Development and testing of a portable vocal accumulator

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Speech Science
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Long-term ambulatory monitoring of voice use is crucial for understanding vocal health and disorders.
• Existing methods may be obtrusive or lack the capacity for continuous data collection.
• Developing unobtrusive technology is key for ecological validity in voice research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and test the Portable Vocal Accumulator (PVA) for unobtrusive, long-term ambulatory voice use monitoring.
• To evaluate the PVA's capability in analyzing voice data from individuals with normal and dysphonic voices.
• To explore effective data visualization methods for extensive long-term vocal monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Portable Vocal Accumulator (PVA) featuring a digital signal processor and neck-placed miniature accelerometer.
• Collection of accelerometer recordings from 99 participants with normal or dysphonic voices.
• Testing of PVA specifications and capabilities using collected voice data.

Main Results:

• The PVA prototype is pocket-sized, lightweight, and capable of sampling 11 hours of voice-use data.
• The device can estimate fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and phonation duration.
• Accelerometer recordings proved useful for testing PVA specifications and exploring data displays.

Conclusions:

• The Portable Vocal Accumulator (PVA) is a viable tool for unobtrusive, long-term ambulatory monitoring of voice use.
• The PVA demonstrates potential for analyzing vocal characteristics in both healthy and disordered voices.
• Further development can optimize data display for clinical and research applications.