Influence of Overpressure Breathing on Vowel Formant Frequencies

Downloads

Authors

  • Milan VOJNOVIĆ Life Activities Advancement Center, Serbia
  • Miomir MIJIĆ University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Dragana ŠUMARAC PAVLOVIĆ University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Nebojša VOJNOVIĆ University of Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

Voice controlled management systems are based on speech recognition techniques. The use of such systems in combat aircraft is complex due to a number of critical factors which affect the accuracy of speech recognition, such as high level of ambient noise and vibration, use of oxygen masks, serious psycho-physical stress of speakers, etc. One of the specificity of the oxygen mask application is overpressure breathing. The results of the simulations presented in this paper show that the presence of overpressure on the order of 1000 Pa in the vocal tract has a significant influence on the first two formant frequencies. The formants discrimination field is significantly reduced when oxygen mask is used, influencing both perceptive and automatic discrimination of spoken vowels.

Keywords:

mask, overpressure, transfer characteristic, vocal tract.

References

1. Badin P., Fant G. (1984), Notes on vocal tract computation, STL-QPSR, 25(2 3): 53–108, Speech Transmission Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

2. Ernsting J. (1966), Some effects of raised intrapulmonary pressure in man, AGARD Monograph, AGARDOGRAPH 106, Technivision Ltd., Maidenhead.

3. Fant G. (1970), Acoustic Theory of Speech Production, Mouton, The Hague.

4. Flanagan J.L. (1972), Speech Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception, Springer-Verlag, New York.

5. Morse P.M. (1986), Vibration and Sound, Ed. by Acoustical Society of America.

6. Morse P.M., Ingard K.U. (1968), Theoretical Acoustics, McGraw-Hill, New York.

7. Rainford D., Gradwell D. (Eds.) (2006), Ernsting’s Aviation Medicine, 4th ed., Hodder Arnold, London.

8. South A. (2001), A model of vowel production under positive pressure breathing, Proceedings of EUROSPEECH-2001, pp. 1515–1518, Aalborg, Denmark.

9. Stevens K.N., Kasowski S., Fant G. (1953), An electrical analog of the vocal tract, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 25(4): 734–742, https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1907169.

10. Svirsky M., Stevens K., Matthies M., Manzella J., Perkell J., Wilhelms-Tricarico R. (1997), Tongue surface displacement during bilabial stops, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 102(1): 562–571, https://doi.org/10.1121/1.419729.

11. Vojnović M., Mijić M. (2005), An improved model for the acoustic radiation impedance of the mouth based on an equivalent electrical network, Applied Acoustics, 66(5): 481–499, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2004.09.002.

12. Wakita H., Fant G. (1978), Toward a better vocal tract model, STL-QPSR, 19(1): 9 29, Speech Transmission Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.