title: Human voice quality measurement in noisy environments.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Computerized acoustic voice measurement is essential for the diagnosis of vocal pathologies. Previous studies showed that ambient noises have significant influences on the accuracy of voice quality assessment.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper presents a voice quality assessment system that can accurately measure qualities of voice signals, even though the input voice data are contaminated by low-frequency noises.
  
  
  METHODS
  The ambient noises in our living rooms and laboratories are collected and the frequencies of these noises are analyzed. Based on the analysis, a filter is designed to reduce noise level of the input voice signal. Then, improved numerical algorithms are employed to extract voice parameters from the voice signal to reveal the health of the voice signal.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with MDVP and Praat, the proposed method outperforms these two widely used programs in measuring fundamental frequency and harmonic-to-noise ratio, and its performance is comparable to these two famous programs in computing jitter and shimmer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed voice quality assessment method is resistant to low-frequency noises and it can measure human voice quality in environments filled with noises from air-conditioners, ceiling fans and cooling fans of computers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shyh-Kuang
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Ueng
authors.affiliation: Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Cheng-Ming
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsung-Yu
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsuan-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Yeh
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D007818:Laryngeal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009622:Noise; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Human voice assessment; home-based medical caring system; noise reduction