Abstract
The electrolarynx (EL) provides a valued means of verbal communication for people who have lost their larynx. Existing ELs have some drawbacks such as harsh, raucous, and unpleasant sound and the presence of background noise. This study presents an experimental analysis of two commerical ELs and describes the development and testing of an improved LAb-oratory Prototype ELectrolarynx (LAPEL) which more accurately simulates the sound of a natural larynx and has lower background noise. This natural sound is obtained by determining the frequency response function (FRF) of the tissue of the human neck and using this information to tailor the input signal to the EL by inverse filtering such that its output spectrum resembles that of the natural larynx. The result was subjectively judged to have a superior and more natural sound than existing electrolarynxes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bernstein, R.S. Determining a transfer function for the human throat to improve electrolaryngeal speech. Worcester, MA: Worcester Polytechnic Institute; 1989. Master's Thesis.
Bogert, B.P.; Healy, M.J.; Tukey, J.W. The frequency analysis of time series for echoes: Cepstrum, pseudoautocovarience, cross cepstrum and saphe cracking. In Rosenblatt, M., (ed.), Time series analysis. New York.
Gardner, W.H. Laryngectomy speech and rehabilitation. Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publishers; 1971.
Moharir, P.S. Deconvolution by cepstral transformation. J. Int. Electronics and Telecon Engrs. Vol 28 (10): 1982.
Pratner, R.J.; Swift, R.W. Manual of voice therapy, Boston: Little Brown and Co.; 1984.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Norton, R.L., Bernstein, R.S. Improved Laboratory prototype electrolarynx (LAPEL): Using inverse filtering of the frequency response function of the human throat. Ann Biomed Eng 21, 163–174 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367611
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367611