Actual Voice Research Articles

Virtual Trauma: Prospects for Automediality

Unlike some current discourse on automediality, this essay eschews most of the analysis concerning the adoption or modification of avatars to deliberately enhance, extend or distort the self. Rather than the automedial enabling of alternative, virtual selves modified by playful, confronting or disarming avatars we concentrate instead on emerging efforts to present the self in hyper-realist, interactive modes...

Get Published, Now: An Introduction to Qualitative Education Research (QER)

This article is the unanticipated product of a doctoral student’s first research endeavor, originally designed to investigate the impact of a change in one school district’s arts education policy. What began as a qualitative pilot study, grounded in stakeholder interviews, became a jarring disruption of the researcher’s assumptions about the implications of institutional review board (IRB)–approved, social-justice-oriented research. This project reveals concerns about the assumed beneficence of educational research. The poem’s full “text” includes giving it actual voice through performance. This vox autobiographia poetic inquiry addresses areas of serious ethical concern for graduate students training to become professional researchers and their academic mentors.

‘That proves my point’: How mediums reconstrue disconfirmation in medium–sitter interactions

Previous research has examined how the talk of mediums attends to the epistemological status of their readings. Such work has identified that mediums frequently use question-framed propositions that are typically confirmed by the sitter, thereby conferring epistemological status on the medium. This study seeks to investigate what happens when the sitter disconfirms the propositions of the medium. The study focuses on the ways in which such disconfirmation can be responded to such that it is reconstrued as evidence of the psychic nature of the medium's reading. Televised demonstrations of psychic readings involving British and US mediums and their sitters are analysed. The results suggest that mediums rework disconfirmation as proof in several ways: first, by emphasizing the different access that sitter and medium have to knowledge (e.g., about the future); second, as evidence that the medium has access to the actual voice of the deceased (and may therefore mishear what the deceased has said to them); and third, as revealing an important truth that has hitherto been concealed from the sitter. The implications of these findings are considered for cases where speakers bring different and potentially competing, epistemological resources to an interaction.

A new grid frequency estimation algorithm based on the fractional FFT for IoT nodes time stamps

In the era of Internet of Things, so many wireless networked sensors and smart devices are embedded in infrastructures. For so many different wireless sensors, accurate times tamps are important to interpret data. In general, time stamps can be obtained by atomic clocks and GPS. The paper used the natural timestamping which is based on the grid frequency estimation. For grid frequency estimation, the paper proposed maximum merging model in fractional cepstrum domain for dealing with complicated power grid channel interference in China grids with data measured by the wireless sensor networks. The proposed method outperforms existing power grid frequency measurement algorithms, because the existing do not consider the facts that harmonic is time-varying and the pass band of some recording devices do not cover grid frequency. Through analyzing the results of analog frequency measurement, actual voice frequency measurement and recording audio tampering detection, this method is better than the one Bykhovsky proposed. It can be preferably applied to the grid frequency measurement, recording location recognition and audio tamper detection.

SSLSS: Semi-Supervised Learning-Based Steganalysis Scheme for Instant Voice Communication Network

In the field of instant voice communication (IVC) steganalysis, the traditional detecting methods are mainly based on supervised learning scheme that results in a large amount of complex manual pre-processing training data set. The accuracy of supervised learning scheme can be easily destroyed by the difference between the distribution of training and testing data set in the actual voice application. The disadvantages of this method are obvious in the big data environment. In this regard, this paper initially introduced a novel semi-supervised hybrid learning detection model for the IVC network. This provides the progress of manually annotating training data set that has been removed to solve the problem of complex operations and poor applicability in classifier. Therefore, this model has a simpler structure and more extensive detection scopes with the huge amount of data. Then, we designed a multi-criteria fusion module that can automatically generate the pseudo-label set from testing data set to train the classifier model. Thus, our scheme will not be affected by the distribution shift. In this module, we defined the confidence level and representative level to judge the feature vector for pseudo-labeled. Through the experimental analysis, the low bit-rate speech coding steganalysis (G.723.1/G.729/iLBC speech codecs) is analyzed on quantization index modulation that are common codecs in the IVC network. The results show that our method has higher accuracy than un-supervised method. The proposed approach is less affected and more accurate than the previous supervised methods through the distribution of different training and testing data sets. The experiments also proved that our method can be deployed in the different kinds of the IVC codec by considering huge amount of data set.

Hadza Men With Lower Voice Pitch Have a Better Hunting Reputation.

Previous research with hunter-gatherers has found that women perceive men with voices manipulated to be lower in pitch to be better hunters, and men perceive women with lower pitch to be better gatherers. Here, we test if actual voice pitch is associated with hunting and gathering reputations in men and women, respectively. We find that voice pitch does relate to foraging reputation in men, but not in women, with better hunters having a lower voice pitch. In addition, we find that the previously documented relationship between voice pitch and reproductive success no longer holds when controlling for hunting reputation, but hunting reputation remains a significant predictor of reproductive success when controlling for voice pitch. This raises the possibility that voice pitch is being selected for in hunter-gatherers because of the relationship between voice pitch and hunting reputation.

Top-Down Modulation of Auditory-Motor Integration during Speech Production: The Role of Working Memory.

Although working memory (WM) is considered as an emergent property of the speech perception and production systems, the role of WM in sensorimotor integration during speech processing is largely unknown. We conducted two event-related potential experiments with female and male young adults to investigate the contribution of WM to the neurobehavioural processing of altered auditory feedback during vocal production. A delayed match-to-sample task that required participants to indicate whether the pitch feedback perturbations they heard during vocalizations in test and sample sequences matched, elicited significantly larger vocal compensations, larger N1 responses in the left middle and superior temporal gyrus, and smaller P2 responses in the left middle and superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, somatosensory cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, and insula compared with a control task that did not require memory retention of the sequence of pitch perturbations. On the other hand, participants who underwent extensive auditory WM training produced suppressed vocal compensations that were correlated with improved auditory WM capacity, and enhanced P2 responses in the left middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, right inferior frontal gyrus, and insula that were predicted by pretraining auditory WM capacity. These findings indicate that WM can enhance the perception of voice auditory feedback errors while inhibiting compensatory vocal behavior to prevent voice control from being excessively influenced by auditory feedback. This study provides the first evidence that auditory-motor integration for voice control can be modulated by top-down influences arising from WM, rather than modulated exclusively by bottom-up and automatic processes.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT One outstanding question that remains unsolved in speech motor control is how the mismatch between predicted and actual voice auditory feedback is detected and corrected. The present study provides two lines of converging evidence, for the first time, that working memory cannot only enhance the perception of vocal feedback errors but also exert inhibitory control over vocal motor behavior. These findings represent a major advance in our understanding of the top-down modulatory mechanisms that support the detection and correction of prediction-feedback mismatches during sensorimotor control of speech production driven by working memory. Rather than being an exclusively bottom-up and automatic process, auditory-motor integration for voice control can be modulated by top-down influences arising from working memory.

Promiscuous: Portnoy’s Complaint and Our Doomed Pursuit of Happiness

Promiscuous: Portnoy’s Complaint and Our Doomed Pursuit of Happiness

Epidemiology of Voice Disorders in Latvian School Teachers

The prevalence of voice disorders in the teacher population in Latvia has not been studied so far and this is the first epidemiological study whose goal is to investigate the prevalence of voice disorders and their risk factors in this professional group. A wide cross-sectional study using stratified sampling methodology was implemented in the general education schools of Latvia. The self-administered voice risk factor questionnaire and the Voice Handicap Index were completed by 522 teachers. Two teachers groups were formed: the voice disorders group which included 235 teachers with actual voice problems or problems during the last 9 months; and the control group which included 174 teachers without voice disorders. Sixty-six percent of teachers gave a positive answer to the following question: Have you ever had problems with your voice? Voice problems are more often found in female than male teachers (68.2% vs 48.8%). Music teachers suffer from voice disorders more often than teachers of other subjects. Eighty-two percent of teachers first faced voice problems in their professional carrier. The odds of voice disorders increase if the following risk factors exist: extra vocal load, shouting, throat clearing, neglecting of personal health, background noise, chronic illnesses of the upper respiratory tract, allergy, job dissatisfaction, and regular stress in the working place. The study findings indicated a high risk of voice disorders among Latvian teachers. The study confirmed data concerning the multifactorial etiology of voice disorders.

Roland Barthes’ grain of the voice: from mélodie to media

This paper examines the resonance of Barthes’ essays on the human voice in works such as ‘The Grain of the Voice’ in the context of Barthes’ own writings on mélodie and the body, as well as in the more recent and broader sphere of media and ‘sound studies’, a field devoted to investigating the production, circulation, and socio-cultural significance of sounds and listening practices. Recordings of Barthes’ actual voice as heard by those who attended his Collège de France courses and those who listen to digital audio files of his lectures online amplify and complicate his own theory on the ‘grain of the voice’.

Frontline employees’ nonverbal cues in service encounters: a double-edged sword

In this research, we look at the similarity between frontline service employees’ nonverbal or expressive behavior and customers’ receptivity of nonverbally expressed emotions (i.e., expressive similarity). Supported by evidence from four studies, we demonstrate that expressive similarity between customers and frontline service employees yields positive outcomes for both the employee and the organization under successful service delivery, but it can paradoxically backfire on the organization in service failures. In successful service encounters, higher expressive similarity between customers and employees enhances consumer satisfaction and promotes more direct compliments and positive word of mouth. In contrast, higher expressive similarity increases customer dissatisfaction and intent to engage in negative word of mouth, but it reduces customers’ inclination to lodge direct complaints following a service failure (Study 1). Studies 2 and 3, both field experiments, provide external validation of the key findings on customer satisfaction and voice intentions (Study 2) as well as actual voice behavior (Study 3). Building on these findings, Study 4 reveals that while customer-perceived rapport and trait impressions of the service employee mediate the observed effects of expressive similarity on satisfaction, only rapport significantly explains the effects of expressive similarity on voice intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications, along with suggestions for future research, conclude the paper.

Sensory Processing: Advances in Understanding Structure and Function of Pitch-Shifted Auditory Feedback in Voice Control

The pitch-shift paradigm has become a widely used method for studying the role of voice pitch auditory feedback in voice control. This paradigm introduces small, brief pitch shifts in voice auditory feedback to vocalizing subjects. The perturbations trigger a reflexive mechanism that counteracts the change in pitch. The underlying mechanisms of the vocal responses are thought to reflect a negative feedback control system that is similar to constructs developed to explain other forms of motor control. Another use of this technique requires subjects to voluntarily change the pitch of their voice when they hear a pitch shift stimulus. Under these conditions, short latency responses are produced that change voice pitch to match that of the stimulus. The pitch-shift technique has been used with magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, and has shown that at vocal onset there is normally a suppression of neural activity related to vocalization. However, if a pitch-shift is also presented at voice onset, there is a cancellation of this suppression, which has been interpreted to mean that one way in which a person distinguishes self-vocalization from vocalization of others is by a comparison of the intended voice and the actual voice. Studies of the pitch shift reflex in the fMRI environment show that the superior temporal gyrus (STG) plays an important role in the process of controlling voice F0 based on auditory feedback. Additional studies using fMRI for effective connectivity modeling show that the left and right STG play critical roles in correcting for an error in voice production. While both the left and right STG are involved in this process, a feedback loop develops between left and right STG during perturbations, in which the left to right connection becomes stronger, and a new negative right to left connection emerges along with the emergence of other feedback loops within the cortical network tested.

Voice and Culture: A Prospect Theory Approach

ABSTRACTThe present study examines the congruence of individuals' minimum preferred amounts of voice with the prospect theory value function across nine countries. Accounting for previously ignored minimum preferred amounts of voice and actual voice amounts integral to testing the steepness of gain and loss functions explicated in prospect theory, we use curve fitting to show that ratings of procedural justice fit prospect theory's value function specifically. Further, we investigate the form of this function across nine countries that range in power distance. Results suggest that the form of the value function is congruent with prospect theory, showing an S‐shaped curve that is steeper in the loss than in the gain domain. Further, this pattern is similar across countries. Theoretical and practical implications of these results for both decision making and organizational justice are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Outcomes of Arytenoid Adduction under Laryngeal Mask Mechanical Ventilation for Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis

Objectives: Arytenoid adduction surgery for the unilateral vocal fold paralysis is usually carried out under intravenous sedation because improvement of the voice evaluable during surgery. In patients preferred for surgery under general anesthesia due to their physical or mental condition, we selected general anesthesia using laryngeal mask mechanical ventilation, and we confirmed the location of the vocal fold during surgery using a flexible fiberscope. To evaluate this procedure of anesthesia, we compared outcomes of the adduction surgeries between intravenous sedation and general anesthesia. Methods: From September 2012 to August 2013, adduction surgeries were performed in 17 cases under intravenous sedation with spontaneous breathing, and in 5 cases under general anesthesia using laryngeal mask. Pre- and postoperative maximum phonation time (MPT), mean flow ratio (MFR), and voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10) were evaluated. Results: MPT, MFR, and VHI-10 were remarkably improved in all adduction surgery with intravenous sedation cases. In the general anesthesia group, improvement of the factors was also recognized in most cases, but not in all. Conclusions: Adduction surgery under general anesthesia with laryngeal mechanical mask ventilation is a useful tool for the unilateral vocal fold palsy patient. However, even though we checked the position of the vocal fold in surgery, the efficacy of the surgery is not guaranteed in a few cases because the actual voice cannot be evaluated in general anesthesia.

Having “a say”: forms of voice in Australian call centres

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to bridge a gap in the call centre literature by considering how individual employees perceive their level of voice over workplace decisions. The inclusion of direct voice mechanisms is noteworthy as these are forms that have received much less attentionvis-à-visindirect voice.Design/methodology/approach– A mixed-method approach was utilized comprising focus groups and questionnaires from over 350 respondents in nine call centres in Australia.Findings– The most pervasive type of employee voice found across all call centres was through direct channels. The team leader was viewed as especially important in terms of employees asserting that they have some influence over workplace issues. There was evidence that the greater the number of voice mechanisms available the higher the perception of autonomy and influence over work tasks, pace of work and quality standards.Research limitations/implications– Greater consideration is needed in the voice literature at how employees perceive different mechanisms and how institutionalized and legitimate these are within organizations. There appeared to be minimal positive feedback on how union's influenced the workplace, even in unionized environments. We call for further research on how union representation and direct voice channels work together and the impact on key individual and organizational outcomes.Practical implications– Employees may view the provision of multiple voice channels more favourable than any particular mechanism. The role of the team leader appears especially crucial in positive perceptions of employee voice.Originality/value– Call centre environments may be changing for the better and effective team leader/employee relationships appear to be at the heart of these changes. The paper demonstrates that direct voice mechanisms dominate the case study sites and that employee perceptions of “being heard” are as important as the actual voice mechanisms.

Species Counterpoint with a Moveable Tenor (SCAMET): Comparing Species Counterpoint and Polyphonic Music Without aCantus Firmus

[1] This article applies a modified species-counterpoint model, entitled species counterpoint with a moveable tenor, or SCAMET, to compare species counterpoint and (as it is so often called in the classroom). The aim of the model is to show how species counterpoint exercises might be compared with works of polyphonic music without a species cantus firmus. To my knowledge, this has not been undertaken in a systematic manner suitable for the modern classroom (although near the end of the article, I shall discuss some noteworthy instances in which the question has been raised). While something like SCAMET appears in the work of other scholars (notably Henry Martin's Counterpoint: A Species Approach Based on Schenker's Counterpoint [2005] and Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style [1999, 2008]) under the rubrics of mixed values, mixed or free nowhere is a comparison between species counterpoint and actual musical scores presented with the clarity of this model.[2] Species counterpoint is normally used as a vehicle for teaching basic voice leading in the form of contrapuntal exercises. The principal limitation forbidding its application to actual music lies in the cantus firmus part, a slow-moving melody against which counterpointed voice parts are placed in regulated measure (one counterpoint note against one cantus note, two counterpoint against one cantus note, etc.). While the slow moving cantus is excellent for teaching basic species counterpoint, a slow cantus-like melody confined to one voice part is a rarity in real music. This complicates comparison between actual musical scores and species-contrapuntal exercises.[3] The model described here remedies this problem. In lieu of a slow-moving cantus firmus or melody, it proposes a succession of individual notes of varying durations. These hard are not necessarily confined to one voice part, but instead can move between parts (for example, from the actual tenor voice for a whole note, to the altus for a half note, and then the bassus for a quarter, etc.). In essence, the hard note is the note of longest duration at any given moment, in any voice. Counterpointed voices are led against the hard note in corresponding duration (in the measure of the species as appropriate) and in any voice part. In applying SCAMET to real music, then, the student observes the voice-leading relationships of the moveable hard note to the in counterpointed voices as these might compare with a species-counterpoint exercise.[4] The voice-leading rules observed in this article are taken largely from Salzer and Schachter's esteemed Counterpoint in Composition (1969), and the rules therein for two-part species counterpoint: first species (pages 12-20), second species (39-46), third species (56-65), fourth species (78-86), and fifth species (101-106). I have drawn on this text in counterpoint classes, but any other clear articulation of species rules (such as Henry Martin's, noted above) could take the place of Salzer and Schachter's text. Regardless of text or particular rules, the SCAMET method is intended to complement an undergraduate course in species counterpoint. Advanced work along the lines of SCAMET but oriented toward analysis would require a more subtle and exhaustive framework of contrapuntal rules and guidelines along lines set forth, for example, by Peter Schubert (2008).[5] The aim of this article-to show how species counterpoint might compare with instances of real music-is framed by the desire to bring musical scores into the species-counterpoint classroom. To this end, I draw upon modern performance editions readily available to students (and where necessary note editorial decisions or characteristics of the original score notation that might have an effect upon SCAMET decisions). I apply the SCAMET model to excerpts of works taken from Lasso, Isaac, Ockeghem, Purcell, Gesualdo, J. …

VoxGrid: a mobile voice verification system

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce VoxGrid, a mobile voice verification system intended for improving the security of the username‐password authentication scheme.Design/methodology/approachThe system incorporates text‐dependant speaker verification via mobile devices that provides for a three‐factor authentication scheme for granting authorised access to certain websites or applications. The same speech recognition engine used by Google Voice Search is utilised to provide voice‐to‐text feature. All verification tasks are performed on a centralised server to minimise computing requirements on mobile platforms where feature extractions is executed using Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients. The resulting features are transmitted to the server instead of raw voice data to reduce network load. Actual voice verification takes place in the central server using Vector Quantisation.FindingsThe initial results have indicated that VoxGrid is capable of providing an additional level of security on user authentications at a low cost and without using extra security tokens other than one's voice with a good enough performance given the limited resources available during testing.Originality/valuePast speaker verification experiments have been conducted but we see that this is the first time it is done on mobile devices with a client‐server architecture using K‐Means Clustering and Vector Quantisation. Future improvements on performance and testing could result in a more secure mobile computing environment.

An Analysis of the Hanyu Pinyin Errors of the Indonesian Students

Pinyin is a valuable tool for students who learn Chinese as a second language. Through years of teaching practice and observation, some errors in Indonesian students’ understanding and using in Pinyin were summed up, includingthe phonetic alphabet equated to the actual voice entirely caused the mispronunciation; lack of understanding in some special provisions in Pinyin caused the confusion of vowels “u” and “ü”; improperly placement of tone marks; did not understand the pinyin word-segmentation resulting in memory and understanding of Chinese based on Chinese characters instead of the word as a unit. These errors disturbed the accuracy of Chinese students’ pronunciation, caused problems in Chinese vocabulary understanding. It is very important for Indonesian Chinese language learners to lay a solid foundation of Pinyin and develop good habits in the use of Pinyin.

Signal Processing Approach for Music Synthesis Using Bird's Sounds

Music is generated by a sequence of musical notes which are arranged in a particular manner. Indian classical music contains 12 notes in an octave. Similarly bird's sound also contains such notes which are responsible for the sensible voice of birds. So we can generate musical tone using bird's sounds. For generating music using bird's sounds we have to extract these 12 notes. For extracting these notes from bird's sounds and arranging these notes in a particular Raga give us a musical tone. These notes would be sound of different birds. Selection of notes from bird's sounds is done using different signal processing approaches. Using Ant Colony Optimization we can select best 12 sounds as notes whose dominant normalized frequencies give minimum mean square error with already existing normalized frequencies (reference normalized frequency) of Indian classical music. In this paper these notes in form of bird's sounds have been determined using different signal processing approaches and tried to implement with some Raga. Benefit of this selection is to generate musical tones with actual bird's voice to feel different taste in music composition with already available musical instruments and bird sounds. The experiments are performed using the original sound of different perching birds.

The role of the primary auditory cortex in the neural mechanism of auditory verbal hallucinations

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are a subjective experience of “hearing voices” in the absence of corresponding physical stimulation in the environment. The most remarkable feature of AVHs is their perceptual quality, that is, the experience is subjectively often as vivid as hearing an actual voice, as opposed to mental imagery or auditory memories. This has lead to propositions that dysregulation of the primary auditory cortex (PAC) is a crucial component of the neural mechanism of AVHs. One possible mechanism by which the PAC could give rise to the experience of hallucinations is aberrant patterns of neuronal activity whereby the PAC is overly sensitive to activation arising from internal processing, while being less responsive to external stimulation. In this paper, we review recent research relevant to the role of the PAC in the generation of AVHs. We present new data from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, examining the responsivity of the left and right PAC to parametrical modulation of the intensity of auditory verbal stimulation, and corresponding attentional top-down control in non-clinical participants with AVHs, and non-clinical participants with no AVHs. Non-clinical hallucinators showed reduced activation to speech sounds but intact attentional modulation in the right PAC. Additionally, we present data from a group of schizophrenia patients with AVHs, who do not show attentional modulation of left or right PAC. The context-appropriate modulation of the PAC may be a protective factor in non-clinical hallucinations.