Voice pitch control using tactile feedback for the deafblind or the hearing impaired persons to assist their singing

Abstract

It is difficult for the deafblind or the hearing impaired to control their voice pitch because they cannot perceive it. In particular, when singing it is very difficult for them to control their voice pitch because they must maintain a stable tone. In this research, a voice pitch control system is developed to assist their singing by means of a tactile display. The tactile musical note display has 64 piezoelectric vibrators arranged in four rows (16 × 4 rows). A user rests the last joint of an index finger on the tactile display to receive tactile stimuli. The user can then control voice pitch using tactile feedback. In this study, data on the voice pitch of two subjects were measured to calculate interval deviation that was different from voice pitch to a target musical interval. The average data for the interval deviation of both subjects used in this study was 117.5 [cent]. The study result shows the deafblind users in this study can sing a song with as much accuracy as hearing children.