Voice Users Research Articles

Considerations and demands in the voice care of contemporary commercial singers in occupational health and safety aspects.

Singers, classified as "vocal performers" are at an increased risk of developing voice disorders. The area of contemporary commercial singing has not been studied as extensively as classical singing. Non-classical singing is generally considered detrimental to vocal health and thus the information on challenges contemporary commercial singers (CCS) pose to otolaryngologists and other healthcare professionals is scarce. The authors present an overview of contemporary commercial singing styles in comparison to classical singing, discuss the notion of non-classical style being harmful to vocal health, present major risk factors associated with developing voice disorders in contemporary commercial singers, and outline the diagnostic process of vocal health assessment in this group of occupational voice users. Given that contemporary commercial singers constitute a unique and vast group of elite vocal performers, the authors stress the importance of raising awareness among healthcare professionals of the fact that these patients require special considerations for voice evaluation and treatment in the occupational health and safety framework. Med Pr. 2022;73(1):33-41.

Predictors of Social Workers Attitudes Towards Evidence-based Practice: Self-determination and the Moderating Role of Organisational Learning

Abstract Social workers’ attitudes towards evidence-based practice (EBPA) are critical to evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation. However, current studies on EBPA have not yet established a theoretical framework based on the intrinsic motivations that underlie social workers’ attitudes. By applying self-determination theory, this study constructed an explanatory framework that focussed on intrinsic motivation and used organisational learning capability (OLC) as a moderating role. Furthermore, this study verified the constructed framework using data from the Chinese Social Workers Survey including 5,620 social workers from all provinces in China. The results showed that social workers’ professional autonomy, job satisfaction and professional competence had significantly positive impacts on their EBPA and that OLC played a moderating role in the relationship between social workers’ intrinsic motivations and their EBPA. These findings provide further insight into social workers’ EBPA. The practical implications include emphasising practitioners’ innate psychological needs, including the voice of service users and building learning organisations when improving social workers’ EBPA and implementing EBP.

Experience-based investigation and codesign of approaches to prevent and reduce Mental Health Act use (CO-PACT): a protocol

IntroductionThe Independent Review of the Mental Health Act (MHA) in England and Wales confirmed increasing levels of compulsory detentions, especially for racialised communities. This research aims to: (a) understand the...

The Effects on Secondary School Students of Applying Experiential Learning to the Conversational AI Learning Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum of artificial intelligence (AI) application for secondary schools. The learning objective of the curriculum was to allow students to learn the application of conversational AI on a block-based programming platform. Moreover, the empirical study actually implemented the curriculum in the formal learning of a secondary school for a period of six weeks. The study evaluated the learning performance of students who were taught with the cycle of experiential learning in one class, while also evaluating the learning performance of students who were taught with the conventional instruction, which was called the cycle of doing projects. Two factors, learning approach and gender, were taken into account. The results showed that females’ learning effectiveness was significantly better than that of males regardless of whether they used experiential learning or the conventional projects approach. Most of the males tended to be distracted from the conversational AI curriculum because they misbehaved during the conversational AI process. In particular, in their performance using the Voice User Interface with the conventional learning approach, the females outperformed the males significantly. The results of two-way ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between gender and learning approach on computational thinking concepts. Females with the conventional learning approach of doing projects had the best computational thinking concepts in comparison with the other groups.

Development of ROS2-TMS: new software platform for informationally structured environment

This study proposes a new software platform, called ROS2-TMS, for an informationally structured environment. An informationally structured environment is vital for developing intelligent service robots by embedding various sensors in the environment to enhance the sensing capability and intelligence of robots. Thus far, we have been developing a software platform, named ROS-TMS, for an informationally structured environment, which connects various sensors and robots using ROS architecture. In recent years, ROS2, a next-generation version of ROS, has been released. ROS2 has many advantages, such as enhanced security, QoS control, and support for various platforms. ROS2-TMS, a new version of ROS-TMS, is developed not only by porting existing modules in ROS-TMS, such as the control system for a communication robot, but also by adding useful functions utilizing new features in ROS2. For instance, we added a voice user interface to control robots and various devices in the environment, such as lights or a bed. In addition, we implemented a new task scheduler that provides a cancelation function to stop running tasks and improve the security of the platform.

Auditory perceptual assessment of voices: Examining perceptual ratings as a function of voice experience

Understanding voice usage is vital to our understanding of human interaction. What is known about the auditory perceptual evaluation of voices comes mainly from studies of voice professionals, who evaluate operatic/lyrical singing in specific contexts. This is surprising as recordings of singing voices from different musical styles are an omnipresent phenomenon, evoking reactions in listeners with various levels of expertise. Understanding how untrained listeners perceive and describe voices will open up new research possibilities and enhance vocal communication between listeners. Here three studies with a mixed-methods approach aimed at: (1) evaluating the ability of untrained listeners to describe voices, and (2) determining what auditory features were most salient in participants’ discrimination of voices. In an interview (N = 20) and a questionnaire study (N = 48), free voice descriptions by untrained listeners of 23 singing voices primarily from popular music were compared with terms used by voice professionals, revealing that participants were able to describe voices using vocal characteristics from essential categories indicating sound quality, pitch changes, articulation, and variability in expression. Nine items were derived and used in an online survey for the evaluation of six voices by trained and untrained listeners in a German (N = 216) and an English (N = 50) sample, revealing that neither language nor expertise affected the assessment of the singers. A discriminant analysis showed that roughness and tension were important features for voice discrimination. The measurement of vocal expression created in the current study will be informative for studying voice perception and evaluation more generally.

The impact of the physical and social embodiment of voice user interfaces on user distraction

The concept of calm technology envisions that interaction with technology should consume minimal resources and cause as few distractions as possible. The main goal of our study was to compare different forms of embodiment of Voice User Interfaces (VUI) in terms of how much they distract a user from a cognitive task. We used a voice-only system without physical embodiment (voice-only), a physical embodied system without anthropomorphic features (physical embodied), and a social embodied VUI with social cues such as eye movements (social embodied). In addition, we explored the relationship between design features of the VUI and perceived distraction, social presence, and perceived calm. Twenty-four participants carried out four different cognitive tasks with the three different VUI and one round of cognitive tasks without any VUI present. The cognitive tasks were chosen from a serious game (BrainTagger Suit) and included measurements of cognitive speed, working memory, visual memory, and process inhibition. Overall, results indicated the voice-only VUI caused the least distraction, especially for cognitive speed, while slightly showing impairment for visual memory. Social embodied VUI appeared to cause the most distraction across the four cognitive tasks with physical embodied VUI falling in between. Surprisingly, social presence was perceived as highest for the voice-only system which at the same time received the lowest scores for perceived calm. The advantages and disadvantages of each VUI are discussed.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Speech and Physiological Features in Explaining Emotional Responses during Voice User Interface Interactions

The rapid rise of voice user interface technology has changed the way users traditionally interact with interfaces, as tasks requiring gestural or visual attention are swapped by vocal commands. This shift has equally affected designers, required to disregard common digital interface guidelines in order to adapt to non-visual user interaction (No-UI) methods. The guidelines regarding voice user interface evaluation are far from the maturity of those surrounding digital interface evaluation, resulting in a lack of consensus and clarity. Thus, we sought to contribute to the emerging literature regarding voice user interface evaluation and, consequently, assist user experience professionals in their quest to create optimal vocal experiences. To do so, we compared the effectiveness of physiological features (e.g., phasic electrodermal activity amplitude) and speech features (e.g., spectral slope amplitude) to predict the intensity of users’ emotional responses during voice user interface interactions. We performed a within-subjects experiment in which the speech, facial expression, and electrodermal activity responses of 16 participants were recorded during voice user interface interactions that were purposely designed to elicit frustration and shock, resulting in 188 analyzed interactions. Our results suggest that the physiological measure of facial expression and its extracted feature, automatic facial expression-based valence, is most informative of emotional events lived through voice user interface interactions. By comparing the unique effectiveness of each feature, theoretical and practical contributions may be noted, as the results contribute to voice user interface literature while providing key insights favoring efficient voice user interface evaluation.

Vocal Health and Vocal Health Knowledge Among Occupational Voice Users in the Province of Quebec

Voice disorders are frequent among occupational voice users such as teachers. Although these disorders can have serious personal and professional consequences, they are not often recognized as occupational diseases and little attention is paid to their prevention. This study aimed to provide a portrait of the self-reported vocal health and vocal health knowledge of occupational voice users in Quebec, Canada, and to identify risk factors associated with voice disorder symptoms. We conducted an online survey targeting occupational voice users in the province of Quebec, Canada, with a focus on those involved in teaching or training. The final sample, after excluding incomplete surveys, included 808 respondents (665 women, M = 41.5 ± 10.4 years old). The survey responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicated that 9.8% of the respondents had a history of a diagnosed voice disorder and 68.8% of the respondents experienced at least one voice symptom on a regular basis. Ordinal logistic regressions revealed that several personal and environmental factors are associated with an increased risk of developing voice disorders symptoms: being a woman, suffering from a breathing disorder, allergies, acid reflux and/or hearing impairment, having less work experience, working with elementary school children and/or with continuous or speech noise in the background. Most of the respondents (94.6%) had never received information regarding voice disorders during their academic training and less than half of them (47.7%) knew which professionals can treat voice disorders. These findings highlight the need for formal vocal health education among both occupational voice users and their employers to improve prevention and treatment for voice disorders in an at-risk population.

Efficacy of the Accent Method of Voice Therapy in Professional Voice Users with Minimal Associated Pathological Lesions of the Vocal Folds.

Minimal associated pathological lesions (MAPLs) of the vocal folds are a group of benign disorders commonly related to phonotraumatic conditions and behaviors. Voice therapy (VT) can play a major role in readjusting these maladaptive behaviors and improve overall voice quality, thereby replace surgical intervention in some cases or act as a complementary treatment to enhance the ultimate therapeutic outcomes. This study aims to explore the short-term effect of the Accent method of VT on vocal subjective measures and acoustics in professional users with MAPLs, evaluate the responsiveness of each vocal fold lesion to the VT, and propose a simple model for providing VT to a sector of the population in great need of non-invasive management. This analytical cross-sectional included fifty professional voice users with different MAPLs were exposed to multidimensional voice assessments before and after receiving VT training in a tertiary care hospital. These assessments include GRBAS score, Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) and validated Arabic version Voice Handicap Index (VHI-30). This study showed variable positive effects of VT on the different types of MAPLs. Cysts had the highest level of responsiveness to VT in comparison to other lesions, followed by nodules, polyps, contact granuloma, and Reinke's edema. VT is a substantial solution for managing voice disorders. It should be considered in the management plan of the various types of MAPLs, even in Reinke's edema, which showed the minimum improvement.

Voice User Interface(VuI) Smart Office Door Application in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

Voice User Interface(VuI) Smart Office Door Application in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

Speed Dating with Voice User Interfaces: Understanding How Families Interact and Perceive Voice User Interfaces in a Group Setting.

As voice-user interfaces (VUIs), such as smart speakers like Amazon Alexa or social robots like Jibo, enter multi-user environments like our homes, it is critical to understand how group members perceive and interact with these devices. VUIs engage socially with users, leveraging multi-modal cues including speech, graphics, expressive sounds, and movement. The combination of these cues can affect how users perceive and interact with these devices. Through a set of three elicitation studies, we explore family interactions (N = 34 families, 92 participants, ages 4–69) with three commercially available VUIs with varying levels of social embodiment. The motivation for these three studies began when researchers noticed that families interacted differently with three agents when familiarizing themselves with the agents and, therefore, we sought to further investigate this trend in three subsequent studies designed as a conceptional replication study. Each study included three activities to examine participants’ interactions with and perceptions of the three VUIS in each study, including an agent exploration activity, perceived personality activity, and user experience ranking activity. Consistent for each study, participants interacted significantly more with an agent with a higher degree of social embodiment, i.e., a social robot such as Jibo, and perceived the agent as more trustworthy, having higher emotional engagement, and having higher companionship. There were some nuances in interaction and perception with different brands and types of smart speakers, i.e., Google Home versus Amazon Echo, or Amazon Show versus Amazon Echo Spot between the studies. In the last study, a behavioral analysis was conducted to investigate interactions between family members and with the VUIs, revealing that participants interacted more with the social robot and interacted more with their family members around the interactions with the social robot. This paper explores these findings and elaborates upon how these findings can direct future VUI development for group settings, especially in familial settings.

Practitioner perspectives on best practice in non-treatment factors that support the delivery of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for depression.

Accessible SummaryWhat is known about the subject? The practices of mental health nurses in the administration of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatments for depression in outpatient clinic are crucial for patient outcomesTo date, most research has focused directly on procedural aspects of treatment delivery with limited focus on the delivery of holistic care and treatment.There is a lack of best practice guidance based on the experiences of those involved in clinical delivery to inform and improve rTMS practices What this paper adds to existing knowledge? This study provides unique insights into service and personalized non‐treatment factors associated with rTMS delivery that may reduce stress and improve the experiences of rTMS patientsIt reviews and updates understanding of the factors that contribute to the delivery of effective rTMS. What are the implications for practice? The need to apply findings for the development of best practice guidanceFactors to improve practice include (a) rTMS machine demonstrations; (b) constructive, individualized, friendly, and therapeutic conversations; (c) a relaxing, comfortable, 'homely' physical environment; (d) long term supportive management; and (e) careful engagement of nursing and support staff.

Exploring the Experiences of Family Caregivers of Children With Special Health Care Needs to Inform the Design of Digital Health Systems: Formative Qualitative Study.

BackgroundFamily caregivers of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are responsible for managing and communicating information regarding their child’s health in their homes. Although family caregivers currently capture information through nondigital methods, digital health care applications are a promising solution for supporting the standardization of information management in complex home care across their child’s health care team. However, family caregivers continue to use paper-based methods where the adoption of digital health care tools is low. With the rise in home care for children with complex health care needs, it is important to understand the caregiving work domain to inform the design of technologies that support child safety in the home.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to explore how family caregivers navigate information management and communication in complex home care for CSHCN.MethodsThis research is part of a broader study to explore caregivers’ perspectives on integrating and designing digital health care tools for complex home care. The broader study included interviews and surveys about designing a voice user interface to support home care. This formative study explored semistructured interview data with family caregivers of CSHCN about their home care situations. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the information management and communication processes.ResultsWe collected data from 7 family caregivers in North America and identified 5 themes. First, family caregivers were continuously learning to provide care. They were also updating the caregiver team on their child’s status and teaching caregivers about their care situation. As caregiving teams grew, they found themselves working on communicating with their children’s educators. Beyond the scope of managing their child’s health information, family caregivers also navigated bureaucratic processes for their child’s home care.ConclusionsFamily caregivers’ experiences of caring for CSHCN differ contextually and evolve as their child’s condition changes and they grow toward adulthood. Family caregivers recorded information using paper-based tools, which did not sufficiently support information management. They also experienced significant pressure in summarizing information and coordinating 2-way communication about the details of their child’s health with caregivers. The design of digital health care systems and tools for complex home care may improve care coordination if they provide an intuitive method for information interaction and significant utility by delivering situation-specific insights and adapting to unique and dynamic home care environments. Although these findings provide a foundational understanding, there is an opportunity for further research to generalize the findings.

A Corpus-based Study on the Usage of Passive Voice in English Political Speeches on the Guidance of Text Typology

Due to cultural and other differences, English significantly differs from other languages in many ways, and the usage of passive voice is one of these differences. According to the theory of text typology proposed by Peter Newmark (1988), all texts can be divided into informative text, expressive text and appealing text. As we all know, political speech plays a vital role in English-speaking countries such as Britain and the United States. Therefore, this thesis, based on previous studies, gives special attention to the usage of passive voice in different types of texts, especially in political speeches under the guidance of text typology, and further finds that the proportion of passive voice adopted in political speeches ranges from 2% to 20% and averagely accounts for 10% of the text, and most passive sentences in political speeches are used to state facts and emphasize opinions with American inaugural addresses from 1961 to 2021 as self-built corpus and quantitative analysis as its method. It is hoped that this study can provide some references for translators who are engaged in political speech translations.

Development of an Embodied Avatar-Agent Communication System to Support Communication Education for Clinical Engineer Students

Currently, there are few opportunities to develop communication skills in clinical engineering training schools in Japan. Therefore, we developed a system to interact with an agent equipped with a rule-based chatbot, which was created with reference to the objective clinical competence examination (OSCE). In a previous study, a virtual hospital room system was developed for nursing students to interact with the rule-based chatbot agent. In this study, we added an avatar that reflects the user's embodied movements to the system. In the virtual space created, the agent playing the patient, equipped with a rule-based chatbot, responds to the user's voice, and the avatar uses a webcam to project the user's body movements in real time. This system allows for repetitive learning, which is difficult with face-to-face training. In addition, the avatar, which reflects the user's body movements, exists in the same space as the agent, allowing the user to view his or her own body movements objectively.

Experiences of safe and healthy walking and cycling in urban areas: The benefits of mobile methods for citizen-adapted urban planning

Walking and cycling promotes physical activity and mental health. In many European cities, walking and cycling has increased and is a key part of transport planning. However, many cyclists and pedestrians still perceive themselves as neglected road users, face air pollutants, noise and fear travel injuries. Children are in particular vulnerable. The aim of this study is to present mobile interview methods (“go-/ride-alongs”) for promoting safe and healthy cycling/walking in urban transport planning. We present two studies from Berlin (a) and Leipzig (b), Germany. We conducted go-/ride-alongs with cyclists and pedestrians on (a) their commute home from work and (b) children on their way to school. We accompanied them and investigated how they experience commuting, the environment and discover ad-hoc situative behavior. We discuss our findings and transfer our knowledge gained through the mobile method into transport planning strategies. Safety is most often mentioned by all interviewees. Our studies show a high importance of in-situ/ad-hoc experiences for travel behavior, which can be examined with an interviewer accompanying. Our methods encourage interviewees to describe past experiences, how they shape their behavior or factors supporting/hindering active travel. We consider mobile methods important for exploring mobility and successful when complemented by participatory methods and instruments (e.g., participatory mapping, smartphone-apps, group walks). Therefore, the voice of vulnerable road users can be strengthened. In a next step individual local experiences and community knowledge could be incorporated in urban transport planning to improve active travel.

Developing Insights From the Collective Voice of Target Users in Twitter

Developing Insights From the Collective Voice of Target Users in Twitter

An extensive overview on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) application

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the area of intersection between psychology and the social sciences. HCI assists companies in creating technological products accessible to individuals with disabilities. In addition, HCI helps user experience (UX) designers and other professionals understand each user's requirements relating to technology. This paper aims to give an overview of the concept of Human-Computer Interaction. The overview comprises basic definitions, frameworks, goals, and types of HCI. It also includes a voice user interface and sociophonetics in HCI. Finally, Norman's model of interaction and future scope are discussed.

Voice Versus Keyboard and Mouse for Text Creation on Arabic User Interfaces

Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are increasingly popular owing to improvements in automatic speech recognition. However, the understanding of user interaction with VUIs, particularly Arabic VUIs, remains limited. Hence, this research compared user performance, learnability, and satisfaction when using voice and keyboard-and-mouse input modalities for text creation on Arabic user interfaces. A Voice-enabled Email Interface (VEI) and a Traditional Email Interface (TEI) were developed. Forty participants attempted pre-prepared and self-generated message creation tasks using voice on the VEI, and the keyboard-and-mouse modal on the TEI. The results showed that participants were faster (by 1.76 to 2.67 minutes) in pre-prepared message creation using voice than using the keyboard and mouse. Participants were also faster (by 1.72 to 2.49 minutes) in self-generated message creation using voice than using the keyboard and mouse. Although the learning curves were more efficient with the VEI, more participants were satisfied with the TEI. With the VEI, participants reported problems, such as misrecognitions and misspellings, but were satisfied about the visibility of possible executable commands and about the overall accuracy of voice recognition.