ISCA Archive Interspeech 2006
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2006

A noninvasive, low-cost device to study the velopharyngeal port during speech and some preliminary results

Xiaochuan Niu, Alexander B. Kain, Jan P. H. van Santen

It is desirable to monitor the status of the velopharyngeal port during speech. This paper reports on the design and usage of a noninvasive device that measures the static nasal airflow from the nose during speech. The signal can be recorded directly from a generic sound card. Neither does the usage of this device interfere with the articulatory process of speech, nor does it introduce distortions to the simultaneously recorded acoustic signal. We successfully tested the device in an experiment to analyze the velopharyngeal status during normal speech.