Frequency Response of the Neck During Production of Selected Speech Sounds

Salt Lake Community College Student Center

During speech the vocal folds vibrate resulting in audible sounds that are transmitted through the vocal tract as well as vibrations that are transmitted through the body tissue to the skin surface. These skin surface vibrations can be detected by contact microphones and used to transmit speech. The objective of this study was to characterize the frequency content of speech signals at a concentrated are on the neck. Signals were recorded using accelerometers attached to 12 locations on the neck of seven subjects as well as a microphone to record audible speech. The subjects produced several isolated phonemes. The power spectral densities (PSDs) of the phonemes were used to determine a quality ranking for each location and sound.