Vocal performance requires high level vocal effort which can lead to
vocal fold strain and in some cases, vocal fold damage. This is
increasingly becoming a problem in the Māori performing arts genre Kapa
Haka. A process has been developed that can extract the glottal volume
velocity waveform from the speech signal. This waveform is rich with
information about the physiology of the singer. Pertinent to this
project, we can extract information about glottal fold behaviour from
the speech signal, and from them infer information about singer vocal
health.
However, due to the intense nature of Kapa Haka performance,
clipping can often occur in recording, compromising signal quality and
integrity. This makes it difficult to model vocal fold behaviour, as it
compromises the speech model. This project will investigate various
microphone types and placements for recording. Ideally, an appropriate
set up for this recording application will be found. This project will
also investigate how much information about the glottal folds is lost in
the process of audio clipping and whether or not this loss can be
mitigated. Investigation will be undertaken in both the time and
frequency domains.
Undergraduate
The outcome of this project will help to work towards developing a system that provides real-time feedback on vocal health for Kapa Haka performers.
None
Lab allocations have not been finalised