PHONETOGRAPHY DATABASE FOR ELDERLY WOMEN

Lídia Cristina da Silva Teles, Maria Inês Pegoraro-Krook

Departament of Speech pathology of Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru, University of São Paulo

Al. Octávio Pinheiro Brisola 9-75, Bauru, Brazil

Marcos Kenned Magalhães

Departament of Eletric Engineering of Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos, University of São Paulo

Avenida Trabalhador São-carlense 400, São Carlos, Brazil

Keywords: Speech pathology, voice evaluation, phonetography, signal processing, database.

Abstract: The aim of this work was to create a software that, from the phonetography measures of elderly women,

generates the phonetogram, evaluates its area, vocal extension (VE), and the dynamic extension (DE) and

elaborates a database. The phonetography exams were carried out based on the European Phoniatrics Rules.

The software tools used for development were Delphi

and Paradox

. The results related to the voice

evaluation of elderly women compares favorably with the normal aging process. The software stores and

recovers the exams data as well as evaluates voice characteristics and presents graphical outputs in an

appropriate way.

1 INTRODUCTION

The speech has its origin at the vocal folds level,

through the air flux coming from the lungs, passing

throughout the larynx constriction, the equalized by

the vocal tract and radiated by the lips (Boone and

McFarlane, 1994).

The voice exam only is complete when the sound

properties are stored and analised in some way

(Damsté, 1970).

The phonetography is a exam that allows to

evaluate both the frequency extension and dinamic

range for each frequency value. The result of this

method produce a graphic called phonetogram. This

exam allows to identify changes in the voice

associated with common pathological conditions to

verify the progression resulting from the vocal

therapy or simply to follow the voice development

of the individual (Damsté, 1970; Gramming, 1988;

Higgins and Saxman, 1991; and Teles-Magalhães,

Pegoraro-Krook and Pegoraro, 2000).

The rapid growth of elder population has brough

some concern in the last few decades. The concern is

more related to the added life in years than the added

years in the life (Leden, 1977). These considerations

bring some questions like : what is the vocal

extension of elderly people? What is the boundary

between aging and pathological conditions in the

vocal changes ?

Several papers about voice in the aging have

maked clear that there is a great interest in better

knowing the voice characteristics of this population.

So the effects of the age on the voice have to be

clearly defined in order to stablish the healthy range

of the voice characteristics.

The effects of the age on the vocal behavior

seems to be different in type and level for men and

women (Higgins et al., 1991). In this work just the

women voices are considered.

The informatic has auxilied the speech therapists

in their diagnosis efforts. Unfortunately, for the

phonetography case, the few softwares

commercially available do not present database

facilities or have prohibitive cost, making the

storage or recovery of data cumbersome.

Taking in account all this shortcomings, the

objective of this work was to elaborate a software

that from the measures of phonetography of elderly

women elaborates the phonetogram, evaluation of its

area, of the vocal extension (VE) and the dinamic

extension (DE) storing all this information in a

database.

159

Cristina da Silva Teles L., Inês Pegoraro-Krook M. and Kenned Magalhães M. (2008).

PHONETOGRAPHY DATABASE FOR ELDERLY WOMEN.

In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing, pages 159-162

DOI: 10.5220/0001064601590162

 SciTePress

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

2.1 Phonetography

Forty volunteers women from Bauru city, São Paulo

state participated of this work, aging from 60 to 84

years old (

=68,2 ± 5,74 years old). All of these

women were interviewed besides the submission of

perceptive and audiologic exams.

The exam procedures follow the standards proposed

by Shultte e Seidner (1993) and recommended by

the European Phoniatrics Union. Basically the

exams were issued in a acoustic room of the

Experimental Phonetic Laboratory of the Hospital de

Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais, of the São

Paulo University. A Casio Model CA-110,

miniorgan was used to generate the musical notes,

and an Entelbra 142 analogical sound level meter

(sound pressure level gauge) to obtain the intensity

measurements.

2.2 Database Program

Equipment (hardware): one IBM-PC

presenting the

following characteristics: Pentium IV

processor

(3.0 GHz), RAM memory 512 Kb, hard disk of 80

Gb and CD_ROM Creative

was used. The video

resolution was 800 x 600 pixels per inch. Also has

been used a HP Deskjet 692C.

Programs (software): the software was developed

in Windows XP

using Delphi

from Borland

Inprise Corporation (version 5.0) and Paradox

from

Paradox Corporation for the database.

2.3 Parameters Evaluated from

Phonetography

Vocal Extension evaluation: by using the

fundamental frequencies values (F

), in semitones

(st), it is applied the following formula:

EV = F

max – F

min (1)

Where:

 EV = Vocal extension (st);

 F

max = Maximum frequency (st) produced

by the individual;

 F

min = Minimum frequency (st) produced

by the individual;

All evaluations related to the frequency are made

using semitones (st).

Dynamic Extension and Maximum Dynamic

Extension: after all obtained values for maximum

and minimum magnitude for each frequency to be

introduced, the following formula for dynamic

extension is applied:

DE = Int max – Int min (2)

where:

 DE = Dynamic extension (dB);

 Int max = Higher magnitude (dB) produced by

the individual;

 Int min = Lower magnitude (dB) produced by

the individual.

The maximum dynamic extension (MDE) is the

higher dynamic extension found among all tested

frequencies.

Phonetogram Area Evaluation: the area

evaluation follows the standard proposed by Shultte

e Seidner (1993). In order to evaluate the area the

following formula is used:

(

)

(

)

()

stst

IIII

iiii

−⋅

−

∑

minmaxminmax

(3)

where:

 A = Area of the phonetogram (cm

);

 Int max = Higher magnitude (dB) produced by

the individual;

 Int min = Lower magnitude (dB) produced by

the individual;

 St = Semitone where the maximum and

minimum magnitude were evaluated;

 n = Number of elements (semitones) of the

phonetogram.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Exam Data Evaluation

Related to the minimum frequencies, their values

varied from 110 Hz or 33 st to 220 Hz or 45 st. The

average value for minimum frequencies was 154 ±

24,98 Hz or 38,68 ± 2,80 st.

For the maximum frequencies of vocal extension,

the higher value was 659 Hz or 64 st, and the lower

value was 330 Hz or 52 st. The average value for the

maximum frequencies was 478,88 ± 56,11 Hz or

58,35 st ± 2,04 st for all sample.

BIOSIGNALS 2008 - International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing

160

For the vocal extension, the maximum value was

609 Hz and the lower was 172 Hz or 10 st, with

average of 324,05 ± 56,97 Hz or 19,70 ± 3,09 st.

The maximum dynamic estension (MDE) varied

from 16 to 43 dB. The average value found in the

sample was 29,08 ± 7,09 dB.

As far as the area of the phonetogram is concerned,

the lower area found was 162,0 dB.st or 7,3 cm2

and the higher area was 654,5 dB.st or 29,5 cm2.

The average value for this parameter considering all

the sample was 404,8 ± 135,1 dB.st corresponding

to 18,2 ± 6,1 cm2.

3.2 The Software

The computer program developed, that managing the

database of phonetography generating the

phontogram, is compose by eight modules for

diferents tasks:

Menu – this module shows all available options

of the program.

Patient schedule – This module contains all

information about the patient and, allows to include

or make alterations in the schedule.

Phonetography Schedule – The user can

manipulate the data related to phonetography

(frequency values (st) and magnitudes (dB)).

Through these values, the program can evaluates the

Vocal Extension (VE), the Maximum Dynamic

Extension (MDE) and the graphic area. Also,

protocols of palate evaluation, speech, voice and

larynx have been included in this module.

Phonetogram Comparisons – in this module,

comparisons between 2 or more (maximum 6)

phonetograms can be done. Any phonetogram can

be choose by the user from database.

Figure 1: Comparison between phonetograms.

Data Filter – this module allows the user to select

any specific class of patients. For example, it is

possible to select all patients from 50 to 55 years old

or all patients with a specific larynx dysfunction.

Printer Configuration – this module runs a

Windows

routine to configure the system printers.

Software Information – this module shows all

information related to the program.

End of Program – this module asks for the end

procedure and, through the confirmation, closes the

database and concludes the process.

4 DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSION

4.1 Characteristics of Elderly Women

Voice

Certainly the advance of the age causes lower

performance of the biologic systems. Particularly,

the vocal behavior of women studied in this work

confirms the procedure of normal aging.

Considering the results, it can be observed that:

 Vocal extension was expanded for low

frequencies;

 Reduction of higher boundary of the vocal

extension;

 Decreasing of the number of tones of vocal

extension;

 Restriction of the boundaries of the minimum

magnitudes;

 Restriction of the boundaries of the maximum

magnitudes;

 Reduction of the maximum dynamic

extension;

 Reduction of the phonetogram area;

 Better control of the vocal magnitude at 262

Hz or 48 st, showing high vocal comfort at

this frequency.

4.2 Database Utilization

The easy use of the exam information of the

database has become a useful tool for the voice

specialist. The better flux information saves time

with schedule or data files in different places of the

hard disk.

The fast parameters evaluation, after the

frequency and magnitude data insertion, helps the

diagnosis. In many cases, the phonetogram area

evaluation can not be at the clinical practice because

demands a more complex mathematical formula.

The over plot facility makes the comparison

instantaneous. In this way, the comparison among

patients or even between pre and pos-therapy makes

PHONETOGRAPHY DATABASE FOR ELDERY WOMEN

161

the software an attractive tool. Also the visual

feedback can helps the patient to correct his vocal

gesture.

In conclusion, this software is a potential

auxiliary tool for voice specialists by presenting

quantitative values of the voice and allowing

recording and comparing the voice at distinct times

of the rehabilitation procedure.

REFERENCES

Boone, D. R., McFarlane, S. C., 1994. A Voz e a Terapia

Vocal. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, Tradução:

Sandra Costa, 300p, 5ª. Edição.

Damsté, P. H., 1970. The Phonetogram, Pract. Oto-

rhinolaryng, v. 32, p. 185-187.

Gramming, P., 1988. Non-organic dysphonia. II.

Phonetograms for normal and pathological voices,

Acta Otolaryngol, Oslo, v. 106, n. 5-6, p. 468-476.

Higgins M. B., Saxman J. H., 1991. Comparison of

selected phonatory behaviors of healthy aged and

young adults, Journal of Speech Res. v. 34, p. 1000-

1010.

Leden, H. V., 1977. Speech and hearing problems in the

geriatric patient, Journal of America Geriatric Society

25:422-426.

Schutte, H. K., Seidner, W., 1983. Recommendation by the

Union of European Phoniatricians (UEP):

standardizing voice area

measurement/phonetography, Folia Phoniatric (Basel)

v. 35, n. 6, p. 286-288.

Teles-Magalhães, L. C., Pegoraro-Krook, M. I., Pegoraro,

R., 2000. Study of the Elderly Females Voice by

Phonetography, Journal of Voice, New York, v. 14, n.

3, p. 310-321.

BIOSIGNALS 2008 - International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing

162