Apparatus and method for remotely diagnosing laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state using speech codec

• US 20060129390A1
• Filed: 07/08/2005
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Do-Young, Kim, Hyun-Woo
• Application Number:
  US11/177,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129390A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/220
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/903 using a laryngograph
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/90 Pitch determination of speech signals

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for remotely diagnosing laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state by using the speech codec. The apparatus provides a remote larynx diagnosing apparatus and method deciding laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state by using parameters, such as a Linear Prediction Coefficient (LPC) and a pitch, which are transmitted from a system using a speech codec. The apparatus includes a user information/speech codec information collecting block; a parameter extracting block for extracting the diagnosis parameter in bitstream transmitted from the network; a storing block for pre-storing a diagnosis parameter considering the type of the speech codec and a bit rate; a parameter comparing block for comparing the diagnosis parameter extracted from the parameter extracting block with the information of storing block; and a laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state determining block for diagnosing presence of laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state.

Claims

1. An apparatus for diagnosing laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state using a speech codec, comprising:

a user information/speech codec information collecting means for collecting user information and a speech codec information which is used in an external device through an external network;

a parameter extracting means for extracting a diagnosis parameter in bitstream transmitted from the network based on the speech codec information collected in the user information/speech codec information collecting means;

a storing means for pre-storing a diagnosis parameter considering the type of the speech codec and a bit rate;

a parameter comparing means for comparing the diagnosis parameter extracted from the parameter extracting means with the information of the storing means based on the speech codec information; and

a laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state determining means for diagnosing presence of laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state based on the comparison result obtained in the parameter comparing means.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the parameter extracting means extracts the diagnosis parameter such as a Linear Prediction Coefficient (LPC) and pitch information from the bitstream converted by using the speech codec which is based on a linear prediction technology.

3. The apparatus as recited in claim 2, wherein the parameter extracting means extracts the diagnosis parameter such as a LPC, a pitch delay and gain information from the bitstream transmitted through the network based on the speech codec information, and modifies the extracted diagnosis parameter.

4. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the user information/speech codec information collecting means gains the user information such as an identifier (ID), age of a user, gender of a user, a region, and whether a dialect is used through a user terminal, and collects the speech codec information such as the type of the speech codec, a bit rate, and whether voice activity detection (VAD) and a Packet Loss Concealment (PLC) are used or not.

5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state determining means diagnoses the presence of the laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state by analyzing the comparison result of the parameter comparing means based on a mean value and an individual deviation.

6. A method for remotely diagnosing laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state, comprising the steps of:

a) collecting user information and speech codec information which is used in an external device according to the setup of a call with an external user terminal;

b) receiving data converted into bitstream in a speech codec of the user terminal by requesting speech data to the user terminal;

c) acquiring a diagnosis parameter from the bitstream;

d) comparing the acquired diagnosis parameter with information pre-established in a database considering a type of the speech codec and a bit rate; and

e) determining presence of a laryngeal disorder/laryngeal state by analyzing the comparison result based on a mean value and individual deviation to thereby produce a diagnosis result.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising a step of f) transmitting the diagnosis result to the user terminal.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein, at the step f), additional information including difference between a present diagnosis result and a past diagnosis result and a re-examination data are transmitted to the user terminal together.

9. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein at the step c), the diagnosis parameter including an LPC and pitch information is extracted from the bitstream converted by using the speech codec based on the linear prediction technology.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein at the step c), the diagnosis parameter including a LPC, a pitch delay and gain information is extracted from the bitstream transmitted through a network based on the speech codec information.