Connection between body condition and speech parameters - especially in the case of hypoxia
Gábor József Kiss, Dávid Sztahó, Klára Vicsi, Adrianos Golemis · 2014
This paper deals with a special area of cognitive infocommunications, in which the goal is to determine the cognitive state of subjects through the measurement of speech parameters. Human speech is a complex function that consists of cognitive and organic relationships. The state of the brain regions responsible for producing speech has a great influence on speech ability, and this is detected by measuring the acoustic parameters of the generated voice signal. Improper functioning of these organs results in noticeable differences in speech. In the normal body condition the articulation movement between two speech sounds and the associated spectral change occur at a specific rate. If the speech is superficial, for some reason the transition between the sounds - the rate of the change - is slow compared to normal articulated speech. The transient parts can be diminished or absent. In this paper, we investigate the ratio of the duration of the transient parts and the duration of the whole speech expression of the crew members during their stay at Concordia Research station, in Antarctica. The evaluation of the data shows that the transient-speech segment ratio decreased after the crew members arrived at the research station. The restoration of normal conditions lasted for weeks, but the recovery time is strongly person dependent. Further investigation is necessary, but the results of the paper can be seen as a new CogInfoCom channel that can be used to make an earlier diagnosis of certain health problems.