METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF PHONATION

• US 20140122063A1
• Filed: 05/16/2012
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• Original Assignee: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
• Inventors: Gomez Vilda, Pedro, Rodellar Biarge, Victoria, Nieto Lluis, Victor, Alvarez Marquina, Agustin, Martinez Olalla, Rafael
• Application Number:
  US14/127,202
• Publication Number:
  US 20140122063A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/200.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/02 Preprocessing operations, e.g. segment selection; Pattern representation or modelling, e.g. based on linear discriminant analysis [LDA] or principal components; Feature selection or extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/02 using spectral analysis, e.g. transform vocoders or subband vocoders
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/66 for extracting parameters related to health condition detecting or measuring for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00

Abstract

The invention consists of a method and computing system for recording and analyzing the voice which allows a series of parameters of phonation to be calculated. These transmit relevant information regarding effects caused by organic disorders (which affect the physiology of the larynx) or neurological disorders (which affect the cerebral centers of speech). The classification methods are also considered an essential part of the invention which allow estimations of the existing dysfunction to be obtained and for the allocation of personality. The usefulness of the invention lies in the possibility of applying the dysfunction estimation in primary care service centers for patient screening to specialist care centers, simplifying examination protocols, saving costs and reducing waiting lists. This methodology can also be used for detecting the personality of a speaker by their voice, allowing access to installations or services.

Claims

1. A method for estimating the physiological parameters of phonation based on a voice signal comprising:

compensating for the radiation of the lips in the voice signal by means of canceling the first order pole generated by said radiation in the spectrum of the voice signal,

performing inverse filtering on at least one of the phonated segment in a phonation cycle for a compensated voice signal, wherein said inverse filtering in turn comprises;

modulating the spectral inversion of the compensated voice signal to extract the deglottalized voice signal,

modulating the spectral inversion of the vocal tract to extract the glottal wave without substantial influence of the vocal tract and to obtain the vibration correlates of the vocal folds.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of compensating for the radiation of the lips also comprises:

modulating the spectral inversion of the vocal tract by means of a plurality of adaptive lattice filters, which can also be chained together, said filters being configured to divide the voice signal into two signals via which the crossed correlation between the two dephased, divided signals is calculated, cancelling the effect of the radiation of the lips and generating a signal free of radiation.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of modulating the spectral inversion of the signal also comprises:

implementing a plurality of mirror model filters configured to estimate the partial correlation and eliminate said partial correlation of the glottal signal owing to the vocal tract generating new glottal signals without substantial influence of the vocal tract.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein it comprises calculating the glottal wave s_qi(n) by means of integrating the residual signal of the glottal wave s_ri(n).

5. The method according to claim 4, comprising estimating at least one of the following temporal parameters via the glottal wave s_qi(n):

start of the glottal cycle;

recovery time Tr;

start time of the opening of the vocal cords To;

time of maximum supraglottal pressure Tm;

start time of the closure of the vocal folds Tc;

end time of the glottal cycle having minimum supraglottal pressure Tg;

coefficients ODQ, CDQ and GEQ.

6. The method according to claim 4, comprising estimating at least one of the following distortion parameters via the glottal wave s_qi(n):

jitter,

amplitude shimmer,

area shimmer,

sharpness of closure,

cover to body ratio.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein it comprises estimating the mean acoustic wave v_qi(n) for estimating at least one of the following sets of biometric parameters via the glottal wave s_qi(n) by means of detecting the mean acoustic wave:

power spectral density of the mucosal wave correlate,

cepstral coefficients of the glottal correlate of the mucosal wave,

singularities of the envelope of the power spectral density of the glottal correlate of the mucosal wave.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein it comprises estimating the mean acoustic wave v_qi(n) for at least one of the following biomechanical parameters via the glottal wave s_qi(n) by means of detecting the mean acoustic wave:

loss parameter,

dynamic mass parameter equivalent to the body of the cord,

elasticity parameter,

imbalances between the phonation cycles with respect to;

the dynamic mass of the body,

the losses of the body,

the elasticity of the body.

9. A system for estimating the physiological parameters of phonation based on a voice signal which comprises:

means configured to compensate for the radiation of the lips in the voice signal by means of canceling the first order pole generated by said radiation in the spectrum of the voice signal,

means configured to perform inverse filtering on at least one of the phonated segments in a phonation cycle for a compensated voice signal, wherein said inverse filtering in turn comprises;

means configured to modulate the spectral inversion of the compensated voice signal to extract the deglottalized voice signal,

means configured to modulate the spectral inversion of the vocal tract to extract the glottal wave without substantial influence of the vocal tract and to obtain the vibration correlates of the vocal folds.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the means configured to compensate for the radiation of the lips also comprise:

means configured to modulate the spectral inversion of the vocal tract, in turn comprising a plurality of adaptive lattice filters, which can also be chained together, wherein said filters are configured to divide the voice signal into two signals via which the crossed correlation between the two dephased, divided signals is calculated, cancelling the effect of the radiation of the lips and generating a signal free of radiation

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the means configured to modulate the spectral inversion of a signal also comprise:

a plurality of mirror model filters configured to estimate the partial correlation due to the vocal tract and eliminate said partial correlation from the glottal signal.

12. The system according to claim 9, wherein the estimations are carried out via at least one normophonic speaker model and are stored in a number of storage means to be compared with the estimations of a speaker in order to determine the presence and grade of dysphonia in accordance with the deviation present between both estimations.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the estimations of any speaker are stored in a number of storage means to unequivocally identify said speaker.