Detection of the mucosal wave in the speech signal for larynx pathology characterization

ABSTRACT

Voice pathologies are becoming a frequent cause of social concern due to the increasing exposure of people to certain pathogenic factors as smoking, gastro-esopharyngeal reflux, or to voice overload (professional speakers as teachers or call-centre employees), besides other natural factors as aging. Its social impact is of most importance, not only from the economical point of view, but also at the professional and personal levels. Early detection of voice pathologies can lead to less aggressive treatments, and combined with monitoring voice changes, is vital to improve patient's chances on a normal daily life after treatment. The present paper shows the application of well-known signal processing methods in improving early diagnosis of vocal fold pathologies by extracting better estimates of the glottal pulse patterns amenable of becoming biomechanical correlates for third-generation advanced computer-aided diagnose systems. These tools could be used in the implantation of e-health services to link Primary Attention Services and Specialised Attention Units providing access to patient screening, tele-consulting, and specialized databases.

REFERENCES

• 1: Donald G. Childers, Speech Processing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1999
• 2: John R. Deller, Jr. , John G. Proakis , John H. Hansen, Discrete Time Processing of Speech Signals, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1993
• 3: Giovanni, A., Ouaknine, M., Guelfucci, B., Yu, P., Zanaret, M. and Triglia, J. M., a "Nonlinear Behavior of Vocal Fold Vibration: The Role of Coupling Between the Vocal Folds", Journal of Voice, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1999, pp. 465--476.
• 4: Godino, J. I., Aguilera, S. and Gómez, P. "LPC and Cepstral Parameterisation Applied to the Detection of Voice Impairments" Proc. of the ICSLP'00, Beijing, China, November 2000, pp. 3213--3216.
• 5: Gómez, P., "Fundamentals of the Electromechanical Modelling of the Vocal Tract", Research Report, project MAPACI ref. TIC-2002-02273, Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, March 2003.
• 6: Simon Haykin, Adaptive filter theory (3rd ed.), Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996
• 7: Victor N. Sorokin , Alexander S. Leonov , Alexander V. Trushkin, Estimation of stability and accuracy of inverse problem solution for the vocal tract, Speech Communication, v.30 n.1, p.55-74, Jan.1.2000 [doi>10.1016/S0167-6393(99)00031-X]