 한국어 발음대사전에 수록된 빈도수 순위대로 추출한 음절(V형: 19개, CV형:80개, VC형:30개, CVC형: 100개, 총 229개)을 대상으로 규칙합성시킨 1음절어(합성음절수:229개)중 음절유형별로 15개씩 총 60개 음절을 20초간 3회 반복음의 녹음 테이프를 작성한 합성음에 대하여 사전지식이 없는 임의의 그룹을 선정하여 이해도, 명료도, 잡음감, 자연성 등 4 가지 항목에 대하여 오피니온 평가를 수행한 결과를 제시하였다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.427-434
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• 2008

In this paper, a transcoding algorithm for SMV and AMR speech coder is proposed. In the application requiring the interoperability of different networks, two speech coders must work together with the structure of cascaded connection, tandem. The tandem which is one of the simplest methods has several problems such as long delay, high complexity and the quality degradation due to twice complete encoding/decoding process. These problems can be solved by using transcoding algorithm. The proposed algorithm consists of LSP (Line Spectral Pair) conversion, pitch delay conversion, and fast fixed codebook search. The evaluation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves equivalent speech quality to that of tandem with reduced computational complexity and delay.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose Packet Loss Concealment (PLC) method using adaptive signal scale estimation for performance improvement of G.711 PLC. The conventional method controls a gain using 20 % attenuation factor when continuous loss occurs. However, this method lead to deterioration because that don't consider the change of signal. So, we propose gain control by adaptive signal scale estimation through before and after frame information using Least Mean Square (LMS) predictor. Performance evaluation of proposed algorithm is presented through Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) evaulation.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.873-874
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a packet loss concealment (PLC) algorithm for CELP speech coders, which is based on multiple adaptive codebooks by using comfort noise for the lost packet recovery. The multiple adaptive codebooks are composed of a conventional adaptive codebook to model periodic excitation of speech and another adaptive codebook to provide a better estimate of excitation when packets are lost in the speech onset region. The performance of the proposed PLC algorithm is evaluated by implementing it into the G.729 decoder and compared with that of the PLC algorithm employed in the G.729 decoder by means of perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ). It is shown from the experiments under different burstiness of packet loss rates of 3% and 5% that the proposed PLC algorithm provides higher PESQ scores than the G.729 PLC algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.138-145
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the audiologic results after cochlear implantation (CI) in older patients and the degree of improvement in their quality of life (QoL). Subjects and Methods: Patients over 65 years old who underwent CI at implant center in Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital were included in this study (n=54; 34 males and 20 females). The control group was patient over 65 years old with normal hearing (n=54; 34 males and 20 females). We administered three questionnaires [World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), World Health Organization Quality of Life-OLD (WHOQOL-OLD)], and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to evaluate the QoL, CIrelated effects on activities of daily life, and social activities in all the subjects. Moreover, correlations between speech recognition and the QoL scores were evaluated. The duration of implant use and comorbidities were also examined as potential factors affecting QoL. Results: The patients had remarkable improvements (the mean score of postoperative speech perception 75.7%) in speech perception after CI. The scores for the WHOQOL-OLD and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire responses were similar in both the study and control groups, except those for a two subdomains (social relations and social participation). The patients with longer-term CI had higher scores than those with short-term CI use. In general, the changes in GDS scores were not significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: The treatment of hearing loss with CI conferred significant improvement in patient's QoL (p<0.01). The evaluation of QoL can provide multidimensional insights into a geriatric patient's progress and, therefore, should be considered by audiologists.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.138-145
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the audiologic results after cochlear implantation (CI) in older patients and the degree of improvement in their quality of life (QoL). Subjects and Methods: Patients over 65 years old who underwent CI at implant center in Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital were included in this study (n=54; 34 males and 20 females). The control group was patient over 65 years old with normal hearing (n=54; 34 males and 20 females). We administered three questionnaires [World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), World Health Organization Quality of Life-OLD (WHOQOL-OLD)], and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to evaluate the QoL, CIrelated effects on activities of daily life, and social activities in all the subjects. Moreover, correlations between speech recognition and the QoL scores were evaluated. The duration of implant use and comorbidities were also examined as potential factors affecting QoL. Results: The patients had remarkable improvements (the mean score of postoperative speech perception 75.7%) in speech perception after CI. The scores for the WHOQOL-OLD and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire responses were similar in both the study and control groups, except those for a two subdomains (social relations and social participation). The patients with longer-term CI had higher scores than those with short-term CI use. In general, the changes in GDS scores were not significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: The treatment of hearing loss with CI conferred significant improvement in patient's QoL (p<0.01). The evaluation of QoL can provide multidimensional insights into a geriatric patient's progress and, therefore, should be considered by audiologists.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.12
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• pp.1756-1760
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• 2015

This paper focuses on a priori signal to noise ratio (SNR) estimation method for the speech enhancement. There are many researches for speech enhancement with several ambient noise cancellation methods. The method based on spectral subtraction (SS) which is widely used in noise reduction has a trade-off between the performance and the distortion of the signals. So the need of adaptive method like an estimated a priori SNR being able to making a high performance and low distortion is increasing. The decision directed (DD) approach is used to determine a priori SNR in noisy speech signals. A priori SNR is estimated by using only the magnitude components and consequently follows a posteriori SNR with one frame delay. We propose a modified a priori SNR estimator and the weighted rational transfer function for speech enhancement with wind noises. The experimental result shows the performance of our proposed estimator is better Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality scores (PESQ, ITU-T P.862) compare to the conventional DD approach-based systems and different noise reduction methods.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2022

Sound quality evaluation is one of the psychoacoustic methods to measure subjective judgements for sound color. The purpose of this study is to investigate sound quality benefits of bimodal users by comparing sound quality scores between bimodal hearing condition and unilateral cochlear implant(CI) condition as a preliminary study. Thirteen bimodal users and seven unilateral CI users were participated in this study. Audiologists performed pure tone and speech audiometry and measured functional gain and real-ear insertion gain. Subjective assessment of sound quality was followed with four sounds including violin sound, male and female voices, and refrigerator noise. Participants judged the sound quality with six sound quality index. Bimodal users showed mean 0.8 points more sound quality improvements in bimodal condition than unilateral CI condition. Group comparison between bimodal and unilateral CI users showed no differences. A follow-up study of sound quality tools and methods should be considered to evaluate subjective bimodal benefits of cochlear implant users.