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Full Length Papers

Performance of wavelet analysis and neural networks for pathological voices identification

, , &
Pages 1129-1140
Received 06 Jul 2010
Accepted 12 Apr 2011
Published online: 24 Aug 2011
 

Within the medical environment, diverse techniques exist to assess the state of the voice of the patient. The inspection technique is inconvenient for a number of reasons, such as its high cost, the duration of the inspection, and above all, the fact that it is an invasive technique. This study focuses on a robust, rapid and accurate system for automatic identification of pathological voices. This system employs non-invasive, non-expensive and fully automated method based on hybrid approach: wavelet transform analysis and neural network classifier. First, we present the results obtained in our previous study while using classic feature parameters. These results allow visual identification of pathological voices. Second, quantified parameters drifting from the wavelet analysis are proposed to characterise the speech sample. On the other hand, a system of multilayer neural networks (MNNs) has been developed which carries out the automatic detection of pathological voices. The developed method was evaluated using voice database composed of recorded voice samples (continuous speech) from normophonic or dysphonic speakers. The dysphonic speakers were patients of a National Hospital ‘RABTA’ of Tunis Tunisia and a University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. Experimental results indicate a success rate ranging between 75% and 98.61% for discrimination of normal and pathological voices using the proposed parameters and neural network classifier. We also compared the average classification rate based on the MNN, Gaussian mixture model and support vector machines.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments. The authors also acknowledge the assistance of the ENT department of a RABTA Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia in data collection. We express our appreciation for Prof. Francis Grenez and for all members of ‘Signals and Waves’ Laboratory (LIST), Faculty of Engineering, Free University of Brussels for their invaluable collaborations and for the availability of the voice database.

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