Accuracy of Voice Pitch Control in Singing Using Tactile Voice Pitch Feedback Display

Abstract

Deaf blind and hearing impaired persons cannot perceive their own voice pitch and thus find it difficult to control. While singing, the voice pitch needs to be controlled to maintain a stable tone. Hence, a voice pitch control system was developed to assist such persons in singing. In a previous study, two deaf blind subjects using this system could control their voice pitch with comparable accuracy as hearing children while singing "Frog Round," even though successive notes in the song' melody were adjacent in the musical scale. Herein, the pitch control accuracy is investigated for "Frog Round," and song in which successive notes are separated by wider intervals in the musical scale, for comparison. No tendency is found in the interval deviations of the pitch for different musical notes or changes in the musical interval. The effect of changes in melody on accuracy will be investigated in a future work.