1,720,966 research outputs found
Effetto delle riflessioni diffuse sulla risposta all'impulso in un ambiente semianecoico
No full textDurata dei periodi di voce e di pausa nel parlato continuo in diverse condizioni di riverberazione per professionisti e non professionisti della voce
No full textL’utilizzo prolungato della voce in ambienti lavorativi dalle pessime caratteristiche acustiche comporta un uso non corretto dell’apparato fonatorio che determina fatica vocale. L'obiettivo della ricerca è quello di indagare oggettivamente la fatica vocale attraverso differenze nel comportamento vocale in diverse condizioni di riverberazione. L’analisi ha riguardato professionisti e non professionisti della voce e si è focalizzata sulla durata dei periodi di voce e di pausa nel parlato continuo. Sono stati eseguiti monitoraggi di 5 minuti utilizzando il dispositivo Voice Care®, sviluppato al Politecnico di Torino, nei laboratori della London South Bank University su 5 docenti inglesi, e all’INRiM di Torino su 9 studenti italiani. I soggetti parlavano di argomenti conosciuti ad un ascoltatore posto a 6 m di distanza. Per i professionisti della voce la massima occorrenza dei periodi di voce si sposta su periodi più lunghi con l’incremento della riverberazione, con conseguente aumento della fatica vocale, rilevata percettivamente
L'influenza dell'acustica dell'ambiente sui parametri di caratterizzazione del carico vocale
No full textA parità di distanza dall’ascoltatore, di condizioni acustiche e di discorso (libero, vocalizzato, letto), la comunicazione frontale implica contributi di incertezza sulla misura del livello medio ed equivalente di pressione sonora (SPL) e della frequenza fondamentale (F0) del segnale vocale. Altre variazioni sulle misure dipendono dalla strumentazione utilizzata e dalla necessità di omogeneità del campione. Questo lavoro indaga i parametri SPL ed F0 per 19 soggetti madrelingua italiani tra i 22 e 34 anni di età, normoudenti e normovedenti, che hanno eseguito un monologo libero di 5 minuti nelle camere semi-anecoica e riverberante dell’INRiM di Torino con l’obiettivo di farsi comprendere da un ascoltatore seduto a 6 m. A 16 cm dalla bocca dei soggetti era presente un fonometro di riferimento. Ripetibilità e riproducibilità delle misurazioni sono state studiate confrontando l’uso di diverse catene strumentali e più tipi di discorsi. La percezione del comfort vocale è stata indagata tramite questionari
Long-term vocal parameters in semi-anechoic and reverberant rooms
No full textThe acoustic design of a workspace helps enriching speech and preventing talkers from forcing their voice. Voice disorders may cause absenteeism from work to recover, and many voice professionals such as teachers underestimate risks depending on the improper use of voice. Talkers tend to adjust their vocal output on the base of the vocal task, the distance to the listener and the sound environment. Given the same room acoustics, distance to the listener and type of speech, face-to-face communication implies interspeaker differences in the sound pressure level (SPL) of the voice signal at a short distance from the mouth, fundamental frequency (F0) and phonation time percentage (Dt%). The measurement chain and the characteristic of the sample are other causes of variability. This study investigates on changings in SPL, F0 and Dt% over 19 Italian mother-tongue subjects aging between 22 to 34 yrs, 11 female and 8 male, neither hearing nor visual impaired, producing continuous 5 minute-long speeches in the semi-anechoic and reverberant rooms of INRiM, in Turin (Italy). Talkers spoke freely aiming to transmit information on something they knew well to a listener seated 6 m far. The speech production was monitored through the contemporary use of a calibrated class 1 sound level meter (SLM) and two portable voice monitoring devices (VMD). The SLM, used as a reference measurement device, was placed at a fixed distance from the speaker's mouth. The VMDs, based on two different contact microphones placed at the jugular notch of the speaker, were used to sense the skin vibrations induced by the vocal folds activity. A comparison between the use of different instrumental chains was assessed. Subjective surveys on vocal comfort completed the data acquisition with the aim of finding out correspondences between objective and subjective impression
Voice Care - A low-cost Platform for Monitoring Voice Professionals
No full textFor voice professionals, erroneous vocal behavior or changing in the voice
production due to poor acoustics in the environment where the voice
is used, can be investigated through recently developed voice monitoring
devices. These devices are portable data-logger that use a miniature accelerometer
glued to the jugular notch as a sensor of the skin acceleration
level due to the vibration of the vocal folds. They estimate the SPL at
a certain distance from the speaker’s mouth as a result of a calibration.
Other provided parameters are the fundamental frequency and the time
dose. Uncertainty specifications are not always available and the cost is in
some cases prohibitive for a large monitoring campaign. The low-cost platform
”Voice Care” is proposed in this contribution, that includes a wearable
data-logger and a processing program that allows the vocal parameters to be extracted from the recorded signal. The data-logger is equipped with a
contact microphone as a phonation sensor. Suitable calibration procedures
are implemented for the estimated parameters and their effectiveness
is shown through specifically conceived experimental tests. Uncertainties
are estimated and experimental results are reported that refer to the normal
use of the device during monitoring interval of several hours in university
classrooms
Long-term vocal parameters of primary school teachers and classroom acoustics with and without an acoustical treatment
No full textThe main purpose in classroom design is to facilitate learning practice by ensuring a good level of speech communication. It has already been proved that high reverberation or excessive noise levels in schools do not allow a proper communication between teachers and pupils. Furthermore, when classroom acoustics is poor, vocal health of teachers may be compromised. This study aims at investigating the effects of acoustic treatments in two primary schools in Italy, one in Torino and one in Bolzano. Measurements were carried out before and after a low-cost intervention both in occupied and unoccupied conditions, in Torino, monitoring the vocal activity of two teachers. In Bolzano, the effect of different acoustic conditions on one female teacher who teaches in treated and not treated classrooms was studied. Vocal long-term monitoring were conducted in the two locations for 3 to 4 working days, before/without and after/with the acoustic treatment of classrooms, using Voice-Care, a new portable vocal analyzer developed at the Politecnico di Torino. This research led to identify four main focuses: (1) variation in background noise level during frontal lessons, (2) change in classroom acoustics (reverberation time, clarity, room gain, voice support), (3) change in the use of voice in terms of variation of mean sound pressure level at 1 m from the teacher's mouth (SPLm,1m), mean fundamental frequency (F0,m) and phonation time percentage (Dt%), (4) improvement of speech intelligibility through the measurement of the speech transmission index for public address (STIPA). The subjective impression, investigated through questionnaires, gave encouraging results on the perception of sounds and voice when an acoustic treatment was present in classrooms. Answers were organized in a database which easily allows to correlate the subjective impression with the activity and the measured dat
Effetti della correzione acustica in aule di scuola elementare sui parametri vocali delle insegnanti
No full textIl progetto di un'aula scolastica è finalizzato a rendere ottimale la comunicazione verbale tra studenti e insegnanti. Molte scuole non rispondono a questo requisito per via di riverberazione elevata o eccessivo rumore, influendo negativamente sull'apprendimento degli alunni e sulla salute vocale degli insegnanti. Questo studio mostra i benefici di un intervento di correzione acustica low-budget di quattro aule di una scuola primaria di Torino, che ha portato alla riduzione del tempo di riverberazione da 1,8 s a 0,9 s, ad aula vuota. Il trattamento acustico ha determinato una riduzione del livello di pressione sonora del rumore di fondo e del livello vocale nell'aula. Il monitoraggio del carico vocale di due insegnanti prima e dopo l'intervento, per quattro giornate lavorative, è avvenuto utilizzando il dispositivo Voice Care® sviluppato al Politecnico di Torino. Sono inoltre migliorati altri parametri di caratterizzazione acustica delle aule, oltre alla percezione soggettiva acquisita tramite l'uso di questionar
Influence of classroom acoustics on the vocal behavior of teacers
Full text linkErroneous vocal behavior of teachers and their changes in the voice production due to poor acoustics in classrooms can be investigated through recently developed voice-monitoring devices. These devices are portable analyzers that use a miniature contact-microphone glued to the jugular notch in order to sense the skin acceleration level due to the vibration of the vocal folds. They estimate the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) at a certain distance from the speaker's mouth provided that a preliminary calibration procedure is performed, the fundamental frequency and the time dose. Two different devices are compared in this work: the former is a commercial device, whose phonation sensor is a small accelerometer; the latter, recently developed by the authors, uses an electret condenser microphone to sense the skin acceleration level. SPL and fundamental frequency are estimated over fixed-length frames and the results that refer to a sample of 25 primary school teachers and a university professor are analyzed. The duration of the voice and pause periods is investigated in order to detect the peaks of occurrence and accumulation in different conditions of reverberation. A method for the detection and analysis of the emphatic speech is also propose
Duration of voicing and silence periods of continuous speech in different acoustic environments
Full text linkThis work deals with the duration of voicing and silence periods of continuous speech in rooms with very different reverberation times (RTs). Measurements were conducted using the Ambulatory Phonation Monitoring (APM) 3200 (Kaypentax) and Voice-Care devices (developed at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy), both of which have a contact microphone placed on the base of the neck to detect skin vibrations during phonation. Six university professors and 22 university students made short laboratory monologs in which they explained something that they knew well to a listener 6m away. Seven students also described a map with the intention of correctly explaining directions to a listener who drew the path on a blank chart. Longer speech samples were made by primary school teachers in classrooms. A tendency to increase the voicing periods as the RT increased was on average observed for the university professors, the school teachers, and the university students who described a map. These students also showed longer silence periods than the students who made short monologues. The recognized trends concerned voice professionals or subjects who were highly motivated to make themselves understood in a perturbed speaking situation. Nonparametric statistical tests, which were applied to detect the differences in distributions of voicing and silence periods, have basically supported the findings
Voice accumulation and voice disorders in primary school teachers
No full textStatistics on professional voice users with vocal health issues demonstrate the significance of the problem. However, such disorders are not currently recognized as an occupational disease in Italy. Conducting studies examining the vocal health of occupational voice users is an important step in identifying this as an important public health issue. The current study was conducted in six primary schools in Italy with 25 teachers, one of the most affected occupational categories. A clinical examination was conducted (consisting of hearing and voice screening, a VHI, etc.). On this basis, teachers were divided into three groups: healthy subjects, subject with logopaedic disorders, and subjects with objectively measured pathological symptoms. The distributions of voicing and silence periods for the teachers at work were collected using the Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM3200), a device for long-term monitoring of vocal parameters. The APM senses the vocal fold vibrations at the base of the neck by means of a small accelerometer. Correlations were calculated between the voice accumulation slope (obtained by multiplying the number of occurrences for each period by the corresponding duration) and the clinical status of the teachers. The differences in voice accumulation distributions among the three groups were analyzed
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