• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2012

This paper will discuss the difference between self assessment of voice disorders and the hearer voice assessment of a comparative group of normal subjects. The study was conducted on 25 voice disorder subjects and 32 hearers of a comparative group of normal subjects. The results are as follows. Firstly, in K-VHI and VHI-H, the hearers of the comparative group of normal subjects perceived more serious voice disorders than the voice disorder group in all sub-domains. Likewise, in K-VQOL and VRQOL-H, the hearers of the comparative group of normal subjects perceived more serious voice disorders than the voice disorder group in all sub-domains. Secondly, the hearer voice assessment of the comparative group of normal subjects showed no difference in gender regarding the perception of the severity of voice disorder issues. Thirdly, the hearer voice assessment of the comparative group of normal subjects states that in the emotional aspects of VHI-H, professional voice users perceive more serious voice disorders than others. Accordingly, in VRQOL-H, there was no difference in use of the voice between professionals and others.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2001

Backgrounds and Objectives : There have been reported many studies which evaluate the effectiveness of combined laryngomicrosurgery(LMS) and voice therapy for the patients with benign vocal cord lesions. But the difference of voice improvement by onset time of voice therapy has not been reported. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences of voice improvement by voice analysis test between the two groups with different onset time of voice therapy. Materials and Methods : Two groups, each of which comprises 15 patients, were analyzed. For the one group, the voice therapy was initiated 1 day after LMS. For the other, the therapy was initiated 1 week after LMS. Voice analytic parameters of the two groups were statistically analized to identify difference in voice improvement. Results : All measured parameters improved after voice therapy in two groups and showed no significant difference between two groups. Conclusions : The onset time of voice therapy after LMS has no significant impact on post-operative voice quality in the patients with benign vocal cord lesions. Early onset of post-operative voice therapy may serve as treatment modality for patients with benign vocal cord lesions.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.249-252
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• 2001

The most basic means of communication among humans is a voice. Without speaking of voice technologies, we found it is important and convenient to use a voice in everyday life. But. in consideration to speech recognition systems, we can't always desire a normal voice input as input signal to the system. Generally speaking. a pathological voice as against a normal which is a voice with a problem in the larynx. could be also special case of input voice. Of course, but the distortion of a speech signal by environmental effects i.e., noise or transmission channel was a raised problem. we will take up a pathological voices with laryngeal disease which is essential distortion factor in voice. Also, we are to find out the difference of acoustic parameters distribution between normal and pathological voice by a statistical method in our research.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.768-774
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• 2008

In many areas of speech signal processing such as automatic speech recognition and packet based voice communication technique, VAD (voice activity detection) plays an important role in the performance of the overall system. In this paper, we present a new feature parameter for VAD which is the product of energy of the signal and the difference of two types of entropies. For this end, we first define a Mel filter-bank based entropy and calculate its difference from the conventional entropy in frequency domain. The difference is then multiplied by the spectral energy of the signal to yield the final feature parameter which we call PEED (product of energy and entropy difference). Through experiments. we could verify that the proposed VAD parameter is more efficient than the conventional spectral entropy based parameter in various SNRs and noisy environments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 2002

This study was intended to examine the pattern and level of experience of voice problems and risk factors in school teacher, to offer basic data to prevent voice problems. The subjects were 180 school teachers from primary, middle, and high school teachers in C City, Chonbuk. Data were collected by questionnaires survey from April 30, 2001 to May 10, 2001. 56.6% of the subjects experienced voice problems such as "H-notes difficult"($2.68{\pm}.86$), followed by "Tired voice"($2.32{\pm}.93$), "Effortful voice"($2.27{\pm}.90$), and "Drying of throat"($2.21{\pm}.91$). According to general characteristics, smoking subjects showed higher voice problem than no smoking subjects and this difference was statistically significant(t=2.76, p=.007). According to voice related characteristics, "Speaking loudly" subjects showed higher voice problem than those no "Speaking loudly"(t=-2.02, p=.045). "Speaking effortful" subjects measured higher voice problem than those of "Speaking effortful" and this difference was statistically significant(t=-3.34, p=.001). The inspection of the relation of cause affecting school teachers showed that it had an interacting effect of voice habit, smoking, experienced voice problem, treatment(due to voice problem) experience, by staged it accounted for 55.3% of the total voice problem. The total voice problem indicated a positive correlation(p=.000). Conclusion: over half of the school teachers have experienced voice problems, higher perceived related of voice symptom and physical symptom factors. Also, because there are significant differences in voice problem according to smoking, voice habits of "Speaking loudly", "Speaking effortful", experienced voice problem, treatment(due to voice problem) experience.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2000

Background and Objectives : The Voice Range Profile(VRP) is a two-dimensional graphic dysplay of an individual's amplitude range as a function of total fundamental frequency range. It is designed as a maximum performance test which can be used as a general indicator of voice problems in the non-professional voice and as a sensitive indicator of problems with the professional voice. The purpose of the study is to obtain a baseline VRT for the classical professional singers and compare it with the normal nonsinger's profile. We also compared the difference of VRP between the classical professional singers who have normal vocal fold and who have vocal folds lesions without dysphonia. Materials and Methods : The VRPs were elicited. from 42 trained classical singers(Soprano 26, Mesosoprano 5, Tenor 9, Bariton 2) and 20 untrained nonsingers(female 10, male 10) using Voice Range Profile Model 4326(Kay Elemetrics USA). The mean values for phonational range with highest and lowest pitch level and range of voice intensity with maximum and minimum intensity level were compared between classical singers and nonsingers. Results and Conclusions : The frequency range and dynamic range were significantly increased for the classical singers in comparison to the nonsingers. But there was no significant difference were found for the VRP between the parts in the classical singers. The classical singers who have vocal fold lesions showed slightly decreased VRP compared to those with healthy vocal folds.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.77-86
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Sea Dong-Il's technique on voice quality in patients with vocal nodules and phonasthenia (vocal fatigue). Ten patients (4 nodules and 6 vocal fatigue) participated in the study. Each subject was assessed acoustically (Fo, Jitter, Shimmer, NNE) in the first and last session. Dr. Speech (version 3.4, Tiger-DRS) was used to compare acoustic parameters of pre-and post-treatment. Sea Dong-Il's technique consisted of breathing exercise, relaxation exercise, and phonation exercise. The results were as follows: First, Sea Dong- Il's technique tended to be effective on improving voice quality in patients with phonasthenia and vocal nodules. Second, the nature of improvements were as follows: there was a significant difference between pre-and post-treatment in shimmer (p < .01) and NNE (p < .001), while there was no significant difference between pre-and post-treatment in Fo and Jitter. Finally, given the fact that the number of subjects was only 10, the jitter might have shown a significant difference if more subjects participated in the experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.132-138
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• 2002

Background and Objectives : The complex physiologic structure of the larynx can vibrate in three or more different ways that yield acuostically and perceptually distinct vocal quality. The purpose of this study is to examine the normal range of voice parameters in Multi-Channel Phonatory Function Analyzer and investigate the difference of voice parameters according to the phonatory patterns. Materials and Methods : Forty normal adult speakers (20 men and 20 women) with age ranging from third to forth decades pronounce low, comfortable, and high tone /a/ ; comfortable tone /${\ae}$/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ : fry, falsetto. Voice was analyzed by Newly developed multi-channel phonatory function analyzer. Results : The normal range of voice parameters in this system was similar to the existing data. Fry shows high jitter and falsetto low SQ. Fry and falsetto show low OQ in men but no difference in women. Jitter, OQ and SQ were different between men and women in modal register, whereas there was no gender difference in fry and falsetto. In frequency magnitude spectrum and EGG, modal register, fry and falsetto have distinguishing pattern. Conclusions : Modal register, fry and falsetto are distinguishable in voice parameters and show different vibratory patterns.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 1999

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze and compare e acoustic sound structure of vocal major student's singing voice. Materials and Methods : The nineteen vocal major students were the subject group and healthy nineteen females were the control group for this study. The subject group was taken a strobovideolaryngoscopy by the use of flexible nasopharyngoscopy. And acoustic analysis was taken between two groups. Additionally the inquiry on usual voice problems and management was performed by thirty-six vocal major students. Results : The subject group presents many functional voice disorder findings such as AP contraction(44%), phase difference(36%) tremor(25%), posterior gap(17%), hyperadduction of vestibular fold(6%), and anterior gap(3%) on strobovideolaryngoscopy. And the vocal major students did reveal an enhanced number of high frequency harmonic partials when singing compared to the control group in the narrow band spectrum study. But there was no significant difference in jitter, shimmer and noise to harmonic ratio in both groups. Almost all vocal major students present a lot of voice problems in singing such as loss of high note(17%), loss of quiet voice(17%), effortful and tired voice(36%) etc on inquiry. And they always effort to prevent vocal dysfunction by the use of various type of method such as voice rest(28%), hydration(28%), gargling with salt(11%) etc. Conclusions : The vocal major students always take care of maintaining a good voice condition, but a lot of vocal major students revealed abnormal strobovideolaryngoscopic findings and they are absent in the conception of systemic and scientific voice management. Therefore, the young singers need a good voice training and voice therapy Program under the good ralationship of laryngologist and voice training teacher.