Goldstein Ehab A, Heaton James T, Kobler James B, Stanley Garrett B, Hillman Robert E
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02143, USA.
IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2004 Feb;51(2):325-32. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2003.820373.
The electrolarynx (EL) voice prosthesis is widely used, but suffers from the inconvenience of requiring manual control. Therefore, a hands-free EL triggered by neck muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity was developed (EMG-EL). Signal processing circuitry in a belt-mounted control unit transforms EMG activity into control signals for initiation and termination of voicing. These control signals are then fed to an EL held against the neck by an inconspicuous brace. Performance of the EMG-EL was evaluated by comparison to normal voice, manual EL voice, and tracheo-esophageal (TE) voice in a series of reaction time experiments in seven normal subjects and one laryngectomy patient. The normal subjects produced voice initiation with the EMG-EL that was as fast as both normal voice and the manual EL. The laryngectomy subject produced voice initiation that was slower than with the manual EL, but faster than with TE voice. Voice termination with the EMG-EL was slower than normal voice for the normal subjects, but not significantly different than with the manual EL. The laryngectomy subject produced voice termination with the EMG-EL that was slower than with TE or manual EL. The EMG-EL threshold was set at 10% of the range of vocal-related EMG activity above baseline. Simulations of EMG-EL behavior showed that the 10% threshold was not significantly different from the optimum threshold produced through the process of error minimization. The EMG-EL voice reaction time appears to be adequate for use in a day-to-day conversation.
电子喉（EL）语音假体被广泛使用，但存在需要手动控制的不便之处。因此，开发了一种由颈部肌肉肌电图（EMG）活动触发的免提电子喉（EMG-EL）。安装在腰带上的控制单元中的信号处理电路将EMG活动转换为用于发声起始和终止的控制信号。然后，这些控制信号被馈送到由一个不显眼的支架固定在颈部的电子喉。在对7名正常受试者和1名喉切除患者进行的一系列反应时间实验中，通过与正常语音、手动电子喉语音和气管食管（TE）语音进行比较，评估了EMG-EL的性能。正常受试者使用EMG-EL进行发声起始的速度与正常语音和手动电子喉一样快。喉切除受试者发声起始的速度比手动电子喉慢，但比TE语音快。对于正常受试者，使用EMG-EL进行发声终止的速度比正常语音慢，但与手动电子喉没有显著差异。喉切除受试者使用EMG-EL进行发声终止的速度比TE语音或手动电子喉慢。EMG-EL阈值设定为高于基线的与发声相关的EMG活动范围的10%。EMG-EL行为的模拟表明，10%的阈值与通过误差最小化过程产生的最佳阈值没有显著差异。EMG-EL语音反应时间似乎足以用于日常对话。
