A computer system for acoustic analysis of pathological voices and laryngeal diseases screening

Abstract

A system for acoustic analysis of pathological voices is proposed. The vocalized part of the voice signal is separated and all glottal cycles are traced by means of a cross-correlation detector. Based on the so determined beginning and duration of all glottal cycles, shimmer, jitter, several harmonics-to-noise ratios and other widely used acoustic parameters are calculated. New parameters are also introduced for estimation of the turbulent noise in voice signals (Turbulent Noise Index - TNI) and for the "breathy" voice characterization (Normalized First Harmonic Energy - NFHE). These parameters are applied for laryngeal pathology detection. An identification accuracy of 96.1% by the K-nearest neighbors' method has been achieved. The system is clinically tested.