Acoustic Analysis of Emotional Expressions Present in Speech Signals.

Author(s):  
Yoshito Mekada ◽  
Miyuki Mukasa ◽  
Hiroshi Hasegawa ◽  
Masao Kasuga ◽  
Shuichi Matsumoto ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
pp. 2150022
Author(s):  
Caio Cesar Enside de Abreu ◽  
Marco Aparecido Queiroz Duarte ◽  
Bruno Rodrigues de Oliveira ◽  
Jozue Vieira Filho ◽  
Francisco Villarreal

Speech processing systems are very important in different applications involving speech and voice quality such as automatic speech recognition, forensic phonetics and speech enhancement, among others. In most of them, the acoustic environmental noise is added to the original signal, decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the speech quality by consequence. Therefore, estimating noise is one of the most important steps in speech processing whether to reduce it before processing or to design robust algorithms. In this paper, a new approach to estimate noise from speech signals is presented and its effectiveness is tested in the speech enhancement context. For this purpose, partial least squares (PLS) regression is used to model the acoustic environment (AE) and a Wiener filter based on a priori SNR estimation is implemented to evaluate the proposed approach. Six noise types are used to create seven acoustically modeled noises. The basic idea is to consider the AE model to identify the noise type and estimate its power to be used in a speech processing system. Speech signals processed using the proposed method and classical noise estimators are evaluated through objective measures. Results show that the proposed method produces better speech quality than state-of-the-art noise estimators, enabling it to be used in real-time applications in the field of robotic, telecommunications and acoustic analysis.


2010 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 2290-2290
Author(s):  
Eric O. Truslow ◽  
Helen M. Hanson

1976 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 963-972
Author(s):  
MASARU OHYAMA ◽  
YASURO MIYOSHI ◽  
KUNIO SHOJI ◽  
SHINPEI YAMAMOTO ◽  
CHIEKO TANIGUCHI ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1018-1032
Author(s):  
Chia-Hsin Wu ◽  
Roger W. Chan

Purpose Semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises with tubes or straws have been widely used for a variety of voice disorders. Yet, the effects of longer periods of SOVT exercises (lasting for weeks) on the aging voice are not well understood. This study investigated the effects of a 6-week straw phonation in water (SPW) exercise program. Method Thirty-seven elderly subjects with self-perceived voice problems were assigned into two groups: (a) SPW exercises with six weekly sessions and home practice (experimental group) and (b) vocal hygiene education (control group). Before and after intervention (2 weeks after the completion of the exercise program), acoustic analysis, auditory–perceptual evaluation, and self-assessment of vocal impairment were conducted. Results Analysis of covariance revealed significant differences between the two groups in smoothed cepstral peak prominence measures, harmonics-to-noise ratio, the auditory–perceptual parameter of breathiness, and Voice Handicap Index-10 scores postintervention. No significant differences between the two groups were found for other measures. Conclusions Our results supported the positive effects of SOVT exercises for the aging voice, with a 6-week SPW exercise program being a clinical option. Future studies should involve long-term follow-up and additional outcome measures to better understand the efficacy of SOVT exercises, particularly SPW exercises, for the aging voice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panying Rong

Purpose The purpose of this article was to validate a novel acoustic analysis of oral diadochokinesis (DDK) in assessing bulbar motor involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method An automated acoustic DDK analysis was developed, which filtered out the voice features and extracted the envelope of the acoustic waveform reflecting the temporal pattern of syllable repetitions during an oral DDK task (i.e., repetitions of /tɑ/ at the maximum rate on 1 breath). Cycle-to-cycle temporal variability (cTV) of envelope fluctuations and syllable repetition rate (sylRate) were derived from the envelope and validated against 2 kinematic measures, which are tongue movement jitter (movJitter) and alternating tongue movement rate (AMR) during the DDK task, in 16 individuals with bulbar ALS and 18 healthy controls. After the validation, cTV, sylRate, movJitter, and AMR, along with an established clinical speech measure, that is, speaking rate (SR), were compared in their ability to (a) differentiate individuals with ALS from healthy controls and (b) detect early-stage bulbar declines in ALS. Results cTV and sylRate were significantly correlated with movJitter and AMR, respectively, across individuals with ALS and healthy controls, confirming the validity of the acoustic DDK analysis in extracting the temporal DDK pattern. Among all the acoustic and kinematic DDK measures, cTV showed the highest diagnostic accuracy (i.e., 0.87) with 80% sensitivity and 94% specificity in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls, which outperformed the SR measure. Moreover, cTV showed a large increase during the early disease stage, which preceded the decline of SR. Conclusions This study provided preliminary validation of a novel automated acoustic DDK analysis in extracting a useful measure, namely, cTV, for early detection of bulbar ALS. This analysis overcame a major barrier in the existing acoustic DDK analysis, which is continuous voicing between syllables that interferes with syllable structures. This approach has potential clinical applications as a novel bulbar assessment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Zubow ◽  
Richard Hurtig

Children with Rett Syndrome (RS) are reported to use multiple modalities to communicate although their intentionality is often questioned (Bartolotta, Zipp, Simpkins, & Glazewski, 2011; Hetzroni & Rubin, 2006; Sigafoos et al., 2000; Sigafoos, Woodyatt, Tuckeer, Roberts-Pennell, & Pittendreigh, 2000). This paper will present results of a study analyzing the unconventional vocalizations of a child with RS. The primary research question addresses the ability of familiar and unfamiliar listeners to interpret unconventional vocalizations as “yes” or “no” responses. This paper will also address the acoustic analysis and perceptual judgments of these vocalizations. Pre-recorded isolated vocalizations of “yes” and “no” were presented to 5 listeners (mother, father, 1 unfamiliar, and 2 familiar clinicians) and the listeners were asked to rate the vocalizations as either “yes” or “no.” The ratings were compared to the original identification made by the child's mother during the face-to-face interaction from which the samples were drawn. Findings of this study suggest, in this case, the child's vocalizations were intentional and could be interpreted by familiar and unfamiliar listeners as either “yes” or “no” without contextual or visual cues. The results suggest that communication partners should be trained to attend to eye-gaze and vocalizations to ensure the child's intended choice is accurately understood.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Kerry Callahan Mandulak

Spectral moment analysis (SMA) is an acoustic analysis tool that shows promise for enhancing our understanding of normal and disordered speech production. It can augment auditory-perceptual analysis used to investigate differences across speakers and groups and can provide unique information regarding specific aspects of the speech signal. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the utility of SMA as a clinical measure for both clinical speech production assessment and research applications documenting speech outcome measurements. Although acoustic analysis has become more readily available and accessible, clinicians need training with, and exposure to, acoustic analysis methods in order to integrate them into traditional methods used to assess speech production.


Author(s):  
Andreas Voß ◽  
Klaus Rothermund ◽  
Dirk Wentura

Abstract. In this article, a modified variant of the Affective Simon Task (AST; De Houwer & Eelen, 1998 ) is presented as a measure of implicit evaluations of single stimuli. In the AST, the words “good” or “bad” have to be given as responses depending on the color of the stimuli. The AST was combined with an evaluation task to increase the salience of the valence of the presented stimuli. Experiment 1 investigated evaluations of schematic faces showing emotional expressions. In Experiment 2 we measured the valence of artificial stimuli that acquired valence in a game context during the experiment. Both experiments confirm the validity of the modified AST. The results also revealed a dissociation between explicit and implicit evaluations.


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