Development of Novel Artificial Throat Vocalizing System

• Main Authors: Lin, Chuan-Lung, 林詮龍
• Other Authors: Lin, Bor-Shyh
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/24zg5b

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 光電系統研究所 === 104 === The patients with laryngeal carcinoma, that their vocal cord were also excised, could not own the ability of speaking. In order to reconstruct the function of speaking, several electrolarynx (EL) phonations have been proposed in previous studies. However, these EL phonations contained some disadvantages, such as monotonous speech, the requirement of one hand for assisting in operation et al. The above issues also caused the inconvenience of use in daily life. In this study, a novel artificial throat vocalizing system was proposed to improve the above issue. In this system, the source of vibrating sound was generated by a speaker, embedded in the toothed sleeve and placed on the upper jaw. Based on the Rosenberg glottal model, the frequency and amplitude of the vibrating sound was changed according to the air pressure generated from the lungs. Moreover, an artificial formant cavity was designed to enhance the resonance strength of the specific fundamental frequency corresponded to the specific resonance length of the formant cavity. Next, the difference-tone speech sounds could be generated by the change of the embouchure. The design of the proposed system is also a hand-free device, and this also improved the convenience of use effectively. Finally, the distinguishability of the speaking by using the proposed system and the commercial pneumatic artificial laryngeal device was also investigated. The experimental results showed that the proposed system could provide the better distinguishability of speaking and the convenience of use in daily life.