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User Manual - University of Kent

1. Lae EEL EHEEE g E O a E z JU ODOLE BLU OCOOOE E OOCOLCE Wave Therapy mode EPG Settings Segment Colour Red C Green C Blue C Regional Background Colour ie Grey C Black i Show Segment Outline C Hide t Merge Channel Select One C Two In therapy mode the Block Frames and Zoom selections are not applicable and the Spectrum
2. in the Print dialog box O K imma L E When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking Multiple EPG display mode is useful for providing sequential printouts OK or rejected by clicking Cancel achieved by simply clicking in the Multiple EPG window to make it the active window and then clicking print on the toolbar After making any required selections and clicking LIE
3. i ji 400 wifes as ee as De fa DERA Nasal Airflow 7 IN A A fh L i i ed N l U a aa Ao Ada Hooo a Sa A d dAd h hatia Oral Airflow 20 0 s SNORS CASNORS Test data files swk system test tst To view a particular word in more detail double click the screen anywhere within the region of the chosen word on either the text or the trace A new window opens showing just this word BB Z00m swk system test Begin 100 0 Combined Speech Envelope 20s 100 0 Nasal Airflow 2 0 s Oral Airflow 2 0 s To close the test window click on the Close All button on the toolbar x Open To open a previously saved test file click Open on the toolbar S In the dialog box that appears double click on the Test data files folder Open Look in E SNORS Bar data files EPG data files Scope data files Test data files Wave data files Word list fles Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg wwe T Cancel This will open the folder containing previous SNORS tests Open Look irr Test data files wan Alison 3 vaa Sounds _ amp glisi Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg h Cancel Next click on the file that you wish to open and then click Open A Test display for the chosen test a
4. EE PE Ett Et Lt _ ae PF ELELELL et ttt Two channel mode allows the therapist and patient both to have a Linguagraph so that the therapist can demonstrate contact patterns to the patient When doing this it is often useful to freeze one or other display on the screen This can be achieved as follows To pause freeze both displays press the Pause key on the keyboard To restart the displays press Pause again To freeze one display only first click on the display that oT to freeze This will make it the active window its title bar will usually be blue Then press the S key on the keyboard to suspend freeze the display To restart the display press the A key to activate the display In summary Pause acts on all windows m S and A act on the active window only SNORS plus Linguagraph To use SNORS and Linguagraph together after starting the SNORS package click New Bar followed by New EPG and finally Auto Arrange on the toolbar I Bar and EPG displays will appear side by side on the screen Blue is the default colour for Title Bars However if you have altered your Desktop settings another colour may be used 72 Ea EPG Active IOl x Bar Active Of x Nasal Airflow 100 Oral Airflow Ask the patient to produce the required sounds or words and observe the displays with the
5. 0 Voicing Intensity 2 0 wo 100 Fundamental Frequency 20s Analysis is carried out using cursors to calculate parameters at single points or over selected periods of the speech Getting started SNORS How to start using SNORS This chapter provides a quick introduction to using SNORS as a stand alone Anemometry only system Connecting the hardware Before using SNORS it is necessary to connect the hardware together This should have been carried out at installation but the hardware may have been subsequently disconnected e g for transportation Also you may wish to change between adult and child masks if you have both types If the hardware is not already correctly configured proceed as follows 1 2 3 4 Make sure that the computer is switched off and unplugged from the mains Connect the SNORS Base Unit large connector at rear to the interface card installed in the computer using the Data Cable This is the thick cable with a large flatish 37 pin plug on each end Note that the connectors are shaped and will only fit one way round in their sockets Both ends of the cable are identical however so it does not matter which end is connected to which item Plug the SNORS Mask lead into the appropriate connector on the front of the SNORS Base Unit Look at the connectors before mating them and align the red mark on the plug with the corresponding red mark on the socket Gently pu
6. 0 Oral Airflow 2 0 w lf a Track Cursor is on it will be switched off by selecting the Block Cursor only one cursor can be on ata time When the active window is an FFT LPC Show Block Cursor places a measurement cursor on the FFT LPC 157 MN FFT LPC Test oii ee Gee 1 lol xs Begin ps Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s 100 0 100 ee Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Oral Airflow 20 0 s 100 0 When the active window is a Spectrogram Show Block Cursor places a measurement cursor on the Spectrogram i Spectrogram Test 10 kHz TA a T S Mrima Combined Speech Spectrogram Snow Animation Cursor Clicking on this sub menu item turns the Animation Cursor on if it was previously off or off if it was previously on If the cursor is currently on a tick appears to the left of the menu text An Animation Cursor is a dotted cursor which moves across the display synchronisation with audio and or video playback 158 View W Test Sample Standard ioj x Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s 100 Voicing Intensity 20 0 s 100 Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s Show patient Info This option turns on or off the Patient Information display box in the Test window If this box is currently on a tick appears to the left of
7. A Pressing the A key makes the active window active if it was previously suspended Print Screen Pressing the Print Screen key copies the entire screen display to the clipboard This can subsequently be pasted into a word processor or other document This is useful for writing reports or papers where a graphic picture is required It is not recommended that this technique be used for routine printout of clinical test results The Print function which is intended for this purpose provides a quick and easy way of obtaining such hardcopies U Pressing the U key when the active window is a Bar selects the upper target marker allowing it to be moved up or down with the Page Up and Page Down keys L Pressing the L key when the active window is a Bar selects the lower target marker allowing it to be moved up or down with the Page Up and Page Down keys 125 When a Bar window is active and target markers are turned on Page Up moves the selected target marker upwards Page Down When a Bar window is active and target markers are turned on Page Down moves the selected target marker downwards Cla When a track cursor is enabled and a Scope window is active these keys move the cursor left or right When a block cursor is active these keys allow the entire block to be moved left or right AIS When a block cursor is enabled and a Scope window is active these keys allow the width of the block to be increased or de
8. When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel EPG The EPG Settings dialog box allows the appearance of the display to be changed EPG Settings Segment Outline Background Colour f Show Hide Merge i Grey Black Segment Colour Block Frames Red C Green C Blue i Single Multiple oom Factor jz Spectrum C Regional By clicking on the appropriate selector buttons segment and background colour can be changed Segments can be single colour multicolour Spectrum where colour represents strength of contact over a selected period of time or colour coded by 146 palatal region It is also possible to show or hide individual segment outlines or even merge segments together The default grey scale EPG image which appears when a block cursor is in use can be changed to a sequence of multiple images if required When using multiple images it is sometimes useful to zoom in on a part of the sequence This facility is also provided When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel The above applies to an EPG window opened in assessment mode i e at the end of a test or when a saved file is opened In therapy mode the Block Frames and zoom sections are r
9. data To Show Patient Info When making an analysis and printing the results it is often useful to include patient information on the printout Clicking the Show Patient Info button on the toolbar A test window with patient Information and analysis boxes is shown below en 1x Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Patient Information Name LK ID Test Date 20 5 98 100 Clinician am Comment pre therapy 0 Combined Speech Envelope 20 0 s 100 Analysis not activated Time 0 00 ms Ratio 0 00 Nasalance 0 00 Amplitude Slope fi 0 00 0 00 ms 0 00 0 00 ms 0 E 0 00 0 00 ms Nasal Airflow 20 0 s 100 0 Oral Airflow 20 0 s Show Track Cursor The track cursor which is enabled by clicking the Show Track Cursor button on the toolbar allows point measurements to be made The Analysis box heading changes to Analysis Point Values when this cursor is active The cursor can be moved by placing the mouse pointer over the cursor line and then clicking and dragging the cursor to the required position Values of all trace The date will be updated automatically if appropriate Time Nasalance and Ratio values also appear on the Status Bar so it is not necessary to select Show Analysis simply to measure nasalance for example However other values such as Slope only appear in the Analysis box Also the status
10. Note As well as after a Test Bar EPG FFT LPC Scope Spectrogram Video and Wave windows can be saved during therapy Simply freeze the display by pressing the Pause key on the keyboard and then click on the Save button on the toolbar Test Bar EPG FFT LPC Scope Spectrogram Video and Wave files can all be opened by clicking the Open button on the toolbar When selecting Open for the first time in a SNORS session the default folder will be used C SNORS and a list of file folders will appear one for each of Test Bar EPG FFIT LPC Scope Spectrogram Video and Wave files 65 Open Look in E SNORS Bar data tiles JW Video image files JEPG data files J Wave data files J FFT Files J Word list files D Scope data files Z Spectrogram Files Test data files Cancel The appropriate folder should be opened and the required file selected SNORS remembers which folder you last opened so next time you select Open you will automatically be in the folder that you opened last Files of type Files tst sco bar epg wye bmp Y Structuring your filing If you save all of your files in the same folder you will soon accumulate a vast number of fies and it will be difficult to find any particular file to open Hence it is recommended that you create sub folders within the default SNORS file folders How you organise your files is a matter of personal p
11. Address Cancel i fia Test Info Test date 29 7490 Clinician Commenta E Simply use the mouse to click in a box where it is desired to enter information and type in the details Itis not necessary to enter information in all the boxes just use those that you require The Test date is automatically entered but can be changed if required When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Start Clicking the Start button initiates the test using the current settings Cancel If it is decided not to proceed with the test clicking Cancel will close the Test Settings dialog box without proceeding with the test Repeat test If you wish to make a second test on the same patient click on the Repeat Test button on the toolbar This is the same as clicking Test except that all test data will remain in place This includes word list display period sample frequency parameter selection and all 50 Analysis BI patient details in the Information dialog box This saves having to re enter the data It is easy to edit the data to make small changes that may be necessary e g to the comments Analysis can be carried out either immediately after completing a test or by opening a previously saved test Show Analysis The analysis box shows the results of measurements made on the
12. The title used for the Aux input is user definable via the Auxiliary property page of the Channel Select section of the Options menu Note that the Aux box must be checked before the title can be entered Channel Select Speech Airflow Phonation 4umillary Ausilian Channel Title fAuriliarn Channel Aux behaves just like any other input channel on SNORS Hence it can be used as one parameter of a Bar display or as a channel of a Scope display Its gain offset and line thickness will vary along with the other channels as selected When performing a Test the Aux Channel is selected by chicking its box on the Test Setting dialg box just like selecting any other parameter 110 Test Settings e The title for the Aux channel can be changed using the Auxiliary property page of the Channel Select section of the Options menu as above This should be done before the Test is saved so that the chosen title is saved with the test results High resolution mode In normal use SNORS limits the bandwidth of its input signals except for the high resolution signals recorded via the soundcard when Record Audio is selected This has two advantages for clinical use m Lower samples rates can be used resulting in smaller data files Displays are simpler and less cluttered The way that this is achieved is as follows The speech signal is e
13. 5 8 10 11 13 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 34 35 36 37 38 44 45 46 47 54 55 62 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 75 76 77 78 81 82 84 85 86 88 104 106 109 110 112 116 121 122 123 125 127 129 130 131 133 143 146 155 163 164 SNORS Bat ceeeeeeeseeees 75 88 122 133 SNORS Scope ccesceeseees 130 SINOR S Poania naa xili XIV XV XVi XVii 1 5 10 11 13 20 21 22 23 24 27 28 34 35 36 37 38 44 45 46 54 55 64 65 66 67 68 71 72 81 85 86 104 109 110 112 116 121 122 123 125 127 129 143 146 155 163 SOUN eee eer On 7 10 22 35 55 79 130 164 165 TAE EAT tatan deceit 7 55 57 79 80 130 132 164 165 166 SpPectrOgraM ranan 7 55 60 61 62 63 65 100 101 106 118 120 122 123 139 149 150 158 161 166 SPECTO se 92 95 146 147 Spee aaan 1 3 6 7 13 30 38 39 41 55 57 69 79 88 96 104 112 130 145 147 154 164 166 167 SPCC anginna 89 SOP A 63 123 124 T A E RAE AEE A A 15 16 17 18 19 20 29 30 32 33 34 40 41 43 44 45 46 48 50 55 56 57 60 64 65 70 73 74 76 77 79 82 83 84 106 110 111 121 122 123 127 130 131 132 137 141 150 151 159 160 161 TREID Aaademencienniialeiean 13 27 68 71 75 81 95 121 122 150 151 TONGUE canai 6 7 164 165 Toolbar ecos xvi 121 Track Cursor taaa 48 51 55 56 57 58 79 123 131 156 157 159 161 AE a e ENE
14. in real time Parameters can be displayed as scope or trend waveforms over time or as 2 D dynamic displays Additionally Wave displays provide high resolution views and synchronous audio playback facilitates accurate identification of waveform features Optional Video recording and playback allows simultaneous viewing of the above parameters along with a video image e g videofluoroscopy SNORS can be used for therapy in real time for assessment or for the measurement of outcome Speech parameters measured m Speech outcome m Respiration m Voicing m Velopharyngeal closure Tongue palate contact Display options Trend channels available m Nasal speech intensity m Oral speech intensity m Combined speech intensity Acoustic nasalance m Nasal airflow a Oral airflow Combined airflow m Aerodynamic nasalance m Aerodynamic ratio m Voicing Lx intensity Fundamental frequency derived from Lx waveform m Closed quotient derived from Lx waveform m Short term Shimmer derived from Lx waveform m Short term Jitter derived from Lx waveform m Alveolar tongue palate contact m Palatal tongue palate contact m Velar tongue palate contact m Left tongue palate contact m Centre tongue palate contact m Right tongue palate contact m Tongue contact balance m Tongue contact centre of gravity m Tongue contact weight 2 D displays available Tongue palate contact EPG Bi directional bar any two real time scope ch
15. x Now start a scope display by clicking on the New Scope button on the toolbar A A scope window opens 25 a Scope Active 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 5 0s Place the microphone a suitable distance from the patient s mouth In most cases clipping it to the Linguagraph neck cord just above the Linguagraph unit is satisfactory Ask the patient to speak and watch the trace on the screen Adjust the volume control on the SNORS hardware unit The black knob on the front of the unit until the trace deflects by a good amount but does not quite reach the top of its window as shown in the example above When you are happy with the operation of the system click the Close All button on the toolbar x The system is now ready to use 26 Therapy To open the therapy EPG window click on the New EPG button on the toolbar An EPG window will open FA EPG Active OLX EE EEE EEE E UT E i i E jy OO O T OC COE O The EPG window can be enlarged to fill the SNORS window by clicking the Auto Arrange button on the toolbar gl Ask the patient to produce the required sounds or words and observe the display with the patient The display can be paused by pressing the Pause key and restarted by pressing the Pause key again If you wish to add a model contact pattern for the patient to mimic press the Open EPG Mode button on the
16. Audio was selected when the test was performed Open a Test that was recorded using Laryngograph and audio with Show Wave selected by clicking the Open button on the toolbar double clicking on the Test data al files folder and then double clicking on the required test data file S Once the test is displayed click the Show Track Cursor button on the toolbar E The Wave window appears at the left of the display and a track cursor is placed in the Scope window 79 x B Test Alison 3 iof xi Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 100 0 Nasal Airflow 100 0 Oral Airflow 100 0 Voicing Intensity 100 Fundamental Frequency The Wave window shows the detailed Sp and Lx waveforms at the position of the cursor in the main display The cursor can be moved with the mouse by clicking and dragging As the cursor is moved the Wave display changes to reflect the current cursor position If the block cursor is activated the Wave window displays the detailed waveforms for the region enclosed by the cursor block as before The Wave window can be displayed in any combination of multiparameter windows If recording with Linguagraph it is recommended that Wave be selected instead of Bar in order to produce a less cluttered display Zoom Alison 3 olx End 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 100 0 Nas
17. Combined Speech Intensity 5 0s 100 0 Nasal Airflow 5 0s Bo ahah Oral Airflow 5 08 14 As for Bar ask the patient to place the mask over their nose and mouth ensuring a good seal and observe the traces as they speak Scope is also useful in therapy as it allows patients to observe the dynamics of their speech Thus it is useful when working with clusters or words When a finished close the scope by clicking the Close All button on the x toolbar Test To perform an assessment test click New Test on the toolbar The Test Settings dialog box opens Test Settings Word List Word Display Pertod 2 Second Current word list file tandard Select Hew List Create Hew List Parameter S lection Sample Frequency 200 Hz Setup MV SNORS HE M ERG Aus M Record Audio Record Video Sensors Audio Video Had Patient Info Display Options Show Bar Show FFT LPC Show Wave T Show Spectrogram Cancel As this is the first test of the current session you will be prompted to initialise the flow sensors A message box appears 15 Initialize To remove any offset fram the flow sensors place caps on both sensors then select OF Make sure that the red caps are on the flow sensors put the mask down on a flat surface and then answer OK by clicking the iii san in the message box Anew message box
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19. FFT length In general spectral power in one bin may contain leakage from frequency components in neighbouring bins this is often referred to as spectral leakage Spectral leakage may be seen as blurring on the spectrogram image 10 kHz 10 Seconds x A Spectrogram of a pure tone with varying intensity exhibiting spectral leakage Spectral leakage occurs when a frequency component of the acoustic signal does not slot exactly into one of the frequency bins This effect can be significantly reduced by applying a window function to the sampled data Using this technique data samples 118 are multiplied by a function that tapers towards zero at either end This ensures that the signal fades in and out rather than starting and stopping abruptly The effect is to reduce discontinuity at data boundaries and hence the amount of leakage However window functions do broaden the spectral peaks of the acoustic signal making it difficult to distinguish certain frequency components A number of window functions have been devised Some are effective in reducing spectral leakage at the expense of spectral detail while others try to achieve a compromise The Figure below illustrates a selection of data windowing functions Window functions Hanning Hamming Blackman A selection of data windowing functions The effect of applying a Hanning window function to the waveform depicted above is shown below It is apparent
20. Options Help Volume Control Wave Synthesizer Line Balance Balance Balance Balance Volume Volume Volume Volume Pr Pee eee T Mute all T Mute Mute T Mute OPL3 54 Mixer This allows the user to alter the playback volume using the Volume Control and or Wave Volume sliders It is also possible to listen to the Laryngograph Lx signal by moving the Wave Balance slider to the right This signal which represents voicing will be heard as a buzz Show Animation cursor Clicking this menu item turns the animation cursor on and off The animation cursor is a dotted vertical line shown below 107 D Test Sample Sound olx Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s 100 Oral Airflow 20 0 s 0 Voicing Intensity 20 0 s 100 Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s The Window menu function allows the open windows to be arranged in various ways All standard Windows 95 98 functions are provided see your Windows 95 98 user manual plus a custom function Auto Arrange In most cases Auto Arrange will provide the best window arrangement Note that Auto Arrange is readily accessible from the toolbar Cascade Displays all open windows as a cascade Tile horizontal Arranges all open windows horizontally Tile vertical Arranges all
21. Radio or CD quality sound occupies about 900 Kbytes 1 8 Mbytes or 3 5 Mbytes respectively Clicking the Advanced button opens the standard Windows Volume Control dialog box cE Yolume Control Me E3 Options Help Volume Control Wave Synthesizer Line Balance Balance Balance Balance Volume Volume Volume Volume UGC eee a nunnunnnnnnnnnnunnn T Mute all T Mute Mute Mute OPL3 SA Mixer This allows the user to alter the playback volume using the Volume Control and or Wave Volume sliders It is also possible to listen to the Laryngograph Lx signal by moving the Wave Balance slider to the right This signal which represents voicing will be heard a s a buzz The Video button allows the video parameters to be set 135 Video Record Settings Camera Image resolution Format High hMedium Image size 394 4 200 C Low Frame rate OF Frames per secand 25 Cancel The Camera format section of the Video Record Settings dialog box allows the appropriate video source to be selected Formats commencing VCR are designed specifically for recording from videotape These should not be used with live sources The Image size can be varied by selecting High Medium or Low resolution from the Image Resolution section The default setting is Medium which corresponds to 384x288 p
22. bar does not appear when the results are printed 51 amplitudes and slopes appear in the analysis box along with values for Nasalance and Ratio see definitions below If audio playback is activated when a track cursor is selected sound will be replayed from the cursor position to the end of the recording When the cursor is active it is easier to make measurements when viewing a single word This can be achieved by double clicking on the required word either the text or the trace When this is done a new window opens showing just the selected word In this case activating playback replays from the cursor to the end of the word Ee 1 x Seat Patient Information Name LK ID Test Date 20 5 98 100 Clinician am Comment pre therapy Combined Speech Envelope Analysis Point Values Time 640 00 ms Ratio 45 22 Nasalance 25 84 Amplitude Slope 7 43 0 27 ims 2 54 0 03 ms 7 28 0 17 ms Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow Show Block Cursor The block cursor which is enabled by clicking the Show Block Cursor button on the toolbar allows average measurements to be made ae The analysis box heading changes to Analysis Mean Values when this cursor is active The cursor can be moved by placing the mouse pointer within the cursor box and then clicking and dragging the cursor to the required position The start and end of the block can be m
23. clicking and dragging As the cursor is moved the FFT LPC display changes to reflect the new cursor position Now activate the block cursor by clicking its button on the toolbar The FFT LPC window now displays the FFT LPC averaged over the region enclosed by the cursor block 58 jul a LPC Test Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow If the cursor is moved the FFI LPC display again changes to reflect the cursor position If the cursor width is altered the FFT LPC display changes to continue to reflect the portion of the audio waveform representing the selection contained within the cursor block At any stage the FFT LPC window can be expanded to fill the display simply by clicking the Maximise box Dy at the top right hand corner of its window When you have finished viewing the FFT LPC window it can be shrunk back to its Original size and position by clicking the Window box a which now replaces its Maximise box If the FFT LPC window is the active window clicking on the block cursor button in the toolbar activates a measurement cursor This cursor displays the frequency and intensity information in the status bar 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Oral Airflow 20 0 s 59 Spectrogram viewing the time frequency characteristics of speech A spectrogram of the speech signal can be displayed provided Record Audio was selected
24. eneg Oral Airflow 20 w 19 44 0 50 ms 21 69 0 07 ims 3 13 0 26 ms 0 54 0 05 ms 0 00 0 00 ms 100 0 Voicing Intensity 100 _ VO O O O S Fundamental Frequency 20s When the block cursor is active mean contact values will be indicated using a grey scale actually red but the colour intensity represents the persistence of contact during the time within the block cursor box 78 iBar Test Nasal Airflow Patient Information 100 100 Name Alison ID Test Date 3 6 98 Clinician Comment 2 palate electrodes faulty i 0 Analysis Mean Values Nasal Airflow l ys Time 110 00 ms Ratio 50 93 Nasalance 75 46 100 100 Fx 0 00 Hz D o Oral Airflow Amplitude Slope Oral Airflow 16 69 0 36 ms 18 51 0 01 ms 6 58 0 14 ms 1 50 0 04 ms 0 00 0 00 ms Voicing Intensity _ _ E mem ltl f Mit E COE E E S Mist ttt tt EE EHHH EHNEN E Fundamental Frequency Sound amp Laryngograph Waveform Features All sound waveform features are functional in multiparameter configuration Audio Playback In multiparameter use all open windows are updated as the animation cursor tracks the test waveforms during playback Wave If Laryngograph is used it is possible to view both the high resolution Speech Sp and Laryngograph Lx waveforms Provided Record
25. image The stored image is not affected by their use These controls operate in real time i e you can see their effect on the image as you move them The Appearance box allows either standard monochrome default inverse video or pseudo colour to be displayed Inverse video is useful when images are viewed by those who are more familiar with viewing film X rays as these appear as negatives compared to videofluoroscopy images Standard positive image Inverse negative image 102 Pseudo colour images have false colour applied This sometimes makes it easier to see edges and contours The Zoom selector allows the magnification of the image to be changed i e it zooms in on the image Whenever the image is larger than the available window scroll bars appear These allow the portion of the image that is in view to be changed When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel except for brightness and contrast which are implemented in real time Channel Select When the active window is a Scope the Options menu also allows the various available scope trace channels to be turned on or off Point the mouse at Options on the menu bar move down the drop down menu until Channel Select is highlighted and the click on Channel Select A Channel Select dialog box opens 103 Channel Se
26. is acoustic nasalance Airflow Channels Nasal The airflow emanating from the nasal port Oral The airflow emanating from the oral port Respiration The total airflow i e nasal oral 154 Ratio The ratio of the difference between nasal and oral flows to the total flow expressed as nasal oral a percentage i e _ x 100 nasal oral Nasalance nasal The percentage of the total airflow that is nasal i e _ x 100 nasal oral This is aerodynamic nasalance standard for SNORS Phonation Channels Voicing The envelope of the Laryngograph Lx output Fundamental Frequency The frequency of vibration of the vocal folds Closed Quotient The percentage of each cycle during which the vocal folds are closed Short term Jitter factor The percentage variation of frequency of vibration of the vocal folds over time Short term Shimmer factor The percentage variation of vocal fold amplitude of vibration over time Lingual Channels Alveolar The amount of tongue palate contact in the alveolar region i e the front two rows of the palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact Palatal The amount of tongue palate contact in the palatal region i e the middle three rows of the palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact Velar The amount of tongue palate contact in the velar region i e the rear three rows of the palate expresse
27. it is required that their effect should be included The speech intensity channel is helpful in determining which parts of the flow waveform are due to speech and which are due to respiration there should normally be very little sound during respiration However a little care should be exercised as breathing is sometimes audible and some sounds such as sibilants have a low acoustic level But with a little practice and knowledge of speech production it should be fairly easy to select the appropriate sections of the waveform for use in nasalance calculations For best results use the block cursor to isolate the word and then listen to the audio playback to ensure that the correct portion has been selected Ratio Ratio is the difference between nasal and oral airflow divided by the total airflow expressed as a percentage The ratio figure calculated by SNORS is also based on either point values track cursor or the total airflow within the block cursor box If this box contains elements of zero flow or respiration these will again be included in the calculation but their effect will be less significant As for ratio periods of zero flow will simply reduce the sensitivity of the calculation and will not introduce any specific errors Hence small periods of zero flow within the zoom window are quite acceptable Although the effects of respiration are reduced in the ratio calculation it is still recommended that they are excluded
28. menu until Settings is highlighted and the click on Settings A Settings dialog box opens The choices available depend on whether a Bar Scope EPG or Wave window is active Bar Bar Settings Appearance Channel Select W Show Scale W Show Text Show Peak Hold Upper Bar Nasal Aiflow Cancel Lower Bar Oral Airflow Y M Show Targets Bar Hesmanse Peak Delay F Sensitivity Te Background Colour Grey C Black The Appearance box enables the Text and Scale to be turned off or on these are on by default In addition Peak Hold indicators can be turned on These are narrow 86 markers which persist for a short time at peak values This feature is useful for observing brief peaks of airflow Bar Active IOl x Nasal Airflow 100 100 E 0 100 100 Oral Airflow Targets can also be switched on These are user adjustable bars which are useful for providing targets for the patient to achieve Bar Active Miel Nasal Airflow 100 100 100 100 Oral Airflow The bars are moved by placing the mouse pointer over a bar and clicking and dragging it to the required position The Bar box allows the time for which the Peak Hold bar persists Peak Delay to be varied by clicking on the appropriate Bouton The Sensitivity of th
29. open windows vertically Auto Arrange Automatically arranges all open windows Arrange Icons Automatically arranges any iconised windows Close All Closes all open windows 108 1 2 3 etc Switches between different windows The Help menu item provides help about SNORS in the standard Windows 95 98 manner See your Windows 95 98 manual for full details on using the help system Contents Displays the table of contents for the help system Search Searches the help system for the specified topic Using help Displays information about using the help system About Provides basic information about the SNORS program including version number licensed user and copyright details About SHORS SHOARS SORS Version 6 0 Copyright UEC 2000 Designed by Steve Kelly and Paul Sharp Medical Electronics Research Group University of Kent at Canterbury Memon 392660 KE Free 109 Research Features Advanced features aimed primarily at researchers This chapter describes the advanced features provided in SNORS which are mostly useful for research purposes Auxiliary input SNORS provides an auxiliary input Aux which may be connected to any suitable instrument This allows simultaneous capture of data from the instrument Connection to the Aux input is via a BNC connector on the rear panel of the SNORS Base Unit The input signal voltage range is set at 2 5 V
30. patient The displays can be paused by pressing the Pause key and restarted by pressing the Pause key again Assessment and Analysis To carry out an assessment test using SNORS and Linguagraph first press the New Test button on the toolbar as for starting SNORS alone In the Test Settings dialog box check that the Linguagraph EPG check box is ticked and click in the Show Bar check box Ticks will appear in these check boxes If necessary deselect Laryngograph by clicking in the Lx check box 73 Test Settings Place the electropalatography palate in the patient s mouth ensuring a firm comfortable fit and ask them to hold the mask over their nose and mouth and then proceed with the test in the normal way At the end of the test the usual Test window appears but there will be additional Bar and EPG windows Note it is not essential to select Show Bar you can just add Linguagraph EPG if you wish However bar provides a comparable snapshot of airflow Alternatively Show Wave can be substituted for Show Bar see later 74 a Test Alison_3 OF Xx Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Nasal Airflow 100 100 100 0 0 Combined Speech Envelope 100 100 Oral Airflow Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow Analysis is carried out as for stand alone SNORS but as the cursor is
31. round the lead is 35 Key to cabling a Cable coming directly from unit Connector 6 Now plug in and switch on the computer Once it has booted this may take a few minutes the system is ready to use This section describes how to start up SNORS and check for correct operation It is recommended that this simple procedure be carried out at the start of each session i e with each new patient This is important for the following reasons m t allows the patient to get used to speaking wearing the neck strap m t allows the therapist to check that the electrodes on the neck strap are correctly fitted and to adjust the sensitivity control to suit each patient m t allows the volume control to be set to the correct value for each particular patient m It allows the operation of the system to be discussed with the patient Snors Open the SNORS program by double clicking on its icon Surs A title screen appears briefly 36 UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY BEES SNORS Medical Electronics Research Group University of Rent at Canterbury The main SNORS window then opens JEENE 2 gt uf alr For Help click Contents on the Help Menu Note that many of the buttons are Greyed out This is because they are not available yet In general an option is greyed out whenever it is not available This may be because the option is not relevant at the time or it may be because the necessa
32. show varying contact strengths in the order red orange yellow green and blue EPG segments can also be colour coded by palate region blue for the alveolar region green for the palatal region and red for the velar region These colours correspond to the equivalent trace colours in Scope EAT EPG Test ojx A AA A A A EEEH BEE EERE A Tt eT 92 Background Colour sets the display background to either grey default or black shown below EENEN eo es a E amp ian BERE A Bees cm Block Frames selects the mode of display when a block cursor is used in Scope The default is to display a Single grey scale image as shown above Alternatively a sequence of Multiple images can be displayed TET E E E HC GCCE HIE RCRA PIETRI EFIE PUD ERTETEY CG B E The Zoom control allows a part of the sequence to be enlarged FAV EPG Test OF a oO o0o000g0 o0000g0 o0 m i mjm i mmm BEOL m f jm i mm HEREC JID E i mmm i mmm BEOL JUEN BEREOOOOSS BREOOOOSRS HEOC JID E i i mmj i mmm EEC JO f mmm i mmm BEC JID i f mmj i f mmj E EEC oa000 o0000g0 ODOC IDS i mmm i mmm BEOL I nf i i mjm i jm Of BEOL JON i mmm BEOODODRS i jm JID E i f mmj i mmm TEAC m L mj L m LL m E a O a a E EE O M a E Sane JID E i f mmj i y mmm EEC oO o00000 o00000 00C J
33. shown in the example above When you are happy with the operation of the system click the Close All button on the toolbar x The system is now ready to use Therapy Bar To open the therapy bar click New Bar on the toolbar El A bar window appears The bar can be enlarged to fill the SNORS window by clicking the Auto Arrange button on the toolbar gl The upper section of the display shows the amount of nasal airflow as a green bar which moves upwards away from the centre The lower section indicates oral airflow as a yellow bar which moves downwards away from the centre 13 Scope P Bar Active Mije Masal Aitlow 100 1005 100 TOU Oral Airflow Ask the patient to place the mask over their nose and mouth ensuring a good seal and observe the airflows as they speak Bar is a very useful biofeedback tool as it provides a simple clear display of nasal and oral airflow This allows patients to monitor their airflows make corrections and observe the result Bar is particularly useful when working with sustained sounds or single phonemes When you have finished close the bar by clicking the Close All button on the toolbar x To open the therapy scope click New Scope on the toolbar Ps Enlarge the display by clicking Auto Arrange on the toolbar gl Three traces appear scanning across the display DE Scope Active OF x 100
34. that you re save it in SNORS This will save the file in the SNORS format which will mean that it appears by default in the Open dialog box in future The saved file will be an additional file and will not overwrite the original DOS file unless the original file had a tst extension 21 Getting started Linguagraph How to start using Linguagraph This chapter provides a quick introduction to using SNORS as a stand alone electropalatography only system Connecting the hardware Before using SNORS it is necessary to connect the hardware together The basic setup should have been carried out at installation but the hardware may have been subsequently disconnected e g for transportation If the hardware is not already correctly configured proceed as follows 1 2 3 4 5 Make sure that the computer is switched off and disconnected from the mains Connect the SNORS Base Unit large connector at rear to the interface card installed in the computer using the Data Cable This is the thick cable with a large flatish plug on each end Note that the connectors are shaped and will only fit one way round in their sockets Both ends of the cable are identical however so it does not matter which end is connected to which item Plug the Linguagraph lead into the appropriate connector on the front of the SNORS Base Unit For a single Linguagraph use the Linguagraph 1 socket Look at the connectors befo
35. the Menu Chapter 9 concentrates on those features of SNORS that are designed primarily for research use Chapters 10 11 and 12 form a reference section explaining all of the toolbar shortcut key and menu items respectively Chapter 13 provides a system specification XIII Windows 95 98 terms used in this manual This section describes the basic terms used in the Windows 95 98 environment Using the mouse A mouse works on the principle that you first place your mouse pointer on point to something on your screen and then you click with a mouse button to perform an action on that item Note All Windows documentation assumes you are right handed If you are left handed you can switch left and right mouse buttons For information on how to do this refer to your Windows manual As you move your mouse the pointer moves on your screen If you run out of room pick up the mouse and place it in another spot To point move the mouse until the tip of the pointer is over the item or area you want to point to Then you can do the following Click Press and release the left mouse button once Double click Quickly press and release the left mouse button twice Right click Press and release the right mouse button once Click and drag To move an item to another location first point to it Press and hold down the left mouse button and point to where you want the object Then release the mouse button Windows feat
36. the text in the menu Show Analysis This option turns on or off the Analysis display box in the Test window It this box is currently on a tick appears to the left of the text in the menu The Analysis box will display either Point or Mean values depending on whether the Track or Block cursor is enabled If neither cursor is enabled analysis is not possible and the analysis box title says disabled The above two figures under Show Track Cursor and Show Block Cursor display both patient Info and Analysis boxes zoom This option allows the user to zoom into a portion of the display by dragging a rectangle over the required area using the mouse The Zoom function resets after it has been used but can be reselected as many times as required Use 1 Select Zoom The cursor changes to a cross 2 Place the cursor at the start of the required area and press and hold the left mouse button 3 Drag a rectangle to the end of the required area 159 Test 4 Release the mouse button A new window appears showing only the zoom region Note Zoom only affects the time axis Hence it does not matter where or even on which trace the start and end points lie vertically Repeat Test Starts a repeat test The test Settings dialog box first opens which allows selections to be made if required Clicking Start starts the test This is the same as selectin
37. the toolbar gol A Wave window opens displaying the speech waveform in real time if a Laryngograph is connected the Lx waveform is also shown Cl Wave Suspended _ O x 100 100 Combined Speech 100 0 ms 61 Ask the patient to place the mask over their nose and mouth ensuring a good seal and observe the waveform as they speak Alternatively connect the SNORS Audio unit and microphone in place of the mask When you have finished close the Wave window by clicking the Close All button on the toolbar x FFT LPC To open the therapy FFT LPC display click New FF T LPC on the toolbar ll O Enlarge the display by clicking Auto Arrange on the toolbar E An FFT LPC window opens displaying the instantaneous spectrum in real time il FFT LPC Active _ OF x 60 dB Combined Speech Spectrum 1 0 kHzidiv Ask the patient to speak into the mask or microphone and observe the spectrum as they speak When you have finished close the FFT LPC window by clicking the Close All button on the toolbar x Spectrogram if the therapy Spectrogram display click New Spectrogram on the toolbar HHA Enlarge the display by clicking Auto Arrange on the toolbar gl A Spectrogram window opens displaying the spectrogram scanning across the display 62 U Spectrogram Active Iof x EE ta Ei 10 kHz A Combined Speech S
38. to place the caps on the airflow sensors and then press the OK button Initialise To remove any offset from the flow sensors place caps on both sensors then select OK Cancel Make sure that the red caps are on the flow sensors put the mask down on a flat surface and then answer OK by clicking the OK button in the dialog box that appears A new message box appears Initialise The flow sensors are now initialised Nasal offset 44 Oral offset ae ae ot Again click OK The sensors are now initialised and you can remove the red flow sensor caps ready to perform the test Doing this removes any small offset from the flow sensors It is recommended that this procedure be carried out once at the start of each session Note the system can also be initialised from the Scope and Bar windows The Audio button allows selection of the audio quality sound card sampling rate 134 Audio Settings Recordar Mwalty f Co ft Fadia Telephone Advanced Cancel The default quality Radio uses a sampling rate of 22 kHz which should be satisfactory for most purposes If required the audio can be increased to CD quality 44 kHz or reduced to Telephone quality 11 kHz It should be noted however that the higher the quality the larger the files size A standard test without sound requires just 23 Kbytes of disk space The same test with Telephone
39. to select Show Wave at the time of recording the test This is achieved by clicking in the Show Wave check box in the Display Options part of the Test Settings dialog box m Display Options T Show Bar Show FFT LPC wr Show Wave T Show Spectrogram At the end of the test the Wave window appears at the left of the display EE 1x Ea x Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Envelope Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow With no cursors on the screen the Wave window displays the entire recording Due to the limited screen resolution it is not possible to see any detail in the waveforms at this scale To view detail it is necessary to zoom into a portion of the waveform This is achieved automatically by switching on a cursor Click on the Show Track Cursor button on the toolbar 55 The Track Cursor appears in the main test window and the Wave display changes to show a small sample of the audio waveform x ESED ol x Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Combined Speech Envelope 20 0 s _ 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Tit Oral Airflow 20 0 s 100 0 The Wave window shows a 20ms portion of the detailed audio waveform at the position of the cursor in the main display The cursor can be moved with the mouse by clicking and dragging As the cursor is mov
40. upper teeth by means if thin wire dental cribs Laryngograph Laryngograph is a commercial electroglottograph developed and manufactured by Laryngograph Ltd which measures vocal fold activity This is achieved by placing a pair of electrodes on the patient s neck either side of the thyroid cartilage By passing a small electric current through the vocal folds it is possible to detect their vibration as well as simple movements of the glottis LARYNGOGRAPH PROCESSOR SPEECH Multiparameter assessment These instruments allow measurement of key articulators individually However as speech involves the co ordinated movement of the various articulators it is also important to be able to measure several articulators simultaneously 4 Overview of SNORS An introduction to the SNORS multiparameter system SNORS is a Windows 95 98 version of the University of Kent SNORS nasal oral airflow system As well as being a stand alone SNORS system SNORS also allows the addition of the Kent Linguagraph electropalatography system and or the Laryngograph electroglottograph i e it is SNORS plus other instruments the other instruments can also be used without SNORS In addition to the new software SNORS incorporates a simple interface to enable the connection of the extra instruments to the computer s standard SNORS data acquisition card SNORS allows simultaneous measurement of five key parameters of speech production
41. 84 x 268 i Monochrome i Inverse Video C Pseudo Colour oom Factor ea Frame Fate Frames per second as Contrast lt oio Ka eee Senet een Cancel Brightness Playback Video Settings options The Camera format section of the Video Record Settings dialog box allows the appropriate video source to be selected Formats commencing VCR are designed specifically for recording from videotape These should not be used with live sources The Image size can be varied by selecting High Medium or Low resolution from the Image Resolution section The Frame rate can be set as required It is usually best to set the frame rate to match that of the video source The Contrast and Brightness sliders can be used to alter these parameters on the displayed image The stored image is not affected by their use These controls operate in real time i e you can see their effect on the image as you move them The Appearance box allows either standard monochrome default inverse video or pseudo colour to be displayed Inverse video is useful when images are viewed by those who are more familiar with viewing film X rays as these appear as negatives compared to videofluoroscopy images i Standard positive image i Inverse negative image 152 Pseudo colour images have false colour applied This sometimes makes it easier to see edges and contours
42. B alele SIGE ae ae BREE I Leh EN eH ei HF Palatal Tongue Contact Velar Tangue Contact To save the test results click Save on the toolbar i The Save As dialog box appears Save As Save it E Test data files Sounds 6 Save as type Test files tet Cancel Type in a file name of your choice and then click Save To print the test click Print on the toolbar When the Print dialog box appears click OK Note that the print dialog box is part of Windows 95 98 and will vary in appearance and function according to your printer 31 ol e Pages trom fap DI Selectia When you click OK a simple graphical printout of the active window will be produced By default this will be the Test screen 0 0 S SNORS C SNORS Test data files Sampie Standard tst To print the EPG window click within it so that its title bar is highlighted click print and proceed as before 32 Open To view a particular word in more detail double click the screen anywhere within the region of the chosen word on either the text or the trace A new window opens showing just this word FF EPG zoi xi Zoom Sample Standard Cheese Combined Speech Intensity KSSE SERS E Bl a a SETS Alveolar Tongue Contact ee ee E
43. I008 BOOOOOO BOOOODOS BOOC JID E BEOODODSS SB mmm BEOL mjm j BROOOO BEOOOOSRS HEOC JID E i f mmm i y mmj EEC m E a O a a EE O a a E L Ennn A a m A m EEC m i y mm i mmi HEOC Alternatively the EPG window can be maximised to provide a full screen display 93 CERERI ENNNNENN ENN EH E HEE aes em a JELL MENNENE BERERES BREE BHEREBBESB BEE OOOO ea OOI a eee OMI im tt ti EERE RERRSee GEELI Senn coo HET JOU 1 C OOC ai sina SSE BEES am See SERRE im mj m mii iam oe mititit EERE EAR PELL PP ETTE ae ian Hea BESESEE SeeeeEn eee tae TC EC S oo an I HONN EE rrti ttl ee This is anaE o 5 SF 7 an EPG sequence printout will be produced
44. Mode can be changed between Continuous where the trace automatically restarts when it reaches the end of the display and Single 145 Shot where the trace starts when a key is pressed and stops when it reaches the end of the display In this mode the trace can be restarted after it has stopped by pressing any key Trace Sensitivity gain and Offset which determines how much if any negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate hd symbol and making a selection Note about negative airflow SNORST is set up such that only positive airflows are normally shown offset 0 This is because negative airflows inhalation are normally associated with breathing rather than speech However there is sometimes a small amount of negative airflow associated with certain types of speech e g some forms of cleft palate speech SNORS can detect negative flows of up to about 25 of its normal positive range If it is wished to view negative airflow an offset must be applied to the traces An offset of 2 provides a display that matches the range of the flow sensors i e four times as much positive flow is shown as negative flow If a display with the zero line at the centre is preferred an offset of 5 can be used Finally Horizontal or Vertical Grid lines can be switched on or off or a single Zero Line can be selected by clicking in the appropriate selector box es
45. Plug one or two Linguagraph electronics units into the interface unit The Linguagraph plug which is on the end of the lead coming out of the unit is of a similar type to the SNORS Mask plug except that it is larger Plug it into the matching socket on the front of the Base Unit ensuring that it is the correct way round align the red marks If only one Linguagraph is to be used plug it into the Linguagraph 1 socket Plug the Linguagraph wrist strap lead into the small socket on the Linguagraph electronics unit The wrist strap lead is the coiled yellow lead which is fitted to the wrist strap by means of a press stud Connect the Laryngograph PCLX electronics unit to the SNORS interface unit using the black lead which has a round silver coloured connector on each end The lead connects between the matching connector on the rear of the interface unit and the Aux output connector on the Laryngograph PCLX electronics unit The connectors simply push in be careful that the pins are aligned correctly with the socket holes Both ends of the lead are identical so it does not matter which end goes where Plug the Laryngograph electrode neck strap into the Laryngograph electronics unit Note that the plug has a flat face on one side and only fits one way round Set the Lx sensitivity control knob to half way Connect the video source to the Video In connector on the video capture card in the PC using a lead appropriate to your
46. SNORS window then appears on the screen 11 GS SNORS File Help For Help click Contents on the Help Menu Note that many of the buttons are Greyed out This is because they are not available yet In general an option is greyed out whenever it is not available This may be because the option is not relevant at the time or it may be because the necessary hardware e g a sound or video card is not present Start a scope display by clicking on the New Scope button on the toolbar A A scope window opens Scope Active Iof xi 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Aiow ci 5 05 100 Oral Airflow 5 0s Now remove the red flow sensor caps from the mask if they are present and ask the patient to place the mask over their nose and mouth ensuring a good comfortable fit Make sure that there are no gaps around the outside of the mask and that the patient is not obstructing the airflow with their fingers 12 Ask the patient to speak into the mask Watch the three traces on the screen and make sure that they all show some movement iscope Actve BEST Ba Scope Active Loo Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow 50s Adjust the volume control on the SNORS hardware unit The black knob on the front of the unit until the upper red Combined Speech intensity trace deflects by a good amount but does not quite reach the top of its window as
47. The Zoom selector allows the magnification of the image to be changed i e it zooms in on the image Whenever the image is larger than the available window scroll bars appear These allow the portion of the image that is in view to be changed When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel except for brightness and contrast which are implemented in real time Channel Select This dialog box allows the user to choose which Scope channels to display Any number and combination of channels can be selected 153 Channel Select ki speech Aitflows Phonation Lingual Speech Channels lM Combined Nasalance Channels are turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector boxes Channels for parameters other than Speech can be accessed by first clicking on their tab When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Available channels are Speech channels Nasal The intensity envelope of the sound emanating from the nasal port Oral The intensity envelope of the sound emanating from the oral port Combined The total sound emanating from both the nasal and the oral ports i e nasal oral Nasalance nasal The percentage of the total sound intensity that is nasal i e x 100 nasal oral This
48. University of Kent at Canterbury SNORS User Manual Version 6 september 2000 This device complies with the requirements of EC directive 93 42 EEC and EN60601 1 University of Kent at Canterbury Manufactured by Medical Electronics Electronic Engineering Laboratory University of Kent Canterbury Kent CT2 7NT UK SNORS is a modular system This manual covers the following modules SNORS Base Unit SNORS Mask Adult SNORS Mask Child Linguagraph SNORS Audio Unit Information regarding the use of other manufacturer s devices specifically as part of the SNORS system is also provided Contents How to use this manual Introduction The articulators The respiratory system The pharynx The velum The teeth and hard palate The overall process of speech production Speech instruments Trend channels available 2 D displays available Wave displays available Vi Show Animation cursor The test spectrogram The Linear Predictive Coder The Toolbar Vil Toolbar buttons Vill XI Typical synchronisation XII How to use this manual This manual explains how to use the University of Kent SNORS multiparameter speech workstation The manual assumes that the hardware and software for the system has already been installed see the separate Installation Manual if not SNORS allows the
49. al Airflow 100 0 Oral Airflow 100 0 Voicing Intensity 100 E E Ea fal a Em E E 2 SE Lt LLI Lm L L E LL E EN ae EEE EEEE Fundamental Frequency 7 These waveforms are colour coded to match their respective envelope waveforms 80 Adding Video Therapy Stand alone Video To use Video as a stand alone tool for therapy after starting the SNORS package simply click on the Video button on the toolbar A Video window will open Video is useful in therapy for feeding back an image to the patient such as a close up of their lips This mode is also useful for aligning the patient s head prior to recording a videofluoroscopy session Video other parameters It is possible to open a Video window in conjunction with any number of other real time windows Bar Scope or EPG This is achieved simply by clicking the relevant buttons on the toolbar To display a Laryngograph Bar and a Video window for J kt example click on New Bar Lx Video and Auto Arrange buttons E ee Ee oD Note if SNORS is not connected it is not necessary to click Lx as it is then selected by default 81 The two windows appear side by side in the display P Bar Active _ 5 x Combined Speech 100 100 100 100 Voicing Assessment and Analysis To carry out an assessment test incorporating Video
50. all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Show Track Cursor Clicking on this sub menu item turns the Track Cursor on if it was previously off or off if it was previously on If the cursor is currently on a tick appears to the left of the menu text 156 Zoom Lucy 1 of x Seat 100 Patient Information Name Lucy ID Test Date 20 5 98 Clinician Comment Repaired cleft 0 Combined Speech Intensity 20s 100 Analysis Point Values Time 620 00 ms Ratio 28 33 Nasalance 35 81 Amplitude Slope 1 51 0 06 ms 0 E 9 82 0 12 ms Nasal Airflow 2 0 wm g 17 59 0 01 ms 100 0 Oral Airflow 2 0 w If a Block Cursor is on it will be switched off by selecting the Track Cursor only one cursor can be on ata time Show Block Cursor Clicking on this sub menu item turns the Block Cursor on if it was previously off or off if it was previously on If the cursor is currently on a tick appears to the left of the menu text Zoom Lucy 1 OF xX Seat 100 Patient Information Name Lucy ID Test Date 20 5 98 Clinician Comment Repaired cleft 0 Combined Speech Intensity 20s 100 Analysis Mean Values Time 990 00 ms Ratio 4 78 Nasalance 46 08 Amplitude Slope E 9 30 0 00 ms 0 l m 760 0 01 ms Nasal Airflow 20s E 8 76 0 01 ms 100
51. allows the user to listen to the Lx signal if required However the main reason for recording the Laryngograph signal is that the high resolution Sp amp Lx Wave displays are derived from the wav file 130 Zoom Paul Yideo 02 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow Voicing Intensity Fundamental Frequency The Display Options section of the Test Settings dialog box allows the user to select an extra window to display by default at the end of the test The Display Options do not affect what is recorded only the default display If Show Bar is checked both Test Scope and Bar windows will appear at the end of the test shown below with Track Cursor enabled EE oix BB Test Sample Standard Mi Ea Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Nasal Airflow 100 50 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow 50 Oral Airflow s Oral Airflow As Bar uses the same SNORS data as Scope it can be turned on or off at the end of the test if required from the Test menu If Show Wave is checked both Test Scope and Wave windows will appear at the end of the test shown below with Track Cursor enabled 131 Coat Mhoaocon Chant Crmalks eat Cneese Snoot smoke 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 100 0 Nasal Airflow 100 Oral Airflow As for Bar Wave can be turned on or off at the end of
52. and ends at the right hand edge of the block au Pause Pressing the Pause button stops playback The playback cursor dotted line remains in place at the point where playback was stopped Pressing Pause a second time restarts playback from where it left off Stop The Stop button stops playback and resets the animation cursor Skip Forward Skip Forward causes the Track or Block cursor if active to move from left to right Stop is functional during this process and functions to stop the cursor where it is i e it does not reset the cursor Pause and Loop Playback do not function during skip operations S Loop Playback By pressing the Loop Playback button a sequence can be replayed continuously until Stop is pressed by pressing the Play button 124 Shortcut keys Step by step guide to using SNORS shortcut keys There are a number of shortcut keys that in combination with the toolbar provide a quick and convenient way of controlling SNORS The and keys on the numeric keypad provide a quick way of increasing or decreasing the sensitivity of the display in the active window Scope Bar or Wave Pause Pressing the Pause key stops all active widows The header in the title bar changes from Active to Suspended Pressing the Pause key again restarts the displays S Pressing the S key suspends freezes the active window
53. annels Video image Wave displays available m Sound Waveform Sp m Laryngograph waveform Lx Speech analysis displays available m FFT LPC m Spectrogram SNORS measures the function of key articulators It can be used for therapy assessment and the measurement of outcome Real time display therapy In therapy real time displays of function are provided These can be instantaneous 2D displays showing single or multiple parameters such as tongue palate contact and nasal oral airflow HREP vE Oo Bar Active ofj Nasal Airflow 100 1005 m 100 100 Oral Airflow These simple 2D displays are generally the most useful for therapy as they are simple and easy to interpret They provide clear visual feedback to the patient allowing the effect of any corrections made to be seen SNORS biofeedback for example helps the patient to know when velopharyngeal closure is happening to become aware of exactly what is happening in their mouth and any sensation that accompanies that Small adjustments that the patient tries can be seen to either work or not A visual image helps with self monitoring initially the patient can see what is happening and can be repeatedly asked to explain what is happening and what things feel and sound like And because we could see and record changes and improvements patients are encouraged to continue and can be motivated to work hard As well as instantaneo
54. appears showing the sensor offsets Initialize The flow sensors are now initialised Nasal offset 44 Oral offset Ae ae Again click OK The sensors are now initialised and you can remove the red flow sensor caps ready to perform the test When you are ready to commence the test click Start in the Test Settings dialog box After a short delay a sequence of words appears on the screen The standard sequence is Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End BS word List Pile Ea 1 The sensor offsets are small errors that exist such that the sensors do not read exactly zero for no flow The initialisation process removes these errors which are typically a few percent If the errors exceed about 6 it is advisable to have the system recalibrated 16 The patient is simply required to speak the words into the mask At the end of the test a Test display similar to Scope appears on the screen showing the waveforms for the complete word list BB Test swk system test Job Begin Type Fight seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Mh 0 Combined Speech Envelope 20 0 s ee 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Oral Airflow 20 0 s 100 0 The sensitivity of the traces can be changed if required by pressing the or key on the numeric keypad This is useful if the patient has spoken very quietly for example and the initial traces are low in amplitu
55. appropriate selector box This is useful when an offset has been applied and zero is no longer at the bottom of the display E Scope Suspended s s TE Scope Suspended poo g 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel The EPG setting dialog box differs slightly in therapy and assessment modes The assessment EPG dialog box is described first and then the differences for therapy mode are discussed 90 Assessment mode EPG Settings The EPG Settings dialog box allows the appearance of the Linguagraph EPG display to be changed The Segment Outline box allows the outline boxes around each segment position to be switched on default by clicking Show or off as shown below by clicking Hide Alternatively the segments can be enlarged so that they merge together Merge 91 Segment Colour sets the colour of the contact display segments Segments can be red default blue or green or can be made multicolour by selecting Spectrum Spectrum is useful when the block cursor is used as colour rather than a simple grey scale represents strength of contact shown below merged The colours are arranged as in a spectrum with red representing maximum contact and blue representing no contact In between colours
56. ation but the hardware may have been subsequently disconnected e g for transportation If the hardware is not already correctly configured proceed as follows 1 2 3 4 5 Make sure that the computer is switched off and disconnected from the mains Connect the SNORS Base Unit large connector at rear to the interface card installed in the computer using the Data Cable This is the thick cable with a large flatish plug on each end Note that the connectors are shaped and will only fit one way round in their sockets Both ends of the cable are identical however so it does not matter which end is connected to which item Connect the Laryngograph Aux output to the SNORS Base Unit Lx input using the cable provided Plug the SNORS Audio Unit lead into the appropriate connector on the front of the SNORS Base Unit labelled Mask Mic Look at the connectors before mating them and align the red mark on the plug with the corresponding red mark on the socket Gently push the two appropriate connectors together and rotate the plug if necessary until the two start to move together When this occurs you can push the two fully together Plug the microphone into the connector at the front of the SNORS Audio Unit Connect the SNORS Base Unit s audio output to the PC Sound Card s Line In socket using the Audio Cable provided This is the lead with a small 3 5 mm mini jack plug on each end It does not matter which way
57. ble fit and plug the palate connector into the slot in the Linguagraph unit Note that the connector will only fit one way round Place the wrist strap over the patient s wrist ensuring that the connecting lead is positioned at the inside of the wrist Now ask the patient to place their tongue firmly against their hard palate Adjust the Linguagraph sensitivity control so that maximum contact is just shown ideally all squares should be lit Then ask the patient to take their tongue away from the palate and check that no or very little contact is shown Note on electropalatography palates It takes a while for the patient to get used to wearing an electropalatography palate For this reason the palate should be inserted some time prior to commencement of assessment or therapy Opinions vary as to how long should be allowed but a minimum period of one hour is recommended Before using electropalatography with a patient for the first time it is advisable to issue them with a practise palate This is a low cost acrylic palate made from the same impression as the electropalatography palate but without electrodes or wires The patient should be asked to wear their practise palate for an hour or so a day if possible for several weeks prior to therapy A practise palate is not necessary for patients who wear upper dentures When you are happy with the operation of the Linguagraph system click the Close All button on the toolbar
58. causes the sound For example the voiceless alveolar t the superior longitudinal muscle enables the tongue to form a seal around the alveolar ridge and edges of the hard palate The velum rises as the levator palatini contracts and closes against the pharyngeal wall Expiratory air builds up pressure in the oral cavity and this is released as the tongue rapidly comes away from the alveolar ridge And that s just one sound When we consider that the average rate of speech is up to four syllables per second each of which can contain anything up to seven consonants and a vowel sound the complexity of articulator movement becomes apparent It has been estimated that over 100 muscles are involved in the speech process and that their controlled co ordination requires around 140 000 neuromuscular events every second With a process this complex how can we hope accurately to assess and measure the involvement of all the contributing parameters And as important how can we objectively measure change in these e g as a result of therapy There are a number of individual instruments that can help us do this including SNORS Linguagraph and Laryngograph Speech instruments SNORS SNORS is an anemometry system that measures both nasal and oral airflow during speech By calculating the percentage of the airflow that is nasal Nasalance SNORS provides a measure of the effectiveness of velopharyngeal closure As both nasal and oral airfl
59. ched on or off 100 i Spectrogram Active Ioj x 10 kHz Combined Speech Spectrogram Appearance allows the spectrogram to be viewed in pseudo colour instead of its default greyscale see Chapter 9 for more details Maximum Frequency allows the user the change the frequency range that is displayed between 1 and 10 kHz in 1 kHz steps by clicking on the Z symbol and making a selection The Trace Window box allows the user to change the time period displayed between 0 and 60 seconds in one second steps by clicking on the symbol and making a selection When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Note other Spectrogram display settings which are primarily intended for research use are discussed in Chapter 9 101 Video ideo Playback Settings Camera Appearance Format VCR CCIR Image size 384 x 266 Monochrome i Inverse Video C Feudo Colour Zoom Factor h Frame Aate Frames per second 25 Contrast lt lt ee Kaa frre neeny Cancel Brightness The Camera and Frame Rate boxes show the format image size and frame rate at which the video was recorded These are for information only as they can not be changed retrospectively The Contrast and Brightness sliders can be used to alter these parameters on the displayed
60. creased 126 The Menus Step by step guide to using SNORS direct from the menus Like all Windows 95 98 applications SNORS can be driven entirely from the menu bar All menus follow the Windows 95 98 standard The menu items available depend on what operation is currently being performed i e the available options reflect the task being carried out At start up for example there are relatively few options available to the user whereas during analysis there are many menu options available The menus explained The menu is grouped into seven main headings File Options View Test Audio Window Help File New Test Starts a new test The test Settings dialog box first opens which allows selections to be made if required 127 Test Settings Clicking Start without making any changes starts the test in default mode In most cases the default settings will suffice However a number of changes are possible and may be made if required Word List The Word List section of the dialog box indicates the Current word list file i e the word list that will be used for the test By default this is the Standard list standard txt An alternative list can be chosen if required by clicking the Select New List button This invokes the Windows 95 98 Open dialog box which displays all the available word list files 128 Open Look in O Word List files d n t sou
61. d has not already been saved Save Options E4 Window selection f Save complete test Save zoom view only Cancel If the active window is a bar or EPG only the visible snapshot of the window will be saved If the file has not been saved before the Save As dialog box will open see next section and a file name must be typed in Save As Allows a test or other active window to be saved with a new name Any files previously saved will be unchanged When this option is selected the Save As dialog box appears 141 C Test data files J Alison 3 Sounds_6 T Bruna 2 i Charles 1 vee Sounds 4 Sounds_5 Simply enter the name that you wish to use for the file and click Save Print Opens the Windows 95 98 Print dialog box to allow the active window to be printed FHP Lasertet SP SMP PostScript ie Simply click on OK to print the active window By clicking on Properties options such as paper size and orientation portrait or landscape can be chosen 142 Options HP Laserjet i PostScript Properties If you have more than one printer available a different printer can be selected by clicking on the __J symbol next to the Name box in the Print dialog box Please note that the Print and Printer Properties dialogue boxes are part of Windows 95 98 They will reflect the printer s that you have install
62. d as a percentage of maximum possible contact Left Lateral The amount of tongue palate contact in the left lateral region i e the left two columns of the palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact Right Lateral The amount of tongue palate contact in the right lateral region i e the right two columns of the palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact Midline The amount of tongue palate contact in the midline region i e the centre four columns of the palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact 155 Balance The balance of tongue palate contact left to right 100 is fully left 100 is fully right Weight The weight of total tongue palate contact over the entire palate expressed as a percentage of maximum possible contact Centre of Gravity The position of the centre of gravity of the total contact area front to back 100 is fully forward and 0 is fully back Patient Info The Information dialog box that opens when Patient Info is selected allows the user to enter details of the patient being tested Simply use the mouse to click in a box where it is desired to enter information and type in the details The test date is automatically entered but can be changed if required Information Patient Info Mame Cancel ID Date of birth Address Test Info Test date 29 7490 Clinician Commenta When
63. d the user simply places the cursor over the area of interest and examines the parameters displayed in the status bar The crosshair cursor may be activated via the toolbar or menu option D Spectrogram Test Time 10 00 s Frequency 4 98 kHz Intensity 8 63 Z A spectrogram with the crosshair cursor enabled Saving the Real time Spectrogram The real time spectrogram image can be saved at any point during data capture The user simply suspends the trace by either toggling the pause key or pressing the S Suspend key and then initiating the Save As dialogue The test spectrogram When a test is performed with the Record Audio option enabled a spectrogram of the recorded speech may be obtained This is displayed automatically if the Show Spectrogram option is ticked prior to performing the test Alternatively it may be invoked after the test via the Show Spectrogram menu option With the exception of the trace window and trigger mode options all of the features described in the real time section also apply to the test spectrogram The Linear Predictive Coder The Linear predictive Coder LPC utilises a model based approach to display a spectrum that shows the resonances formants without the complication of the fundamental frequency and its harmonics While it provides a useful alternative to the FFT it does have the limitation that it assumes a series of resonators with no branches i e oral o
64. de As the sensitivity is varied the scales at the left of the screen alter to reflect the changes To listen to the recorded test click Play on the toolbar gt The recorded sound is replayed and an animation cursor moves along the Test waveforms in synchronism with the sound W Test swi m test oix Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End RTI 0 Combined Speech Envelope 20 0 s BP 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Bl hak both ol dican 0 Oral Airflow 20 0 s To save the test results click Save on the toolbar i The Save As dialog box appears O Test data files Alison 3 Sounds E vas Bruna_z Charles _ wa Sounds_4 Sounds_5 Type in a file name of your choice and then click Save To print the test click Print on the toolbar g When the Print dialog box appears click OK Note that the print dialog box is part of Windows 95 98 and will vary in appearance and function according to your printer i S Rages fran tye D Selecta When you click OK a simple graphical printout of the Test screen will be produced 18 Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 T 7 7 yoo i fl yd BB AW J L _ TER NA AIN B L ball Ly hha Wy Jl Ly LAAk fod Combined Speech Envelope
65. e ee E e E SEE ESE s s Palatal Tongue Contact Velar Tongue Contact To close the test window click on the Close All button on the toolbar x To open a previously saved test file click Open on the toolbar S In the dialog box that appears double click on the Test data files folder 33 Open Look in E SNORS Bar data files EPG data files Scope data files Test data files Wave data files Word list fles Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg wwe T Cancel This will open the folder containing previous SNORS tests Open Look irr Test data files wan Alison 3 vaa Sounds _ amp glisi Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg h Cancel Next click on the file that you wish to open and then click Open A Test display for the chosen test appears on the screen This is exactly the same as a test window appearing at the end of an assessment test see above When you have finished using SNORS close the program by clicking on its Close box in the top right hand corner of the display Getting started Laryngograph How to start using Laryngograph This chapter provides a quick introduction to using SNORS as a stand alone Laryngograph only system Connecting the hardware Before using SNORS it is necessary to connect the hardware together Basic setup should have been carried out at install
66. e display can also be changed Reducing the sensitivity has the effect of slowing down the display which again makes it easier to observe peak values But short lived peaks may be lost 87 Channel Select allows the user to alter the parameters displayed in both the upper and lower bar For example Speech intensity and Voicing intensity could be displayed instead of the default Airflow parameters Finally the background colour can be changed from grey to black This provides a greater contrast which may be useful for patients having reduced visual acuity H Bar Active Mil Ei Masal Aidlow 100 100 m I I I I I I I I 100 100 Oral Airflow When all selections have been made in the Bar Settings dialog box they can be applied by clicking OK or the operation may be cancelled by clicking Cancel All of the above applies equally to SNORS Bar and Laryngograph Bar Scope Scope Settings Trace Sensitivity 1 F Cancel Speed 5 F Offset Thickness 1 Background Colour Grey f Black Text M Show Title If Show Scale Grid Trigger Mode M Show Horizontal Grid Continuous T Show Vertical Grid Single Shot T Show Zero Line 88 The scope Background Colour can be changed from black to grey a Scope Suspended OX 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 5 0s 100 Dh ee a ee
67. eal time for assessment and for measurement of outcome In order to understand why a multiparameter system is necessary we must first consider how speech is produced Speech is the result of a highly complex and versatile system of co ordinated muscular movements The involved structures are known as the articulators Their movement is controlled neurologically The articulators The respiratory system Speech sounds are air pressure waves which in the majority of cases are powered by the expiratory phase respiration During speech a great deal of control is required The larynx Air passes from the lungs to the larynx For many of the speech sounds the vocal folds are used to interrupt the flow of air causing periodic pulses of air or phonation Differing length and mass of vocal folds lead to different fundamental frequencies of vibration around 125 Hz in men 200 Hz in women and 300 Hz in children During speech the frequency of vibration changes as pitch is changed in intonation The pharynx The air pressure waves then pass through the pharynx Its r le in speech is that of a resonating cavity the dimensions of which can be altered e g shortened or lengthened by raising or lowering the larynx The velum During normal respiration the pharynx is coupled to the nasal cavity this is also the case during the production of nasal consonants However for the vast majority of the consonants of English the nasal cavit
68. ears on the screen By default the sequence Is Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 29 The patient is simply required to speak the words At the end of the test a Test display appears on the screen showing the Speech Intensity waveform for the complete word list To the left of the Test window an EPG window can be seen The EPG display will be blank at this stage Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity Alveolar Tongue Contact ENE KAE KE EEE E a ia a i a R a oe D S E A E S Palatal Tongue Contact Velar Tongue Contact The sensitivity of the trace can be changed if required by pressing the or key on the numeric keypad This is useful if the patient has spoken very quietly for example and the initial traces are low in amplitude As the sensitivity is varied the scales at the left of the screen alter to reflect the changes To listen to the recorded test click Play on the toolbar aa The recorded sound is replayed and an animation cursor moves along the Test waveforms in synchronism with the sound The image in the EPG widow changes to reflect the tongue palate contact pattern at the current cursor position 30 EPG 101 x BY Test Sample Standard Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity Alveolar Tongue Contact H es sf Ei Bee BE
69. ed the Wave display changes to reflect the new cursor position The vertical centre line in the Wave window represents the cursor position in the main Test display The horizontal centre line represents the signal Zero level t Now activate the block cursor by clicking its button on the toolbar The Wave window now displays the detailed waveform for the region enclosed by the cursor block olx AIEN ok Combined Speech Envelope lll 0 Nasal Airflow fe 0 Oral Airflow If the cursor is moved the Wave display again changes to reflect the cursor position lf the cursor width is altered the Wave display changes to continue to show the portion of the audio waveform representing the selection contained within the cursor block At any stage the Wave window can be expanded to fill the display simply by clicking the Maximise box El at the top right hand corner of its window When you have finished viewing the Wave window it can be shrunk back to its Original size and position by clicking the Window box BI which now replaces its Maximise box FFT LPC viewing the frequency spectrum at any point in the waveform It is also possible to view the Fast Fourier Transform FFT or Linear Predictive Coding LPC of the high resolution Speech Sp waveform provided Record Audio was selected when the test was performed This is selected by default The easiest way to view the FFT LPC
70. ed on your system and may be different to the examples shown above Exit Closes the SNORS program You will be warned if a test has been completed but not saved and invited to save the test Initialise When a real time Bar or Scope is open it is possible to initialise the flow sensors to remove any small offset which may be present On selection of this option a message box appears 143 Initialise Make sure that the red caps are on the flow sensors put the mask down on a flat surface and then answer OK by clicking the OK button in the message box A new message box appears Initialise Again click OK The sensors are now initialised and you can remove the red flow sensor Caps Settings This option enables the characteristics of the active window to be altered There are five possible types of active window Bar Scope EPG Wave and Video Each type has its own Settings dialog box Bar The Bar Settings dialog box allows the appearance dynamics channels and background colour of the bar to be altered Bar Settings Oral Airflow 144 The Appearance section allows bar features to be turned on and off These are Scale e g 100 Text e g Nasal Airflow Peak Hold indicators which stay at the peak value reached by the bar for a short time and Targets adjustable markers which are used to indicate levels to be reached or kept below The Bar sect
71. ee ih 1 ly We ii 10 Seconds A wideband spectrogram of the utterance s r i lu Isl The real time spectrogram The real time spectrogram option allows the user to view the complex speech patterns as they are spoken making it extremely useful as a biofeedback tool The speech signal is captured by the host computer s sound card via a microphone connected either directly or through SNORS Once captured the sampled audio data is processed in 100 ms blocks ensuring that the spectrogram display is updated 10 times a second The options available to the real time spectrogram can be accessed via a single dialogue box Spectrogram Settings Text W Show Title W Show Scale Grid lM Show Horizontal Grid M Show Vertical Grid Appearance Grey Scale Colour Intensity Scaling f Logarithmic C Linear Maximum Frequency fio kHz Trace Window fio Seconds Window Functions Square C Welch C Bartlett Hanning Trigger Mode C Continuous f Single Shot 116 Hoe Reduction Bandwidth amp Nanrowband C Wideband C Custom Maximum Frequency The maximum frequency that can be displayed on the real time spectrogram is restricted by the sound card s sample rate The Nyquist sampling theorem states that only sampled data with frequencies up to sample rate 2 can accurately be reproduced The sound card in this application has been programmed to sample at 22050 samp
72. ee ee ee aoa Nasal Airflow 50s eed fa fp re Oral Airflow 5 05s Black is the default colour for Scope as the relatively thin lines are easier to see against a black background The Text box enables the Title and Scale to be turned off or on these are on by default Trigger Mode allows the scope trace to be either Continuous free running or Single Shot In single shot mode the trace starts when the user presses any key on the keyboard and stops when it reaches the end of the screen Pressing any key again will re start the trace for a new single scan Trigger Mode is only applicable to a real time therapy window The Trace box allows various features of the trace to be varied Trace Sensitivity gain and Offset which determines how much if any negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate z symbol and making a selection Note an offset of 5 sets the zero at the centre of the display Speed alters the scan speed and hence the window duration in real time mode The Grid box allows horizontal and or vertical grid lines can be switched on or off 89 EPG a Scope Suspended E d Combined Speech Intensity 500 0 msidiv Nasal Airflow 500 0 msidiv Oral Airflow 500 0 mssdiv Alternatively a single Zero Line can be selected by clicking in the
73. eplaced with a Channel Select feature This allows the active EPG window to be assigned to either Linguagraph 1 or Linguagraph 2 Also the Spectrum segment colour is not available in therapy mode Wave The Wave Settings dialog box allows the appearance of the display to be changed Wave Settings Trace Sensitivity gt Cancel Vi indo 2 F Offset Text s m Thickness 1 Background Colour C Grey f Black l Show Title l Show Scale Grid Channel Select M Show Horizontal Grid MW Speech T Show Yertical Grid M Voicing T Show Centre Lines A Background Colour of either grey or black can be selected by clicking the appropriate selector button Text for the title e g Combined Speech and the Scale e g 50 can be turned on or off independently Channel Select allows the user to choose which channels to display Speech voicing or both Channels are turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector boxes 147 Trace Sensitivity gain Window time duration and Offset which determines how much if any negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate p symbol and making a selection Finally Horizontal or Vertical Grid lines can be switched on or off or a pair of horizontal and vertical Centre Lines can be selected by clicking in the appropriate select
74. es WI FFT LPC Active Combined Speech Spectrum 1 0 kHzidiv Maximum Frequency allows the user the change the frequency range that is displayed between 1 and 10 kHz in 1 kHz steps The Trace box allows various features of the trace to be varied Trace Sensitivity gain Window time duration and Offset which determines how much negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate B mbo and making a selection The Grid box allows horizontal and or vertical grid lines to be switched on or off 98 MN FFT LPC Active wa Combined Speech Spectrum 10 0 kHz Alternatively the default pair of horizontal and vertical Centre Lines can be turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector box The Text box enables the Title and Scale to be turned off or on these are on by default il Lid a De When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Note other FFT LPC display settings which are primarily intended for research use are discussed in Chapter 9 99 Spectrogram Spectrogram Settings The Text box enables the Title and Scale to be turned on or off these are on by default i Spectrogram Active The Grid box allows horizontal and or vertical axis ticks to be swit
75. eseees XV Multiparameter cee 4 28 67 N Narrowband 20 0 ee eeeeeeeeeeeee 115 150 Nasalance ocna 3 46 51 52 54 104 154 155 NEW Srann aa 12 13 14 15 24 25 27 29 37 38 39 40 46 47 48 61 62 68 69 70 71 72 73 76 81 82 121 122 127 128 129 160 NeW Bar eich ie ee n 13 38 68 72 81 122 New EPO nana seat 24 27 71 72 122 NEW SCOPE aoa a 12 14 25 37 39 69 121 New Test atten tetas 15 29 40 46 70 73 76 82 122 O OTIS esas ators eats 89 96 98 146 148 Opio xv 11 19 20 21 23 27 28 33 34 36 44 45 47 48 65 66 79 121 122 128 129 140 141 OPEN EP oosist 27 122 P Patient INO oeiia 50 51 123 136 156 160 Pasean 27 63 65 69 72 73 123 124 125 PIAY onone e 17 30 41 63 123 124 PAO eea 18 31 42 94 121 125 142 143 169 RiU undp 46 51 52 54 155 Repeat Testori 50 160 RESOMMION siiin 84 85 117 136 152 S SAVE aa T 17 18 31 42 64 65 120 121 129 141 142 no OL ee ee ee 86 89 96 99 100 145 147 148 149 SCOPE Mian eae aes 14 15 17 39 48 57 58 60 65 68 69 70 79 81 86 88 89 92 93 103 104 106 110 112 122 125 126 130 131 132 134 137 141 143 144 145 153 164 DSENSUIVILY aca ciuectind eles 87 89 96 98 146 148 167 SEUNG UP zra 11 SME ana 6 68 105 155 165 Shimmer Factor ce cee 105 SKID aeinian ae 63 123 124 SNOR Sousen aan xili XIV XV Xvi xvii 1 2 3
76. f the speech mechanics along with the resulting sound SNORS records nasal and oral airflows from which the action of the velum can be inferred and an assessment of function can be made Linguagraph records tongue palate contact directly and Laryngograph provides a similarly direct picture of vocal fold vibration Although these data are objective they are also qualitative In order to measure outcome quantitative data is required It is also useful to record more than one test to assess intra subject variability to use alternative word lists and to store patient information This Chapter describes how to add these features to an assessment test and to carry out quantitative analysis For clarity this chapter refers solely to SNORS but the techniques described are equally applicable to Linguagraph and Laryngograph with the exception of sensor Setup and the definitions of Nasalance and Ratio Perform an assessment test as in e g Chapter 3 by clicking New Test on the toolbar The Test Settings dialog box opens It is now possible to make choices about the test parameters and or enter details of the patient to be tested 46 Test Settings Word List Current word list file tandard Select Hew List Create Mew List Parameter S lection M SNORS ee gt ERE T Aus W Record Audio Record Video Display Options Show Bar Word list By default SNORS use
77. fine detail and subtle variations that are very important in videofluoroscopy images Due to the intense nature of video acquisition it is normal for occasional frames to be dropped In SNORS this does no affect the synchronisation of the video with the data During playback dropped frames are replaced with the preceding frame so that the sequence is smooth and flicker free In other modes dropped frames are blanked so that the user can see exactly which frames are missing Provided the acquired video sequence does not exceed the available memory RAM the typical frame drop rate is about 1 Recommended maximum recording times at 25fps for common amounts of memory and various image resolutions are as follows RAM Mbytes Image Resolution Max Recording Time 64 Low 64s 64 Medium 16s 64 High 4s 128 Low 160 s 128 Medium 40s 128 High 10s 256 Low 288 s 256 Medium 72s 256 High 18s 384 Low 316 s 384 Medium 104s 384 High 26 S 85 Further features How to use the extra features of SNORS from the menu bar This chapter briefly describes how to use the extra SNORS features which are only accessible from the menu bar Full details of the menu bar can be found in Chapter 12 Certain features of Bar Scope EPG and Wave can only be changed by selecting Settings from the Options menu These changes can be applied to both active and saved windows Click on Options on the menu bar move down the drop down
78. first press the New Test button on the toolbar as for starting SNORS alone In the Test Settings dialog box click in the relevant check boxes For example to record standard SNORS plus Voicing from Laryngograph and_ simultaneous videofluoroscopy images click in the Record Video and Show Wave check boxes Optional 82 Test Settings Word List Word Display Period Curent word list file a le Seconds E tandard Select Mew List Sample Frequency Create New List 200 Hz Farameter Selection m Setup W SNORS Sensors W Lx EFG Adio Aus Video W Record Audio lv Record Wideo Patient Into Display Options Show Bar Show FFT LPC i Show Wave Show Spectrogram rea If necessary set the video parameters by clicking the Video button in the Setup section of the Test Settings dialog box Yideo Record Settings Camera Image resolution C High Medium Image size 394 x 200 flow Frame rate OK Frames per second F is Cancel The Camera format section of the Video Record Settings dialog box allows the appropriate video source to be selected Formats commencing VCR are designed specifically for recording from videotape These should not be used with live sources 83 The Image size can be varied by selecting High Medium or Low resolution from the Image Resolution section Finally the Frame rate can be se
79. for the following reasons m t allows the patient to get used to speaking with an artificial palate m It allows the therapist to check that the palate is correctly fitted and to adjust the sensitivity control to suit each patient m t allows the volume control to be set to the correct value for each particular patient m It allows the operation of the system to be discussed with the patient Snors Open the SNORS program by double clicking on its icon Sues A title screen appears briefly 23 UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY BEES SNORS Medical Electronics Research Group University of Kent at Canterbury The main SNORS window then opens Fleets JoJ gt ula 2 For Help click Contents on the Help Menu Note that many of the buttons are Greyed out This is because they are not available yet In general an option is greyed out whenever it is not available This may be because the option is not relevant at the time or it may be because the necessary hardware e g a sound or video card is not present Start an EPG display by clicking on the red New EPG button on the toolbar i An EPG window opens FAA EPG Active Pie Es fell E _ Al O AA OCCO OT T Place the Linguagraph electronics unit so that it hangs around the patients neck by means of its strap Place the electropalatography palate in the patient s mouth ensuring a firm comforta
80. format from the drop down box that appears Export Data Provides export of the test trend signals to either the Windows Clipboard or a text file All available Scope channels are included whether visible or not Export Analysis Provides export of the test analysis results at the current track or Block cursor position to either the Windows Clipboard or a text file Analyses for all available Scope channels are included whether visible or not Audio features such as playback volume can be altered via the Audio menu 106 Settings Click on Audio on the menu bar move down the drop down menu until Settings is highlighted and the click on Settings A Settings dialog box opens Audio Settings Retoralra Wl nreliti C CD Radio Cancel i Teleghone Advanced The default quality Radio uses a sampling rate of 22 kHz which should be satisfactory for most purposes If required the audio can be increased to CD quality 44 kHz or reduced to Telephone quality 11 kHz It should be noted however that the higher the quality the larger the files size A standard test without sound requires just 23 Kbytes of disk space The same test with Telephone Radio or CD quality sound occupies about 900 Kbytes 1 8 Mbytes or 3 5 Mbytes respectively Clicking the Advanced button opens the standard Windows Volume Control dialog box EE Yolume Control yx
81. from the block cursor box unless it is required that their effect should be included As for nasalance the speech intensity channel is helpful in determining which parts of the flow waveform are due to speech and which are due to respiration there should normally be very little sound during respiration However a little care should be exercised as breathing is sometimes audible and some sounds such as sibilants have a low acoustic level But with a little practice and knowledge of speech production it should be fairly easy to select the appropriate sections of the waveform for use in ratio calculations Sound Waveform Features The audio recording facility provided by SNORS does far more than simply play back the sounds uttered by the patient The detailed sound waveform can be viewed at a range of magnifications and the synchronous nature of the recording allows the user to listen to any selected portion of the test waveforms The sound waveform can also be analysed in the frequency domain providing Fast Fourier Transform FFT Linear predictive Coding LPC and spectrogram displays Wave FFT LPC and Spectrogram displays can also be used in real time for therapy Wave viewing high resolution waveforms It is possible to view the high resolution Speech Sp waveform provided Record Audio was selected when the test was performed This is selected by default The easiest way to view the high resolution waveform is
82. g New Test except that data for the current patient is automatically entered into the patient Information box If required this information can be changed edited by selecting Patient Info Test Settings E4 ae Eee 3J l For details of possible selections see New Test above 160 Audio Show Bar Allows the Bar display to be shown or hidden Show EPG Allows the EPG display to be shown or hidden Show Wave Allows the Wave display to be shown or hidden Show FFT LPC Allows the FFT LPC display to be shown or hidden Show Spectrogram Allows the Spectrogram display to be shown or hidden Show Video Allows the Video display to be shown or hidden Export Data Provides export of the test trend signals to either the Windows Clipboard or a text file All recorded traces are exported whether visible on the Test display or not Data are exported in tabular form where each column represents a particular trend signal s data and each row represents a time slice Export Analysis Provides export of analysis data to either the Windows Clipboard or a text file Analysis data for all recorded traces are exported whether visible on the Test display or not Data are exported in tabular form as a single column where each row represents an analysis value either at the position of the Track Cursor or averaged over the width of a Block Cursor Settings This option opens the Wave Sett
83. g an X Clicking in the close box closes the window Menu Bar The Menu Bar is the Grey strip at the top of the screen just below the main title bar File Options View Test Audio Window Help SNORS Menu Bar Clicking an item in the menu bar opens a drop down menu from which selections can be made Options Show Track Cursor Property page When many selections need to be made property pages are often used allowing like parameters to be grouped together Channel Select aaee The various pages can be selected by clicking on their respective tab Toolbar Toolbars appear in many programs and provide quick ways to do tasks Most toolbar buttons correspond to a menu command lela ale ul aln i SNORS Toolbar You can find out what each button does by resting your pointer over the button a box appears displaying the button name Status bar The Status bar at the bottom of a SNORS window displays information about a menu command and provides some analysis results Time 560 00 rs Nasalance 9 06 Ratio 01 84 4 2 Status Bar showing analysis results Icon An Icon is a graphical symbol representing a program or window Double clicking on an icon opens the appropriate program or window Ea XVII Chapter Introduction What does SNORS do SNORS is a synchronous multiparameter speech workstation It can be used for therapy in r
84. g low level noise and providing a cleaner whiter background Note however that low level signals will be removed as well as the noise Colour Intensity is effectively a contrast control which acts by increasing the intensity gain It is often useful to increase the Colour Intensity after noise reduction has reduced the dynamic range Finally the Bandwidth of the Spectrogram can be changed between Narrowband and Wideband Custom selections are also possible When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Video The Video settings dialog box allows the video capture during Test real time image during Therapy or playback parameters to be changed Different options are available at different times 150 Video Settings Camera Image resolution Format ae E Image size 384 x 208 i High Medium C Low Zoom Appearance Factor h H Monochrome C Pseudo Colour Contrast Cancel Uk Caed Brightness Therapy Video Settings options Yideo Record Settings Camera Image resolution Format VCR CCIR High Medium C Low Image size 394 x 200 Frame rate 0K Frames per second Cancel Test Video Settings options 151 ideo Playback Settings Camera Appearance Format VCR CCIR Image size 3
85. he flow sensors to be initialised As this function is called automatically at the start of each session it should not normally be necessary to use this button In a particularly long session however it is a good idea to initialise the sensors occasionally about once an hour Audio The Audio button allows selection of the audio quality sound card sampling rate Audio Settings Recording Quality C Co fe ipods Cancel C Telephone Advanced The default quality Radio uses a sampling rate of 22 kHz which should be satisfactory for most purposes If required the audio can be increased to CD quality 44 kHz or reduced to Telephone quality 11 kHz It should be noted however that the higher the quality the larger the file s size A standard test without sound requires just 23 Kbytes of disk space The same test with Telephone Radio or CD quality sound occupies about 900 Kbytes 1 8 Mbytes or 3 5 Mbytes respectively The Advanced audio settings are described in Chapter 12 Video The Video button permits setting of video capture parameters These are described in the Adding video section at the end of Chapter 7 49 Patient Info Clicking the Patient Info button allows details of the patient being tested to be entered and stored with the test results A new dialog box appears for data entry Information Patient Info Mame ID Date of birth
86. her side of the thyroid cartilage Place the electropalatography palate in the patient s mouth ensuring a firm comfortable fit and connect to the Linguagraph hardware as before Finally ask the patient to hold the SNORS mask over their nose and mouth and then proceed with the test in the normal way At the end of the test the usual Test window appears but there will be additional Voicing intensity and Fundamental Frequency traces as well as Bar and EPG windows T7 el Bar Tes oix Mie lolx EE E ie Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 100 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 100 0 0 0 Nasal Airflow 100 100 100 Oral Airflow 0 Oral Airflow 100 0 Voicing Intensity 100 Eases SE e SE PEEEEE EP EESEEE E S EE E E E E E e a a Fundamental Frequency Analysis is carried out as for stand alone SNORS but as the cursor is moved along the traces the EPG snapshot changes to reflect the tongue palate contact at the current cursor position Ea Tes iol Nasal Airflow lx DE Zoom Alison 3 OF x 100 Patient Information 100 100 Name Alison ID Test Date 3 5 98 0 Combined Speech Intensity 2 0 wo Clinician 100 Comment 2 palate electrodes faulty 0 Analysis Point Values Time 870 00 ms Ratio 74 79 Nasalance 87 40 Ex 0 00 Hz Nasal Airflow 2 0 wo 100 100 100 0 Amplitude Slope
87. ical line on and off Cascade Displays all open windows as a cascade 162 Help Tile horizontal Arranges all open windows horizontally Tile vertical Arranges all open windows vertically Auto Arrange Automatically arranges all open windows Arrange Icons Automatically arranges any iconised windows Close All Closes all open windows 1 2 3 etc Switches between different windows Contents Displays the table of contents for the help system Search Searches the help system for the specified topic Using help Displays information about using the help system About Provides basic information about the SNORS program including version number licensed user and copyright details 163 Specification A list of the system s capabilities Input channels SNORS m Nasal airflow egressive amp ingressive Oral airflow egressive amp ingressive m Nasal speech intensity m Oral speech intensity Linguagraph m Tongue palate contact Laryngograph m Voicing intensity Fundamental frequency Auxiliary Channel m User definable input channel Sound card m Sound Waveform Sp m Laryngograph waveform Lx Video card m Video images Scope channels available for display m Nasal speech intensity m Oral speech intensity 12 Speech voicing waveform rather than speech voicing intensity displayed in high resolution mode 164 m Combined speech intensity m Nasal airflow a Oral airflow Co
88. indow is active this activates the Block Cursor to allow average measurements to be made and mean EPG and or bar trends to be viewed If an FFT LPC window is active a crosshair Measurement Cursor is activated This allows spot measurements of intensity frequency to be made from the FFT LPC window If a Spectrogram window is active a crosshair Measurement Cursor is activated This allows spot measurements of intensity frequency time to be made from the Spectrogram window QI Zoom Activates the Zoom Cursor allowing the user to zoom into a portion of the display by dragging a box over the required area Animation including Audio Video Playback Skip Backwards Skip Backwards causes the Track or Block cursor if active to move from right to left Stop is functional during this process and functions to stop the cursor where it Is i e it does not reset the cursor Pause and Loop Playback do not function during skip operations Play The Play button starts Audio Video playback or simple animation if there are no audio or video data recorded If no cursor is activated playback commences at the left hand edge of the active window and ends at the right hand edge of the window If 123 a track cursor is active playback commences at the cursor and ends at the right hand edge of the window If a block cursor is active playback commences at the left hand edge of the block
89. ings dialog box which allows selection of audio recording quality and other Advanced parameters 161 Window Audio Settings Recordar Mwalty i EN D Radi Cancel Telephone Advanced The default quality Radio uses a sampling rate of 22 kHz which should be satisfactory for most purposes If required the audio can be increased to CD quality 44 kHz or reduced to Telephone quality 11 kHz It should be noted however that the higher the quality the larger the files size A standard test without sound requires just 23 Kbytes of disk space The same test with Telephone Radio or CD quality sound occupies about 900 Kbytes 1 8 Mbytes or 3 5 Mbytes respectively Clicking the Advanced button opens the standard Windows Volume Control dialog box cE Yolume Control Me E3 Options Help Volume Control Wave Synthesizer Line Balance Balance Balance Balance Volume Volume Volume Volume UGC eee a nunnunnnnnnnnnnunnn T Mute all T Mute T Mute Mute OPL354 Mixer This allows the user to alter the playback volume using the Volume Control and or Wave Volume sliders It is also possible to listen to the Laryngograph Lx signal by moving the Wave Balance slider to the right This signal which represents voicing will be heard a s a buzz Show Animation cursor Clicking this menu item turns the animation cursor dotted vert
90. ion allows the time for which the Peak Hold indicator persists and the sensitivity gain to be changed In real time mode the Response speed of the bar can also be varied This allows the movement to be slowed down to make it easier to see what is happening Channel Select allows the user to choose which parameters are indicated by the upper and lower bars Parameters are selected by clicking on the symbol next to the Upper or Lower Bar box and making the required selection from the list that appears A Background Colour of either grey or black can be selected by clicking the appropriate selector button When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Scope The Scope Settings dialog box allows the appearance dynamics and background colour of the bar to be altered Scope Settings Trace Sensitivity a le Speed a0 Background Colour Grey Black Cancel Text Thickness i W Show Title W Show Scale Grid Tagen Mice Show Horizontal Grid gt ontnuoue Show Vertical Grid Single Shot Show Zero Line A Background Colour of either grey or black can be selected by clicking the appropriate selector button Text for the title e g Combined Speech intensity and the Scale e g 50 can be turned on or off independently In real time mode the Trigger
91. ir nose and mouth Then proceed with the test in the normal way At the end of the test the usual Test window appears but there are five traces instead of the normal three Voicing intensity and Fundamental Frequency channels are added 70 BE Test Alison 3 OF Xx Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Oral Airflow 20 0 s Voicing Intensity 20 0 s Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s Analysis is carried out as for stand alone SNORS but two additional traces are present Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency Adding Linguagraph Therapy Dual channel Linguagraph As well as being able to combine Linguagraph with other instruments SNORS provides the facility to use two Linguagraphs together To use two Linguagraphs for therapy in simultaneous real time mode after starting the SNORS package simply g click on the New EPG button twice followed by Auto Arrange Two EPG displays will appear on the screen one red and one blue as when using a single Linguagraph and a stored model However for two channel operation both displays will be active 71 FE EPG Active lel Es FAEPG Active ANENE E EEEE EHH HE _ i _ i _ i _ _ _ I _ _ i EEE
92. is to select Show FFT LPC at the time of recording the test This is achieved by clicking in the Show FFT LPC check box in the Display Options part of the Test Settings dialog box Display Options F Show Bar IM Show FFT LPC Show Wave Show Spectrogram At the end of the test the FFT LPC window appears at the left of the display By default a single LPC trace is shown olx TER cieuerec IE Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow With no cursors on the screen the FFT LPC window displays the spectrum averaged over the entire recording It is more useful to view the spectrum at a specific time This is achieved using the Track Cursor in the Scope window 57 Click in the Scope window to make it the active window and then click on the Show Track Cursor button on the toolbar The Track Cursor appears in the main test window and the FFT LPC display changes to show the spectrum of the speech signal at the cursor position FFT LPC Test ioi x B Test Sample Standard Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow The FFT LPC window shows the FFT LPC for a 2048 sample section of the audio waveform at the position of the cursor in the main display The cursor can be moved with the mouse by
93. ixels in PAL or CCIR format Finally the Frame rate can be set as required It is usually best to set the frame rate to match that of the video source Clicking the Patient Info button allows details of the patient being tested to be entered and stored with the test results A new dialog box appears for data entry Information Patient Info Mame ID Date of birth Address Test Info Lancel Test date 9 4 98 Clinician Comments H 136 Simply use the mouse to click in a box where it is desired to enter information and type in the details It is not necessary to enter information in all the boxes just use those that you require The Test date is automatically entered but can be changed if required When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Start Clicking the Start button initiates the test using the current settings Cancel If it is decided not to proceed with the test clicking Cancel will close the Test Settings dialog box without proceeding with the test Scope Opens a real time scope window and starts the scope running NG Scope Active ti z OS r Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow If a scope is already running a second one is started in a new window Provided the speeds are the same both scopes
94. lect ki speech Aitflows Phonation Lingual Speech Channels lM Combined Nasalance b 1 77 1 Channels are grouped on property pages by type Speech Airflow Phonation Lingual and Aux see Chapter 9 for information on the Aux Channel During therapy real time Scope all property pages are available However when a previously recorded test is opened only the property pages for those types recorded will be available Speech will always be available as this core parameter is always recorded either from the SNORS mask or the microphone unit The above screenshot shows the Speech channels property page Clicking in a check box switches each channel on indicated by a tick or off no tick Note that the Nasalance channel provided from the Speech property page is acoustic nasalance rather than the standard for SNORS aerodynamic nasalnce which is accessible form the Airflow property page Any number of channels of any type can be on at a time but it is recommended that no more than about six to eight be selected at once Otherwise the individual traces will be very small The other main property pages are shown below Airflow channels property page Channel Select Ei Speech Airflow Phonation Lingual Airflow Channels MW Oral T Respiration Ratio Nasalance 104 Phonation channels proper
95. les per second and so the maximum displayable frequency is 11025 Hz For clarity this frequency has been rounded down to 10 kHz The user is able to select any frequency range between 1 and 10 kHz in 1kHz steps The default frequency range is 10 kHz Trace Window The time base determines how long it takes the spectrogram trace to travel the width of the window The default window width is 10 seconds but may be adjusted from 1 to 60 seconds in 1 second steps Bandwidth As mentioned above bandwidth affects the appearance of the spectrogram Narrower bandwidths are useful for resolving finer frequency information however they do yield poor timing information Wider bandwidths exhibit the reverse characteristics displaying good timing resolution at the expense of frequency resolution The following table summarises the available bandwidths and their relationship to the spectrograms timing resolution Bandwidth Hz Timing Resolution ms FFT Length 11 90 90 2048 22 45 45 1024 43 23 25 912 86 11 63 256 172 5 81 128 345 2 90 64 689 1 45 32 Available bandwidths their respective timing resolution and FFT length The user may select any of the tabulated bandwidths Alternatively two predefined bandwidths have been included narrowband and wideband which have bandwidths of 43 Hz and 172 Hz respectively Trace Appearance Spectrograms commonly employ grey scales to represent the varying speech intensities The darker the image
96. licking on the appropriate hd symbol and making a selection Trace Sensitivity gain and Offset which determines how much if any negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate symbol and making a selection 148 The LPC order can be set to any value between 1 and 60 The default value of 20 generally provides a good compromise between resolution and speed of operation In addition various Window Functions can be selected for an FFT which allow a trade off to be made between spectral leakage and spectral smoothing In most cases the default Hanning window will provide the best result Finally The vertical amplitude scale can be set to either logarithmic default or linear When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel Spectrogram Spectrogram Settings EE Text Masimum Frequency Noite Reduction fio kHz W Show Title W Show Scale Grid W Show Horizontal Grid W Show Vertical Grid Window Functions Bandwidth Square f Narrowband Appearance C Wideband C Custom Welch C Grey Scale Bartlett f Colour f Hanning Intensity Scaling Trigger Mode Logarithmic C Continuous Linear f Single Shot Text for the title and the Scale can be turned on or off independently The horizontal and vertical grids ac
97. mbined airflow m Aerodynamic nasalance m Aerodynamic ratio m Voicing Lx intensity Fundamental frequency derived from Lx waveform Closed quotient derived from Lx waveform m Short term Shimmer derived from Lx waveform m Short term Jitter derived from Lx waveform m Alveolar tongue palate contact m Palatal tongue palate contact m Velar tongue palate contact m Left tongue palate contact m Centre tongue palate contact m Right tongue palate contact m Tongue contact balance m Tongue contact centre of gravity m Tongue contact weight 2 D displays available Tongue palate contact EPG Bi directional bar any two real time scope channels Video image Wave displays available sound Waveform Sp Laryngograph waveform Lx 165 Speech analysis displays available m FFT LPC m Spectrogram Sampling rates With electropalatography enabled 100 Hz or 200 Hz Without electropalatography enabled 100 Hz 900 Hz in 100 Hz steps 1000 Hz 10000 Hz in 1000 Hz steps Audio sampling rates for Sp and Lx 11 025 kHz 22 050 kHz or 44 100 kHz Video frame rates Up to 30 fps Channel bandwidths Speech intensity Signal bandwidth 50 Hz 13 kHz Envelopebandwidth DC 30 Hz Airflow Sensor bandwidth DC 500Hz Display bandwidth DC 30Hz Lx Signal bandwidth 75 Hz 1 kHz Envelope bandwidth DC 30 Hz 13 Envelope detection used for intensity displays 14 Standard Lo Res operation uses Display ba
98. moved along the traces the EPG snapshot changes to reflect the tongue palate contact at the current cursor position When the block cursor is active mean contact values will be indicated using a grey scale actually red but the colour intensity represents the persistence of contact during the time within the block cursor box SNORS plus Laryngograph plus Linguagraph Therapy It is not recommended that all three parameters be used during therapy due to the large amount of information that would be presented to the patient in real time However if required this can be achieved by making appropriate selections from the toolbar followed by clicking the Auto Arrange button i e EJ E tel ee BO Three windows appear displaying EPG Voicing Bar and SNORS Bar 75 mN N E N E _ _ Ii See pf E E E Pt SR PELL Et Assessment and Analysis To carry out an assessment test using SNORS Laryngograph and Linguagraph first press the New Test button on the toolbar as for starting SNORS alone In the Test Settings dialog box check that the SNORS Lx EPG and Show Bar check boxes are ticked Once again Show Bar can be omitted or substituted with Show Wave as required 76 Test Settings If necessary switch on the Laryngograph unit Place the Laryngograph electrode strap around the patient s neck so that the electrodes sit comfortably eit
99. n a previously saved test file click Open on the toolbar S In the dialog box that appears double click on the Test data files folder Look ir SNORS Bar data files _JEPG data files _ Scope data files Test data files __ Wave data files L word list files Filename Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg wel Cancel This will open the folder containing previous SNORS tests Open Look in y Test data files aa sounds_6 l Bruna 1 oe Bruna 2 Charles_1 Sounds 4 Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg a Cancel Next click on the file that you wish to open and then click Open A Test display for the chosen test appears on the screen This is the same as a test window appearing at the end of an assessment test See above When you have finished using SNORS close the program by clicking on its Close box in the top right hand corner of the display The next steps Getting more out of SNORS This chapter explains how to use all of the remaining basic features of SNORS in single parameter mode For many users this may be all that is ever required Measurement of Outcome Test The assessment test described in the previous three Chapters provides a graphical representation o
100. ndow and starts the EPG running 139 FAA EPG Active Any number of EPG windows can be run at once Video Opens a real time Video window and starts the Video running Only one Video window can be running but any number of other real time windows can be run at the same time Open Invokes the Windows 95 98 File open dialog box to allow any previously save file to be opened 140 Open Look in E SNORS Bar data files EPG data files Scope data files Test data files Wave data files Word list files Files of type Data files tst sco bar epg wwe T Cancel The dialog box shows a list of folders for various types of data files Test data are stored in the Test Files folder A previously saved test can be opened by double clicking on the Test Files folder and then clicking on the test file name and then clicking Open Scope bar or EPG files can be opened by double clicking on the appropriate folder and then and selecting the file to open Save Saves the active window If the window was previously saved it will be re written and any changes which have been made will be incorporated If the active window is a Test the complete test data will be saved including any EPG data If the active window is a Zoom view of part of a test the option of saving either the complete test or just the active window will be given providing the main Test window is still open an
101. nds Lis AMB_A List AMB_B List AMB_C List AMB_D Sam sentence Fs i Fs PUETE THUE Files of type word list files bet Cancel A word list is selected by clicking on it and then clicking Open A new word list can be created by clicking the Create New List button This opens the Windows 95 98 Notepad text editor Untitled Notepad OF x File Edit Search Help Simply type in the sounds words or sentences required starting each on a new line Do not put a return after the final entry Words will appear on the screen during a test exactly as typed When the list is complete it should be saved by clicking Save from Notepad s File menu Give the file an appropriate name and be sure to save it in the Word list files folder If the Save dialog box defaults to a different folder move up to the C level and then down to the SNORS folder and down again to the Word list files folder lf a word list is saved without typing anything in no words will appear on the screen during the test and no words will appear as annotation after the test An empty word list such as this can be used if prompting is not wanted or if the prompt would be too long such as when recording a passage 129 Parameter Selection amp Display Options The Parameter Selection of the Test Settings dialog box must be used if multiparameter testing is req
102. ndwidth optional Hi Res operation uses Sensor bandwidth 166 Channel sensitivities Speech intensity Airflow Lx intensity Typical accuracy Airflow Typical synchronisation Audio Video Dependent upon Volume Control setting 25 0 1001 min Dependent upon Sensitivity Control setting 3 full scale 2 ms To nearest video frame maximum frame rate 30 fps 167 index A A OW eaaa A 69 88 104 112 130 145 154 166 167 ADAY S anas a ines 9 51 52 70 71 73 75 76 78 82 84 106 114 123 159 161 Anemometry ceeeeeseeereeeees 10 ASSSESSINICIU o ckid wlteictieuiedans 15 29 40 70 73 76 82 91 122 AUO aeee a i 1 10 22 35 49 55 57 60 62 63 67 79 105 106 107 112 120 121 123 130 132 133 134 161 166 167 Auto AIrange s ssosseseseenoeeese 13 14 27 28 38 39 61 62 68 69 71 72 75 81 106 108 122 163 PIR A EA E E 35 67 104 110 111 Auxiliary Channel 164 B WD ale EEE AAEE EE AE xiv xvii 13 14 15 38 39 48 51 64 65 68 69 72 73 74 75 76 77 80 81 86 87 88 106 110 122 125 126 131 132 133 134 139 143 144 145 161 Block Cursor ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeee 52 123 157 158 159 161 C Centre LES iiaiai 96 99 148 CIOS en a eienons xv 13 14 15 19 20 25 26 33 34 38 44 45 53 62 63 108 121 163 Close A aaan 13 14 15 19 25 26 33 38 44 62 63 108 121 163 Close BOs XV Closed Qu
103. ned Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow 25 Oral Airflow Oral Airflow If a cursor is active Track Cursor shown above Bar displays the values at the cursor position These are the instantaneous values for a track cursor or the average values for a block cursor If audio is replayed the Bar display changes continuously to reflect the current moving animation cursor position Clicking Show Wave instead of Show Bar results in a Wave window appearing alongside Scope at the end of the test See the Wave Viewing high resolution waveforms section at the end of this Chapter for details of Wave windows Word display period The time for which each word is displayed on the screen and hence the time allowed for the patient to utter the word can be varied by clicking the hd symbol at the right of the Word Display Period box and selecting the required time between 1 and 10 seconds from the drop down box that appears Values are averaged over the time period contained within the block cursor 48 Word Display Pernod 2 Seconds The new l and p that appear in the drop down box can be used to move up and down through the available range from 1 to 10 seconds in one second steps and from 10 to 90 seconds in ten second steps The Sample Frequency can be changed by clicking on its hd symbol This is described in Chapter 12 Setup Sensors Clicking the Sensors button allows t
104. nstead of or as well as the complete test is useful as it requires much less disk space than the complete test This is particularly important when audio has been recorded in which case the complete test file is normally too large to fit on a floppy disk Bar When a Bar window is active Save will store a static image of the Bar window in the default folder C SNORS Bar data files EPG When an EPG window is active Save will store a static image of the EPG window in the default folder C SNORS EPG data files The choice of saving the entire test will only be offered if the Test window is still open and it has not already been saved Opening FFT LPC When an FFT LPC window is active Save will store a static image of the FFT LPC window in the default folder C SNORS FFT data files Scope When a Scope window is active Save will store a static image of the Scope window in the default folder C SNORS Scope data files Spectrogram When a Spectrogram window is active Save will store a static image of the Spectrogram window in the default folder C SNORS Spectrogram data files Video When an Video window is active Save will store a static image of the Video window in the default folder C SNORS Video data files Wave When a Wave window is active Save will store a static image of the Wave window in the default folder C SNORS Wave data files
105. nt Information Name LK ID Test Date 20 5 96 Clinician am Comment pre therapy 0 Combined Speech Envelope 670 0 ms 100 Analysis not activated Time 0 00 ms Ratio 0 00 Nasalance 0 00 Amplitude Slope fa 0 00 0 00 ms fa 0 00 0 00 ms 0 i E 0 00 0 00 ms Nasal Airflow 670 0 ms 100 Po Oral Airflow 670 0 ms To return to the previous unzoomed view simply close the active window by clicking its Close box at its top right hand corner Notes on terms used in analysis Nasalance Unless otherwise stated in SNORS nasalance is taken to mean aerodynamic nasalance It should not be confused with acoustic nasalance that is measured by some other systems SNORS can also measure acoustic nasalance with limited sensitivity Nasalance is the percentage of the total positive airflow that is nasal The nasalance figure calculated by SNORS is based on either point values track cursor or the total airflow within the block cursor box If this box contains elements of zero flow or respiration these will be included in the calculation Periods of Zero flow will simply reduce the sensitivity of the calculation and will not introduce any specific errors Hence small periods of zero flow within the zoom window are quite acceptable Periods of respiration however will significantly affect the nasalance calculation Thus it is most important that they are excluded from the block cursor box unless
106. nvelope detected and then low pass filtered This provides a display that represents the instantaneous peak values of the speech waveform i e the speech intensity The airflow signals are simply low pass filtered This removes the periodic fluctuations resulting from voicing while displaying the lower frequency variations in airflow caused by the other articulators the tongue and the velum For research purposes it is sometimes useful to be able to see the flow variations resulting from voicing In addition a higher bandwidth may be needed for the auxiliary channel SNORS allows the band limiting to be removed by switching from lo to hi resolution mode This is achieved by means of a small switch located on the rear panel of the Base Unit The switch is deliberately small to avoid accidental switching into hi res mode Operation of the switch is automatically detected by the SNORS software The following changes will occur when the switch is moved from its lo res to hi res position Speech intensity will change to Speech Voicing intensity will change to Voicing m Airflow will change to Unfiltered Airflow m The default sampling rate will increase m Scope traces will default to Bipolar instead of Unipolar The switch can be operated at any time Note however that if the switch is changed while a Scope window is active although the trace will instantly change the axes will not The axes are set when a Scope window is o
107. o be switched on or off m Wave Test Iof x Alternatively the default pair of horizontal and vertical Centre Lines can be turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector box The Text box enables the Title and Scale to be turned off or on these are on by default 96 Combined Speech 6 1 msidiv 100 100 100 100 Voicing 6 1 msidiv When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel FFT LPC FFT LPC Settings Mja Ea FFT LPC Select Background Colour Vertical Scaling C Grey i Black i Logarithmic Linear Cancel LFC Order E Order F Show LPC Text asimum Frequency A Sha TH Show Title 10 kHz W Show Scale Grid Trace FFT Window Functions I Show Horizontal Grid sensitivity Square I Show Vertical Grid i Welch Offset T Show Centre Lines Bartlett Thickness i Hanning The FFT LPC Background Colour can be changed from black to grey 97 MN FFT LPC Active Of x 60 dB Combined Speech Spectrum 1 0 kHzidiv Black is the default colour for FFT LPC as the relatively thin lines are easier to see against a black background FFT LPC Select allows the user to choose which plots to display FFT red trace LPC purple trace or both Plots are turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector box
108. of resonance in the vocal tract The lighter bands represent harmonics whose frequencies are further away from the resonance peaks Narrowband spectrograms exhibit good frequency resolution at the expense of time resolution and are therefore not suitable for making temporal measurements such as voice onset time The actual bandwidth of this type of spectrogram is usually somewhere between 30 and 50 Hz 10 kHz e 10 Seconds A narrowband spectrogram of the utterance T i u Isl Wideband Spectrograms Measurements of the changing resonance of the vocal tract formants are generally made with this type of spectrogram The most noticeable feature of the wideband spectrogram is the relatively broad bands of energy that depict the formants see below The centre of each energy band is taken to be the frequency of the formant 115 and the range of frequencies occupied by the band is taken to be the bandwidth Although adjacent harmonics may appear smeared together wideband spectrograms do exhibit good time resolution Therefore information relating to the timing of changes in the vocal tract resonance is more reliably obtained than with narrowband spectrograms The bandwidths used to generate wideband spectrograms are generally between 200 and 500 Hz 10 kHz ni b te Lin 1 Wu th ee i ea i Thala vil bA AAA eSa eus iy ap rr ir ine Tt SE op i Vu va wila via wil WY H Ti i 4 rt TU al JU
109. or box es When all required selections have been made they can be implemented by clicking OK or rejected by clicking Cancel FFT LPC The FFT LPC Settings dialog box allows various properties of the FFT LPC display to be changed FFT LPC Settings Pi ial x Background Colour Vertical Scaling C Grey f Black f Logarithmic C Linear Cancel W Show LPC Text Maxinium Frequency W Show Title W Show Scale 10 kHz Grid Trace FFT Window Functions W Show Horizontal Grid sensitivity C Square M Show Vertical Grid Offset Welch T Show Centre Lines C Bartlett Thickness f Hanning A Background Colour of either grey or black can be selected by clicking the appropriate selector button Text for the title and the Scale can be turned on or off independently Horizontal or Vertical Grid lines can be switched on or off or a pair of horizontal and vertical Centre Lines can be selected by clicking in the appropriate selector box es FFT LPC Select allows either an FFT plot an LPC plot or both to be displayed in a single window If both plots are required an alternative to displaying both in one window is to open one FFT LPC window to show the default LPC and then open a second window and change its plot to FFT Maximum Frequency allows the user to select the full scale value for the frequency axis Values of 1 10 kHz can be chosen by c
110. orded test click Play on the toolbar gt The recorded sound is replayed and an animation cursor moves along the Test waveforms in synchronism with the sound 41 Test Sample Standard 15 x Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s Voicing Intensity 20 0 s Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s To save the test results click Save on the toolbar B The Save As dialog box appears Save in E Test data files vas Sounds 6 Save as type Test files tet Cancel Type in a file name of your choice and then click Save To print the test click Print on the toolbar When the Print dialog box appears click OK Note that the print dialog box is part of Windows 95 98 and will vary in appearance and function according to your printer 42 ol e Pages trom fap DI Selectia SNORS C SNORS Test data files Sample Standard tst To view a particular word in more detail double click the screen anywhere within the region of the chosen word on either the text or the trace A new window opens showing just this word Zoom Sample Standard Cheese 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20s 100 Voicing Intensity 20s 100 Fundamental Frequency 20s To close the test window click on the Close All button on the toolbar x Open To ope
111. otient ccee 105 155 COlOUE xi ea 89 92 93 95 97 118 145 147 148 149 150 D Dialog BOX sieniniai XV E Electropalatography 3 EPC amanna 7 24 27 28 30 32 64 65 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 81 86 90 91 92 93 94 95 106 122 123 133 139 140 141 144 146 147 161 165 F Fast Fourier Transform 55 57 114 115 G Sd E E EN AEEA 7 21 55 57 58 59 61 62 63 65 97 98 99 106 114 117 118 120 122 123 138 148 149 157 161 166 Frame ea 84 102 136 152 Fundamental Frequency 39 41 68 69 70 71 77 84 122 132 155 G Grenaa Sie acts 89 96 98 100 146 148 168 VINA CS E E A 84 85 136 152 MEE arinn 143 J UE EEE EAA ATEN 6 68 105 155 165 Jer Fact ennaa na 105 L Laryngograph cccccceee xiii 2 4 5 7 35 38 39 46 61 67 68 69 70 73 75 76 77 79 81 82 84 88 107 122 130 132 135 155 162 164 165 Linear Predictive Coding 57 Linguagraph cceeceseseeeee xiii 1 2 3 5 21 22 25 26 28 46 67 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 80 91 95 133 139 147 164 E Es EENT ee Dna 7 21 55 57 58 59 61 62 63 65 97 98 99 106 114 120 122 123 138 148 149 157 161 166 Tea ecteegiccaa trees EAA 6 7 35 61 67 68 70 73 76 79 80 81 105 107 130 132 135 155 162 164 165 166 167 M Measurement of Outcome 46 Menu Baf nezinomas XV Message BoX ccssccssscee
112. oved by placing the mouse pointer over the start or end line and then clicking and dragging the line to the required position Values of mean values for all trace amplitudes and slopes appear in the analysis box along with mean values for Nasalance and Ratio see below As for the track cursor when the cursor is active it is easier to make measurements when viewing a single word This can be achieved by double clicking on the required word either the text or the trace When this is done a new window opens showing just the selected word When a block cursor is active playback replays just the section of the recording within the visible cursor block 52 Zoom LK 12 Bl x Seat 100 Patient Information Name LK ID Test Date 20 5 98 Clinician am Comment pre therapy 0 Combined Speech Envelope 100 Analysis Mean Values Time 680 00 ms Ratio 40 72 Nasalance 15 66 Amplitude Slope E 4 78 0 00 ms E 1 64 0 00 ms 0 a 8 00 0 00 ms Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow zoom The zoom function allows the user to zoom into a selected section of the waveform This is activated by clicking on the Zoom button on the toolbar QI It is then a simple matter to click and drag the zoom cursor to draw a box around the area to be zoomed When the mouse button is released a new window will open showing just the selected area BB Z00m LK 12 Pile Ea Seat 100 Patie
113. ow Oral Airflow Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency Ay Scope Active 100 Combined Speech Intensity 5 0 wo Nasal Airflow 5 0 wo Oral Airflow 5 0 i Voicing Intensity 5 0 wo Fundamental Frequency 5 0 a 69 As for standalone SNORS Scope is also useful in therapy as it allows patients to observe the dynamics of their speech Thus it is useful when working with clusters or words Assessment and Analysis To carry out an assessment test using SNORS and Laryngograph first press the New Test button on the toolbar as for starting SNORS alone In the Test Settings dialog box check that the Laryngograph Lx check box is ticked If necessary deselect EPG by clicking in its check box Test Settings Word List Word Display Period 2 Seconds Current word list file E tandard Select Hew List Create Mew List Parameter Selection Sample Frequency 200 Hz W SNORS Sensors Audio Wunnnnnnnnnn Video W Record Audio Record video Patient Info Display Options Show Bar T Show FFT LPC Show Wave T Show Spectrogram cae Switch on the Laryngograph unit Place the Laryngograph electrode strap around the patient s neck so that the electrodes sit comfortably either side of the thyroid cartilage See your Laryngograph manual for further details and get the patient to hold the SNORS mask over the
114. ows are measured SNORS is virtually unaffected by the loudness of the sound and so determines not merely whether closure has occurred but also the degree of closure In addition SNORS uses fast sensors thus allowing the rapid movements of the velum to be detected SNORS utilises a lightweight transparent two chamber facemask which is held over the nose and mouth during speech As well as measuring airflow both nasal and oral speech sounds are detected using small microphones within the mask These speech signals are presented on a computer screen as envelope waveforms which provide a simple clear indication of speech intensity over time The airflow signals appear on the screen below the speech intensities allowing the airflow to be related to the resultant sound Linguagraph Linguagraph is an electropalatography system Electropalatography m Uses a special artificial palate to determine tongue palate contact A small electrical signal is fed to the patient The signal passes via the tongue and palate to a computer Contact patterns are displayed on the computer The Kent Linguagraph is a user friendly clinical electropalatography system It comprises a small electronics unit which connects between the patient s palate and the PC The artificial palate used is that developed at the University of Reading as this has become the defacto standard in the UK The palate is custom made and simply clips to the
115. pectrogram 5 85s Ask the patient to speak into the mask or microphone and observe the spectrogram as they speak When you have finished close the Spectrogram window by clicking the Close All button on the toolbar x Note For more detailed information on FFT LPC and Spectrogram please refer to Chapter 9 Research Features Audio Playback In addition to the Play button a full range of tape recorder style controls is provided for audio video playback and animation gt aw The Play button gt starts playback If no cursor is activated playback commences at the left hand edge of the active window and ends at the right hand edge of the window If a track cursor is active playback commences at the cursor and ends at the right hand edge of the window If a block cursor is active playback commences at the left hand edge of the block and ends at the right hand edge of the block Pressing the Pause button n stops playback The animation cursor dotted line remains in place at the point where playback was stopped Pressing Pause a second time restarts playback from where it left off The Stop button stops playback and resets the animation cursor By pressing the Loop Playback button 2 audio can be replayed continuously until Stop is pressed by pressing the Play button Finally the Skip Backwards land Skip Forward H buttons cause the T
116. pened Hence it is necessary to close and re open the Scope window to change the axes Examples Lo res standard and Hi res displays are given overleaf 112 Lo res display a Scope Active olx 100 Combined Speech Intensity 50s 0 Nasal Airflow 50s 100 Oral Airflow 50s 0 Voicing Intensity 5 0s 100 Fundamental Frequency 50s Hi res display a Scope Active 100 100 Combined Speech 50s 100 100 Unfiltered Nasal Airflow 50s 100 100 Unfiltered Oral Airflow 5 0 s 100 100 Voicing 5 0 wo 100 100 Fundamental Frequency 5 0 wo Note when using Hi res mode screen aliasing can occur This is because the resolution of the screen is not sufficient to display enough data points to satisfy the sampling law By zooming into a small portion of the display this problem can be overcome providing the selected sampling rate was high enough to meet the Nyquist criterion sampling frequency must be at least twice the highest frequency component of the signal 113 Frequency Domain Analysis FFT s LPC s and Spectrograms The Fast Fourier Transform A Fast Fourier Transform FFT is based on the theorem that complex periodic waveforms can be decomposed into a series of sinusoidal components of certain amplitude and phase Each sinusoidal component derived from a complex periodic waveform is an integer multiple of the fundamental fre
117. ph is being used as this provides an equivalent snapshot view for SNORS LES ioj x Di Test Alison 3 Oy x E R a Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 100 Combined Speech Intensity 100 100 Oral Airflow Coo i Nasal Airflow P e P J Oral Airflow If it is wished to view the detailed speech waveform at the end of the test Show Wave should be checked instead of Show Bar Word Display Period The time for which each word is displayed on the screen and hence the time allowed for the patient to utter the word can be varied by clicking the z symbol at the right of 11 It is possible to check both Show SNORS Bar and Show Audio Wave However this is not recommended as it results in a very cluttered display 133 the Word Display Period box and selecting the required time between 1 and 90 seconds Word Display Pernod 2 Seconds Sample Frequency Similarly the Sample Frequency can be changed by clicking on its hd symbol Frequencies of 100 Hz or 200 Hz can be used when electropalatography is employed Without electropalatography frequencies up to 10 kHz can be used Setup This section provides general set up functions as well as the facility to enter information about the patient Sensors allows a zero correction to be made to the flow sensors Pressing this button displays a further dialog box instructing the user
118. ppears on the screen This is the same as a test window appearing at the end of an assessment test See above When you have finished using SNORS close the program by clicking on its Close box in the top right hand corner of the display 20 Note regarding opening of SNORS DOS legacy files Both Dos and Windows allow file names to have an optional extension separated from the main file name by a dot e g Mytest tst here Mytest is the file name and tst is the extension SNORS follows the Windows convention of automatically appending an extension when files are saved Thus all SNORS test files have the extension tst DOS on the other hand often allows the user to add whatever extension they wish if any Hence legacy SNORS DOS test files may have any or no extension By default SNORS only shows data files with extensions that it uses These are tst for test files Sco for scope files oar for bar files epg for Linguagraph electropalatography files bmp for video image files wwve_ for audio wave files ft for FFT LPC files spg for spectrogram files To open a SNORS DOS file it is necessary to select All files from the Files of type drop down box This will display all files whatever their extension SNORS will check the selected file to ensure that it is a SNORS or SNORS file and then open it If you are likely to want to access the file again using SNORS it is recommended
119. quency Fourier s theorem permits the transformation of a waveform into a spectrum where the amplitude of each component frequency is represented On a typical FFT display the frequency components are plotted on the x axis and their relative amplitude on the y axis The importance of this theorem for speech analysis is its ability to extract the fundamental frequency and associated harmonics together with an approximation of the vocal tract resonances The figure below illustrates an FFT derived from the utterance king Amplitude dB 0 Hz 2 5 kHz 5 kHz 7 5 kHz 10 kHz FFT derived from the utterance king The sharp spectral peaks evident in the figure represent the harmonics of the fundamental frequency that are associated with vocal fold vibration phonation However some spectral peaks have greater amplitude than others do since they lie near a vocal tract resonance which further amplifies these frequencies The regions of the spectrum where a group of harmonics exhibits relatively greater amplitude are known as formants and are labelled F1 F2 and F3 in the figure It should also be noted that the formant structure appears to break down above 5 kHz as the noise introduced by turbulent airflow through the vocal tract begins to dominate Further information on the FFT are given in the next section Spectrograms Although FFT s yield useful information relating to fundamental frequency and the resonant frequencies of the
120. r nasal port but not both Hence erroneous results can be achieved when using an LPC in cases of velopharyngeal incompetence VPI 120 The Toolbar Step by step guide to using SNORS t from the toolbar The toolbar provides a quick and easy means of using SNORS All of the commonly used functions are available on the toolbar providing shortcuts to most operations Toolbar buttons General Therapy The toolbar is grouped into five sections a General section on the left Therapy Shared and Test sections in the middle and an Audio Video section on the right ca Mal S x a a l Tr fix OU aj E Q a a General Therapy Shared Test Audio Video S Open Brings up the Windows File Open dialog box The user can then select a previously recorded test or therapy session to open i Save Brings up the Windows Save As dialog box The user can then type in a file name and click OK to save the test or therapy results If the test has previously been saved the saved file is updated overwritten with the current data g Print Opens the Printer dialog box to allow the active window to be printed x Close All Closes all open windows o New Scope Opens a real time scope window 121 New Wave Opens a real time high resolution Wave window ulu New FFT LPC Opens a real time FFT LPC spectrum window i New Spectrog
121. rack or Block cursor if active to move in the appropriate direction Stop is functional during this process and functions to stop the cursor where it is i e it does not reset the cursor Pause and Loop Playback do not function during the skip functions 63 Because sound recording is fully synchronised with the data recording it is possible to utilise the cursors to listen to specific portions of the sound and so identify precisely which sections of the waveforms correspond to which sounds File Handling Saving So far the basic opening and saving of complete tests in their default folder have been considered However SNORS allows many options regarding what is saved or opened and where it is stored Test If Save is selected immediately after a test is complete the complete test is saved in the default folder C SNORS Test data files The complete test will also be saved whenever a main test window one whose name starts Test and which displays the complete word list is the active window If a Zoom view of part of a test either a single word or a selected portion is the active window when He is invoked the user will be given the choice of saving either the complete test or just the portion of the test visible in the active window e g a single word Save Options Window selection f Save complete test Save zoom view only Saving just a part of the test either i
122. ram Opens a real time Spectrogram window F New Bar Opens a real time bar window New EPG Opens a real time EPG window Open EPG Model Brings up the Windows File Open dialogue box to show all model EPG files The user can then select a target EPG to open Video Opens a real time video window Shared applicable to both Therapy and Test pe Laryngograph Converts a SNORS Bar into a Laryngograph Bar Adds Laryngograph Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency channels to an open Scope window gl Auto Arrange Automatically arranges all open windows Test Assessment and measurement of outcome New Test Opens the SNORS Test Settings dialogue box to allow a new test to be performed 122 Repeat test Opens the SNORS Test Settings dialogue box to allow a repeat test to be performed using the same patient data as the currently open test Show Patient Info Displays the Patient Information box in the current test window If the Patient information box is currently displayed pressing the Show Patient Info button removes it Displays the Analysis box in the current test window If the analysis box is currently displayed pressing the Show Analysis button removes it Show Track Cursor Activates the Track Cursor to allow point measurements to be made and individual EPG and or bar snapshots to be viewed Show Block Cursor lf a Test w
123. re mating them and align the red mark on the plug with the corresponding red mark on the socket Gently push the two appropriate connectors together and rotate the plug if necessary until the two start to move together When this occurs you can push the two fully together Plug the SNORS Audio Unit lead into the appropriate connector on the front of the SNORS Base Unit labelled Mask Mic Look at the connectors before mating them and align the red mark on the plug with the corresponding red mark on the socket Gently push the two appropriate connectors together and rotate the plug if necessary until the two start to move together When this occurs you can push the two fully together Plug the microphone into the connector at the front of the SNORS Audio Unit Connect the SNORS Base Unit s audio output to the PC Sound Card s Line In socket using the Audio Cable provided This is the lead with a small 3 5 mm mini jack plug on each end It does not matter which way round the lead is 22 Connection to sound card Key to cabling ATIN Cable coming directly from unit Connector 6 Now plug in and switch on the computer Once it has booted this may take a few minutes the system is ready to use This section describes how to start up SNORS and check for correct operation It is recommended that this simple procedure be carried out at the start of each session i e with each new patient This is important
124. reference you should use whatever approach you are comfortable with You may for example use one folder per patient Or you might prefer to create different folders for each therapy session As you can nest folders to any depth you could even do both having session folders within patient folders for example To make it easier to review a set of files SNORS remembers the last folder that you opened Therefore when you select Open you will automatically be in the same folder that you opened last time It is also helpful if you use meaningful names for your files and folders Windows 95 98 allows the use of very long names up to 256 characters so it should be possible to find appropriate names 66 Multiparameter use How to use SNORS for multiparameter measurement This chapter describes how to use SNORS in combination with Linguagraph and or Laryngograph as a multiparameter speech workstation It also shows how to make simultaneous video recordings Connecting the hardware Before using SNORS it is necessary to connect the hardware together as a multiparameter system To configure SNORS for multiparameter assessment proceed as follows 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Make sure that the computer is switched off and disconnected from the mains If not already done connect the SNORS Base Unit and SNORS Mask Also connect the Audio Cable See Chapter 3 Getting Started SNORS
125. ry hardware e g a sound or video card is not present Start a scope display by clicking on the New Scope button on the toolbar Pa A scope window appears 37 a Scope Active of x 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 5 05s 100 Voicing Intensity 0s Fundamental Frequency 5 0s Switch on the Laryngograph unit Place the Laryngograph electrode strap around the patient s neck so that the electrodes sit comfortably either side of the thyroid cartilage Place the microphone a suitable distance from the patient s mouth In most cases clipping it to a tie or jumper is satisfactory Ask the patient to speak and watch the traces on the screen see above Adjust the volume control on the SNORS hardware unit The black knob on the front of the unit until the red Combined Speech Intensity trace deflects by a good amount but does not quite reach the top of its window as shown in the example above Then adjust the sensitivity control on the Laryngograph unit The blue knob on the front of the unit at the right until the blue Voicing Intensity deflects by a good amount but does not quite reach the top of its window as shown in the example above When you are happy with the operation of the system click the Close All button on the toolbar x The system is now ready to use Therapy Bar To open the therapy Laryngograph window click on the New Bar button on
126. s the Standard word list as indicated in the Current word list file box An alternative word list can be selected by clicking the Select New List button This opens the Windows 95 98 Open dialog box which displays all the available word list files Open Look ir gt y Word List files al d EZES FESE d n t sounds Standard List RMB_A List RMB_B 2 List RMB_C List RMB_D Sam sentence Files of type Word list files bet Cancel M Show FFT LPC Show Wave T Show Spectrogram Word Display Period 2 Second Sample Frequency 200 i hz Setup Sensors Adio Video Patient Info Ha 47 A word list is selected by clicking on it and then clicking Open It is also possible to create your own word lists by clicking the Create New List button This is described in Chapter 12 Parameter Selection The Parameter Selection of the Test Settings dialog box is used when multiparameter testing is required This is described in Chapter 7 Display Options Display options allow the user to choose to automatically display an extra window at the end of the test If the Show Bar check box is clicked a Bar window appears alongside the normal Scope test window fear Test ioj x AJ Test olx Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Nasal Airflow 25 Combi
127. segment colour is not available However an additional Channel Select feature appears This allows the active EPG window to be assigned to either Linguagraph 1 or Linguagraph 2 By default the first active EPG window to be opened will be Linguagraph 1 and the second will be Linguagraph 2 Wave Settings Background Colour C Grey Black Text Show Title Show Scale Channel Select W Speech lM Voicing Trace Sensitivity 1 Window 2 Offset 5 Thickness 1 Brid lO Show Horizontal Grid Show Vertical Grid Show Centre Lines The Wave Background Colour can be changed from black to grey 95 m Wave Test Iof xi Black is the default colour for Wave as the relatively thin lines are easier to see against a black background Channel Select allows the user to choose which channels to display Speech Voicing or both Channels are turned on or off by clicking in the appropriate selector boxes The Trace box allows various features of the trace to be varied Trace Sensitivity gain Window time duration and Offset which determines how much negative value is shown can be adjusted along with the thickness of the trace line by clicking on the appropriate Bho mbo and making a selection Note an offset of 5 sets the zero at the centre of the display default The Grid box allows horizontal and or vertical grid lines t
128. sh the two appropriate connectors together and rotate the plug if necessary until the two start to move together When this occurs you can push the two fully together Connect the SNORS Base Unit s audio output to the PC Sound Card s Line In socket using the Audio Cable provided This is the lead with a small 3 5 mm mini jack plug on each end It does not matter which way round the lead is Connection to sound card Key to cabling ATIN Cable coming directly from unit Connector 10 5 Now plug in and switch on the computer Once it has booted this may take a few minutes the system is ready to use This section describes how to start up SNORS and check for correct operation It is recommended that this simple procedure be carried out at the start of each session i e with each new patient This is important for the following reasons It allows the patient to get used to speaking into the mask t allows the therapist to check that the mask is held correctly against the face with no gaps t allows the volume control to be set to the correct value for each particular patient m It allows the operation of the system to be discussed with the patient SnorRs Open the SNORS program by double clicking on its icon a A title screen appears briefly KENT UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY BEES SNORS Medical Electronics Research Group University of Rent at Canterbury The main
129. simultaneous recording of five key speech parameters by combining SNORS Linguagraph and Laryngograph using a Windows 95 or Windows 98 environment It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with Windows 95 98 If you are not used to using this operating system please refer to your Windows manual Once the hardware and software have been installed and you are familiar with the use of Windows you are ready to read this manual and start using SNORS The manual is arranged as follows Chapter 1 provides background information on speech production and the three individual instruments SNORS Linguagraph and Laryngograph This chapter explains why multiparameter assessment is useful and gives outline descriptions of the instruments Chapter 2 gives an overview of SNORS explaining its features and uses Chapters 3 4 and 5 are getting started chapters designed to get you using SNORS as a simple single parameter system quickly and easily Chapter 3 describes SNORS only use Chapter 4 describes Linguagraph only use and Chapter 5 describes Laryngograph only use You should read whichever of these chapters relate to your hardware Chapter 6 extends the single parameter use of SNORS to include all of the basic features Chapter 7 shows how to combine SNORS Linguagraph and Laryngograph to provide multiparameter assessment Chapter 8 describes the remaining features of SNORS which are only accessible from
130. t as required It is usually best to set the frame rate to match that of the video source When all necessary settings have been made position the patient in the videofluoroscopy equipment a real time Video window can be used during initial screening to view the X ray image Switch on the Laryngograph unit Place the Laryngograph electrode strap around the patient s neck so that the electrodes sit comfortably either side of the thyroid cartilage see your Laryngograph manual for further details and get the patient to hold the SNORS mask over their nose and mouth Then proceed with the test in the normal way At the end of the test the usual Test window appears but there are five traces instead of the normal three Voicing intensity and Fundamental Frequency channels are added There will also be a Video window and a Wave window imi Video Test BE Test Paul Video 02 lolx Videofluoroscopy 100 Combined Speech Intensity 10 0 s Nasal Airflow 10 0 s Oral Airflow Voicing Intensity 10 0 s Fundamental Frequency 10 0 s Analysis is carried out as for stand alone SNORS If playback is used the video image will play in real time Note on video recording Although real time video display is in colour recording is only possible in black and white This is due to the extremely large size of uncompressed video files SNORS does not compress video files in order to preserve the
131. that the blurring around the centre frequency has been significantly reduced 10 kHz 10 Seconds The effect of applying the Hanning window function to a pure tone of varying intensity Intensity Scaling The acoustic signal intensity may be represented on a logarithmic or linear scale By default the intensity scale is logarithmic which generally boosts the lower intensity high frequency components of the acoustic signal This makes it useful for examining harmonics of the fundamental frequency or the higher frequency components produced by fricatives such as s Unfortunately the logarithmic scale also increases background noise intensity 119 Linear intensity scaling produces a much cleaner spectrogram but low level acoustic information is often lost Linear scaling is useful when examining the high intensity signals usually associated with fundamental frequency Trigger Mode In continuous mode the spectrogram trace repeatedly scans across the display which is refreshed at the end of each scan However in single shot mode the trace is Suspended once the end of the spectrogram window is reached This is useful for obtaining complete real time spectrogram images To reactivate the trace the user may either toggle the pause key or press the A Activate key The Crosshair Cursor The crosshair cursor allows quick identification of spectrogram related parameters such as frequency timing and intensity Once activate
132. the toolbar A Laryngograph Bar window will open The bar can be enlarged to fill the SNORS window by clicking the Auto Arrange button on the toolbar E 38 Scope P Bar Active ojx Combined Speech 100 100 100 100 Voicing The upper section of the display shows the intensity of the speech sound as a red bar which moves upwards away from the centre The lower section indicates the voicing intensity as a cyan bar which moves downwards away from the centre Bar is a very useful biofeedback tool as it provides a simple clear display of speech and voicing intensities This allows patients to monitor their voicing make corrections and observe the result Bar is particularly useful when working with sustained sounds or single phonemes To use Laryngograph in Scope mode click the New Scope A and Auto Arrange El oc buttons on the toolbar A Scope window opens with three traces Speech Intensity Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency a Scope Active lel Es 100 Combined Speech Intensity 5 0s Voicing Intensity 6 0 s Fundamental Frequency 5 0s Scope is also useful in therapy as it allows patients to observe the dynamics of their speech Thus it is useful when working with clusters or words 39 Test To perform an assessment test click New Test on the toolbar The Test Settings dialog box opens Test Settings Word List Word Displa
133. the greater the intensity with white areas representing silence However an alternative to grey scale is the colour spectrum which represents the maximum intensity as red gradually decreasing through orange yellow green and blue Silence on the coloured spectrogram is represented by black 10 kHz 10 Seconds A narrowband spectrogram featuring colour scale intensities Colour Intensity Colour or grey scale levels may be adjusted by the colour intensity slider This is useful for increasing the intensities of low level acoustic signals that may otherwise be concealed A gain factor of up to 20 is provided by the colour intensity control Noise Reduction A noise reduction slider has also been included which enables the user to minimise the effects of background noise Noise on the spectrogram is characterised by a snowy background and whilst generally not presenting a problem the user may wish to improve image quality by removing this Up to 20 dB of attenuation is provided by the noise reduction control Data Windowing As previously mentioned the fast Fourier transform FFT separates the acoustic signal into sinusoidal waveforms of different frequency Once separated each sinusoid is placed in its own respective frequency bin The number of frequency bins representing the acoustic signal is determined by the FFT length The relationship between frequency bins and FFT length is given by frequency bins sample rate
134. the test if required Laryngograph data will only be recorded if a Laryngograph unit is connected to the system When this is done and the Laryngograph Lx box is checked additional Voicing intensity and Fundamental Frequency waveforms will appear in the Scope window at the end of the test 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s n 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s L___ Oral Airflow 20 0 s 43 Ni h TT h 20 0 s Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s If Laryngograph Lx and Show Wave are both checked and if Record Audio is checked and the Laryngograph unit is switched on Test and Wave windows will appear at the end of the test In this case however the Wave window will contain two traces the audio speech signal Sp and the Laryngograph signal Lx These traces are colour coded to match their respective Scope traces The vertical centre line in the Wave window corresponds to the cursor position in the Test window 132 ofa Es 1 Ge Test lel Ea Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow Voicing Intensity Fundamental Frequency To record Linguagraph electropalatography data the Linguagraph EPG box must be checked and a Linguagraph unit must be connected In this case an EPG window will also appear at the end of the test It is useful to also check Show Bar when Linguagra
135. toolbar An Open dialog box will appear listing all available models Open Look in 4 EPG data files Files of type EPG files epg Cancel 27 Select the required model and click Open Finally click the Auto Arrange button on the toolbar HL The active EPG red and model blue will appear side by side on the screen FAA EPG Active Iof x iE EE _ BERE EEE BE PF Ett tt Ld a ae eA Leite ttt t i t it i i fF Et tt tt i E ttt Dual channel Linguagraph SNORS allows the simultaneous use of two Linguagraph units for dual channel operation See Chapter 7 Multiparameter use for details 28 Test To perform an assessment test click New Test on the toolbar The Test Settings dialog box opens Test Settings Word List Word Display Period 2 Seconds Current word list file tandard Select Hew List Create Mew List Parameter S lection Sample Frequency 100 Hz Setup F SNORS M Ly V EPG Au M Record Audio Record Video Sees Audio Video Patient Info iel Display Options Show Bar Show FFT LPC Show Wave T Show Spectrogram Cancel When you are ready to commence the test click Start in the Test Settings dialog box After a short delay a sequence of words app
136. tually tick marks can be turned on or off independently The Appearance of the spectrogram can be changed from the standard Grey Scale where the density of the black represents the intensity of the signal components to Colour where high intensity is represented by red falling through orange yellow green and blue to black The intensity scale can be set to either logarithmic default or linear Maximum Frequency allows the user to select the full scale value for the frequency axis Values of 1 10 kHz can be chosen by clicking on the appropriate Z symbol and making a selection 149 Trace Window allows the user to select the time taken to scan along the horizontal axis by clicking on the appropriate symbol and making a selection Various Window Functions can be selected which allow a trade off to be made between spectral leakage and spectral smoothing In most cases the default Hanning window will provide the best result In real time mode the Trigger Mode can be changed between Continuous where the trace automatically restarts when it reaches the end of the display and Single Shot where the trace starts when a key is pressed and stops when it reaches the end of the display In this mode the trace can be restarted after it has stopped by pressing any key Noise Reduction allows the user to reduce the dynamic range of the spectrogram this removin
137. ty page Channel Select M M m Hosea Wither in diten pacta in SPRITE nacia Note that three channels are greyed out on this page In general any channels which are not available are greyed out In this example Closed Quotient Jitter Factor and Shimmer Factor are not available as an audio recording has not been made These parameters are derived form the high resolution Lx waveform which is only recorded when Record Audio is selected Lingual channels property page Channel Select 105 From the menu bar it is possible to turn various Test windows on or off Click on Test and then click on the appropriate Show parameter Show Bar Allows the Bar display to be shown or hidden Show EPG Allows the EPG display to be shown or hidden Show Wave Allows the Wave display to be shown or hidden Show Video Allows the Video display to be shown or hidden Show FFT LPC Allows the FFT LPC display to be shown or hidden Show Spectrogram Allows the Spectrogram display to be shown or hidden 0 After switching windows on or off it is advisable to click the Auto Arrange button gl on the toolbar or select it from the Window menu to optimise the display The Test menu also allows SNORS data to be exported for use in e g spreadsheets or mathematical packages Click on Test from the menu bar click Export Data or Export Analysis and then chose the required export
138. uired By default only SNORS Scope and Record Audio are selected This is indicated by the tick in the SNORS Scope and Record Audio check boxes Running the test in this default configuration will result in a Scope window at the end of the test displaying Combined Speech intensity Nasal Airflow and Oral Airflow waveforms WU Test olx Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 0 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s 100 0 Nasal Airflow 20 0 s 100 0 Oral Airflow 20 0 s With Record Audio checked speech sounds form the microphones are recorded in synchronism with the data acquisition via the PC s standard sound card This speech can be played back when the test is reviewed As the speech is saved as a standard PC format wav file it can also be played back without the SNORS software using the PC Sound Recorder applet This means that sound recordings can be passed to other therapists who do not have SNORS e g for independent assessment Speech is recorded in mono SNORS only mode or to the left stereo channel if Laryngograph is used Checking the Record Video box allows video images from a suitable video source to be recorded synchronously with the SNORS data At the end of the test a Video window will appear alongside the Test window 1 If Laryngograph is used the Lx waveform is saved to the right stereo channel This
139. ures Window Each rectangle on the screen with a blue Title Bar at the top is a Window ES SNORS Pil Es Title Bar for SNORS Window All windows can have their properties changed or be closed individually without affecting any other open Windows XIV Dialog Box Windows displays a Dialog Box when you must supply information or specify options or properties For example when you click the Open command to open a file a dialog box enables you to choose the one you want You can use the following types of options in dialog boxes Click this To do this Expand the list of choices Then click the item you want Select one option at a time The circle is filled in when the option is selected M Select more than one option at a time A check mark appears when the option is selected Dialog boxes also often contain buttons which can be clicked to carry out actions or open other dialog boxes There is usually a button such as OK which is clicked when all the required selections have been made to implement the selection There is also often a Cancel button which enables the dialog box to be closed without making any changes Cancel Message Box A Message Box is like a dialog box except that it doesn t allow any choices to be made it simply provides information Close box A Close Box is the small square at the top right hand corner of a window containin
140. us displays trend displays can also be provided Although these are more complicated they do provide additional information about the dynamics of the articulations IE Scope Active OF x 100 Combined Speech Intensity 5 05 Nasal Airflow 5 08 Oral Airflow 50s Although a lot is happening on a trend display the display can easily be paused either manually or automatically at the end of a scan It is then possible to discuss the display with the patient and to show what is happening and what needs to be done to correct for any shortcomings Analysis display assessment and measurement of outcome For assessment and analysis a test routine is provided This prompts the patient to say a sequence of words from a default or user defined word list and records the results from whatever instruments are selected At the end of the test comprehensive displays are provided labar Test a Oi x Nasal Airflow 20 20 0 0 20 Oral Airflow BB Zoom Alison 3 100 Patient Information Name Alison ID Test Date 3 6 98 w Combined Speech Intensity 2 0 Clinician Comment 2 palate electrodes faulty Analysis Point Values Time 360 00 ms Ratio 100 00 Nasalance 0 00 Fx 0 00 Hz Nasal Airflow 2 0 oO Amplitude Slope Oral Airflow 2 0 wn 1 17 0 00 ms 0 88 0 05 ms 7 57 0 02 ms 1 76 0 08 ms 0 00 0 00 ms
141. video source 67 8 Now plug in and switch on the computer Once it has booted this may take a few minutes the system is ready to use SNORS plus Laryngograph Therapy Voice therapy generally requires detailed parameters such as Shimmer and Jitter to be displayed As SNORS only provides Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency data in real time it is recommended that the full PCLX software supplied by Laryngograph Ltd be used for therapy For basic therapy however real time displays of Voicing Intensity Lx envelope either in Bar or Scope form can be activated as follows Bar To use SNORS and Laryngograph together after starting the SNORS package click New Bar followed by New Bar again then Lx and finally Auto Arrange on the toolbar F F L E 68 SNORS and Laryngograph Bar displays will appear side by side on the screen iF Bar Active i Es e Combined Speech Nasal Airflow 100 100 100 100 Voicing Oral Airflow Ask the patient to produce the required sounds or words and observe the displays with the patient The displays can be paused by pressing the Pause key and restarted by pressing the Pause key again Scope To use SNORS and Laryngograph together in Scope mode click the New Scope and Auto Arrange buttons on the toolbar Ne fE A Scope window opens with five traces Speech Intensity Nasal Airfl
142. vocal tract they provide no information on how these frequencies change with time 114 Spectrograms A sound spectrogram is a visual representation of an acoustic signal It is created by applying a Fast Fourier Transform to the sampled acoustic signal where it is separated into sinusoidal waveforms of different frequency These frequencies are represented vertically on the spectrogram with time plotted horizontally Energy or loudness is depicted by grey scale intensities as shown below 10 kHz 10 Seconds A narrowband spectrogram of the utterance Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Smoke King It is the spectrogram s ability to display the rapid variations in the acoustic signal which makes it such a valued instrument Spectrograms provide analysis of the frequency components of the acoustic signal either in terms of the harmonics it comprises or of the peaks of resonance formants that it contains The relative degree of darkness also conveys information about the signal strength Generally two forms of the spectrogram are used namely wideband and narrowband Narrowband Spectrograms These are useful for making measurements on fundamental frequency and intonation A prominent characteristic of the narrowband spectrogram is the narrow horizontal bands which represent the harmonics of the glottal source see below The darker bands represent harmonics that are closest to the peaks
143. when the test was performed This is selected by default The easiest way to view the Spectrogram is to select Show Spectrogram at the time of recording the test This is achieved by clicking in the Show Spectrogram check box in the Display Options part of the Test Settings dialog box m Display Options M Show Bar l Show FFT LPC T Show Wave M Show Spectrograrr Seat Cheese Shoot Kin Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s Nasal Airflow 20 0 s Oral Airflow 20 0 s The Spectrogram window displays the spectrogram over the period of the entire recording The Scope and Spectrogram windows are time aligned If a cursor track or block is activated in the Scope window it is duplicated in the Spectrogram window Both cursors move together If the Spectrogram window is the active window clicking on the block cursor button in the toolbar activates a measurement cursor This cursor displays the time frequency and intensity information in the status bar FETE lej x File Options Window Help M Spectrogram Test 10 kHz Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke Kin Combined Speech Intensity Nasal Airflow Oral Airflow Time 8 89 s Frequency 3 08 kHz Intensity 49 80 Real time Wave FFT LPC and Spectrogram displays Wave To open the therapy Wave display click New Wave on the toolbar Enlarge the display by clicking Auto Arrange on
144. will be synchronised Any number of scopes can be run at once Wave Opens a real time wave window and starts the wave running 137 Eix 100 100 Combined Speech 100 0 ms If a wave is already running a second one is started in a new window Provided the speeds are the same both waves will be synchronised Any number of waves can be run at once FFT LPC Opens a real time FFT LPC spectrum window and starts a default LPC running ECT D Anen MIR FFTALPC Active AEE 60 dB Combined Speech Spectrum 1 0 kHzidiv If an FF T LPC is already running a second one is started in a new window Provided the speeds are the same both FFT LPC s will be synchronised Any number of FFT LPC s can be run at once 138 Spectrogram Opens a real time spectrogram window and starts the spectrogram running i Spectrogram Active O x 10 kHz j e sg E i Ea Combined Speech Spectrogram 58s If a spectrogram is already running a second one is started in a new window Provided the speeds are the same both spectrograms will be synchronised Any number of spectrograms can be run at once Bar Opens a real time bar window and starts the bar running H Bar Active Miei x Masal Airflow 100 100 m I I I I I I I I I I 100 100 Oral Airflow Several bars can be run at once if required EPG Opens a real time Linguagraph EPG wi
145. y Period 2 Seconds Current word list file tandard Select Hew List Create Mew List Parameter S lection Sample Frequency 200 i hz Setup F SNORS M Ly MERE Aus M Record Audio Record Video Sees Audio Video Patient Info iel Display Options Show Bar Show FFT LPC Show Wave T Show Spectrogram Cancel When you are ready to commence the test click Start in the Test Settings dialog box After a short delay a sequence of words appears on the screen By default the sequence Is Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End W word List Bl x The patient is simply required to speak the words At the end of the test a Test display appears on the screen showing the Speech Intensity Voicing Intensity and Fundamental Frequency waveforms for the complete word list a Test Sample Standard lof xi Begin Type Fight Seat Cheese Shoot Smoke King Missing End 100 Combined Speech Intensity 20 0 s 100 Voicing Intensity 20 0 s Fundamental Frequency 20 0 s The sensitivity of the traces can be changed if required by pressing the or key on the numeric keypad This is useful if the patient has spoken very quietly for example and the initial traces are low in amplitude As the sensitivity is varied the scales at the left of the screen alter to reflect the changes To listen to the rec
146. y is closed The velum which is relaxed during normal respiration is elevated The degree of closure necessary is dependent on the sound and its phonetic context The lips The lips have three functions a place of closure further altering the size and shape of the resonation cavity by altering lip shape e g u and a sound source e g during f upper incisors lower lip Air passes through the gap under pressure causing friction The teeth and hard palate These are not active articulators but essential contributors The tongue And finally the tongue the most versatile of the articulators being involved in the production of all vowels and the vast majority of consonants The versatility of the tongue allows horizontal anterior posterior movement of the body blade and tip vertical superior inferior movement of the body blade and tip m transverse concave convex movement m spread tapered contrast in the tongue blade and tip m degree of central grooving Different sounds require different tongue configurations By altering tongue position and shape the size of the oral cavity and therefore its resonating characteristics are changed The overall process of speech production If we take one example of a class of speech sounds the plosives these require velopharyngeal closure and stopping of the oral cavity Air pressure builds up in the oral cavity and the rapid release of the closure or voicing

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