Multiple vibrating plates of sound suppression mask for minimizing tics impulse acoustics of Tourette’s patients

Abstract

Tourette syndrome is an inherited neurophysiologic disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Between 0.4% and 3.8% of children ages 5–18 may have Tourette's; the prevalence of other tic disorders in school-age children is higher, with the more common tics of eye blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements. This paper is mainly focused on a novel multilayer vibrating plate design in conjunction with the 3D scanned data/3D printed fabrication process for the customized face features. The field test results revealed an effective sound suppression capability in terms of the amplitude of sound pressure can be fulfilled in the range of 69–99% for the frequency range 100–1800Hz. The sound suppression performance of customized mask is shown to be superior to that of any commercially available mask in the market. Therefore, the design goal is successfully accomplished to design and develop an alternative low-cost, damped vibrating plate structure for the patients of Tourette's syndrome.