A model of acoustic transmission in the respiratory system

A theoretical model of sound transmission from within the respiratory tract to the chest wall due to the motion of the walls of the large airways was developed. The vocal tract, trachea, and the first five bronchial generations are represented over the frequency range from 100 to 600 Hz by an equivalent acoustic circuit. This circuit allows the estimation of the magnitude of airway wall motion in response to an acoustic perturbation at the mouth. The radiation of sound through the surrounding lung parenchyma is represented as a cylindrical wave in a homogeneous mixture of air bubbles in water. The effect of thermal losses associated with the polytropic compressions and expansions of these bubbles by the acoustic wave is included and the chest wall is represented as a massive boundary to the wave propagation. The model estimates the magnitude of acceleration over the extrathoracic trachea and at three locations on the posterior chest wall in the same vertical plane. The predicted spectral characteristics of transmission are consistent with previous experimental observations. This theoretical approach suggests that the locations of the spectral peaks are a strong function of the geometry and the wall properties of the airways, while the attenuation at higher frequencies is primarily associated with the absorption of sound in the parenchyma.     

Nonlinear cepstral equalisation method for noisy speech recognition

The authors deal with the problem of automatic speech recognition in the presence of additive white noise. The effect of noise is modelled as an additive term to the power spectrum of the original clean speech. The cepstral coefficients of the noisy speech are then derived from this model. The reference cepstral vectors trained from clean speech are adapted to their appropriate noisy version to best fit the testing speech cepstral vector. The LPC coefficients, LPC derived cepstral coefficients, and the distance between test and reference, are all regarded as functions of the noise ratio (the spectral power ratio of noise to noisy speech). A gradient based algorithm is proposed to find the optimal noise ratio as well as the minimum distance between the test cepstral vector and the noise adapted reference. A recursive algorithm based on Levinson-Durbin recursion is proposed to simultaneously calculate the LPC coefficients and the derivatives of the LPC coefficients with respect to the noise ratio. The stability of the proposed adaptation algorithm is also addressed. Experiments on multispeaker (50 males and 50 females) isolated Mandarin digits recognition demonstrate remarkable performance improvements over noncompensated method under noisy environment. The results are also compared to the projection based approach, and experiments show that the proposed method is superior to the projection approach under a severe noisy environment     

A method for the analysis of respiratory sinus arrhythmia using continuous wavelet transforms

A continuous wavelet transform-based method is presented to study the nonstationary strength and phase delay of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The RSA is the cyclic variation of instantaneous heart rate at the breathing frequency. In studies of cardio-respiratory interaction during sleep, paced breathing or postural changes, low respiratory frequencies, and fast changes can occur. Comparison on synthetic data presented here shows that the proposed method outperforms traditional short-time Fourier-transform analysis in these conditions. On the one hand, wavelet analysis presents a sufficient frequency-resolution to handle low respiratory frequencies, for which time frames should be long in Fourier-based analysis. On the other hand, it is able to track fast variations of the signals in both amplitude and phase for which time frames should be short in Fourier-based analysis.     

A method for the acoustical analysis of respiratory crackles in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis

Crackles are impulsive sounds occurring in particular pulmonary diseases. This note presents the preliminary results of a study on the acoustical characteristics of crackles, particularly in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, for the purpose of determining the diagnostic effectiveness of such a merely acoustic technique.     

Detection of landmines and underground utilities from acoustic and GPR images with a cepstral approach

This paper introduces a cepstral approach for the automatic detection of landmines and underground utilities from acoustic and ground penetrating radar (GPR) images. This approach is based on treating the problem as a pattern recognition problem. Cepstral features are extracted from a group of images, which are transformed first to 1-D signals by lexicographic ordering. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) and polynomial shape coefficients are extracted from these 1-D signals to form a database of features, which can be used to train a neural network with these features. The target detection can be performed by extracting features from any new image with the same method used in the training phase. These features are tested with the neural network to decide whether a target exists or not. The different domains are tested and compared for efficient feature extraction from the lexicographically ordered 1-D signals. Experimental results show the success of the proposed cepstral approach for landmine detection from both acoustic and GPR images at low as well as high signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Results also show that the discrete cosine transform (DCT) is the most appropriate domain for feature extraction.     

A high-sensitivity real-time acoustic imaging system for biomedical diagnosis

A real-time acoustic imaging system which is essentially the acoustic equivalent of the scanning electron-beam microscope is proposed. This system with piezoelectric detection is superior in theoretical performance to all the presently existing systems. A possible embodiment of such a system is described.     

Numerical analysis of two-dimensional piezoelectric waveguides for surface acoustic waves by finite-element method

A combined approach of the finite-element method and the analytical solutions is described for the analysis of two-dimensional piezoelectric waveguides with semi-infinite media for surface acoustic waves. Agreement between the exact and predicted results is very good.     

A comparative approach between cepstral features for human authentication using heart sounds

The main objective of this paper is to provide a comparative study between different cepstral features for the application of human recognition using heart sounds. In the past 10 years, heart sound, which is known as phonocardiogram, has been adopted for human biometric authentication tasks. Most of the previously proposed systems have adopted mel-frequency and linear frequency cepstral coefficients as features for heart sounds. In this paper, two more cepstral features are proposed. The first one is based on wavelet packet decomposition where a new filter bank structure is designed to select the appropriate bases for extracting discriminant features from heart sounds. The other is based on nonlinear modification for mel-scaled cepstral features. The four cepstral features are tested and compared on two databases: One consists of 21 subjects, and the other consists of 206 subjects. Based on the achieved results over the two databases, the two proposed cepstral features achieved higher correct recognition rates and lower error rates in identification and verification modes, respectively.     

A wavelet transform based contrast enhancement method for underwater acoustic images

Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing - Dredging the surface of the ocean to identify both living and non living things nowadays has become an unproblematic task with the help of the...     

An acoustic model of the respiratory tract

With the emerging use of tracheal sound analysis to detect and monitor respiratory tract changes such as those found in asthma and obstructive sleep apnea, there is a need to link the attributes of these easily measured sounds first to the underlying anatomy, and then to specific pathophysiology. To begin this process, we have developed a model of the acoustic properties of the entire respiratory tract (supraglottal plus subglottal airways) over the frequency range of tracheal sound measurements, 100 to 3000 Hz. The respiratory tract is represented by a transmission line acoustical analogy with varying cross sectional area, yielding walls, and dichotomous branching in the subglottal component. The model predicts the location in frequency of the natural acoustic resonances of components or the entire tract. Individually, the supra and subglottal portions of the model predict well the distinct locations of the spectral peaks (formants) from speech sounds such as /a/ as measured at the mouth and the trachea, respectively, in healthy subjects. When combining the supraglottic and subglottic portions to form a complete tract model, the predicted peak locations compare favorably with those of tracheal sounds measured during normal breathing. This modeling effort provides the first insights into the complex relationships between the spectral peaks of tracheal sounds and the underlying anatomy of the respiratory tract.     

A complete system for on-line 3D modelling from acoustic images

This paper presents a system for the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of an underwater environment on the basis of multiple range views from an acoustical camera. The challenge is to provide the reconstruction on-line, as the range views are obtained from the sensor. The final target of the work is to improve the understanding of a human operator driving an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle. The acoustic camera provides a sequence of 3D images in real time. Data must be registered and fused to generate a unique 3D mosaic in the form of a triangle mesh, which is rendered through a graphical interface. Available technologies for registration and meshing have been modified and extended to match time constraints. Some experiments on real data are reported.     

A model selection method for nonlinear system identification based FMRI effective connectivity analysis

In this paper a model selection algorithm for a nonlinear system identification method is proposed to study functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) effective connectivity. Unlike most other methods, this method does not need a pre-defined structure/model for effective connectivity analysis. Instead, it relies on selecting significant nonlinear or linear covariates for the differential equations to describe the mapping relationship between brain output (fMRI response) and input (experiment design). These covariates, as well as their coefficients, are estimated based on a least angle regression (LARS) method. In the implementation of the LARS method, Akaike's information criterion corrected (AICc) algorithm and the leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation method were employed and compared for model selection. Simulation comparison between the dynamic causal model (DCM), nonlinear identification method, and model selection method for modelling the single-input-single-output (SISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems were conducted. Results show that the LARS model selection method is faster than DCM and achieves a compact and economic nonlinear model simultaneously. To verify the efficacy of the proposed approach, an analysis of the dorsal and ventral visual pathway networks was carried out based on three real datasets. The results show that LARS can be used for model selection in an fMRI effective connectivity study with phase-encoded, standard block, and random block designs. It is also shown that the LOO cross-validation method for nonlinear model selection has less residual sum squares than the AICc algorithm for the study.     

新型多极子阵列声波声系的设计分析

新型多极子阵列声波测井仪器由上电子短节、接收声系、隔声短节、发射声系和下电子短节5个相对独立的部分组成,能够通过单极、交叉偶极和四极声波全波信号准确获得纵波、横波和斯通利波时差,并分析地层的各向异性特征,求取孔隙度、估算渗透率、识别岩性等。文章主要针对声波测井仪器中接收声系、发射声系及其隔声的设计进行阐述。     

Miniature acoustic guidance system for endotracheal tubes

Ensuring that the distal end of an endotracheal tube (ETT) is properly located within the trachea, and that the tube is not obstructed by mucus deposition, is a major clinical concern in patients that require mechanical ventilation. A novel acoustic system was developed to allow for the continuous monitoring of ETT position and patency. A miniature sound source and two sensing microphones are placed in-line between the ventilator hose and the proximal end of the ETT. Reflections of an acoustic pulse emitted into the ETT lumen and the airways are digitally analyzed to estimate the location and degree of lumen obstruction, as well as the position of the distal end of the tube in the airway. The system was evaluated through in vitro studies and in a rabbit model. The system noninvasively estimated tube position in vivo to within roughly 4.5 mm, and differentiated between proper tracheal, and erroneous bronchial or esophageal intubation in all cases. In addition, the system estimated the area and location of lumen obstructions in vitro to within 14% and 3.5 mm, respectively. These findings indicate that this miniature technology could improve the quality of care provided to the ventilated adult and infant.     

船载式水声跟踪系统定位原理及误差分析

阐述了水下定位系统的研究意义和基本分类,介绍了船载式水声跟踪系统的定位原理、实现方法,以及优点和不足之处,给出定位计算及姿态修正公式。针对声速、基阵孔径、时延值和姿态角等参数对系统产生的误差,进行理论公式推导和分析,最后给出系统误差公式。结合误差公式和随机误差理论,分析了跟踪系统的定位误差来源,并给出减小误差的基本方法。     

体育场的扩声系统及相关声学问题分析

简要介绍了秦皇岛市奥体中心体育场扩声系统，并结合体育场实例对长延时声问题和多点声源声能叠加对语言清晰度的影响进行了探讨，同时对体育场内几个有关声学问题作了分析。     

手机上网业务质量端到端分析方法和系统

为保障客户的上网体验,需要建立一套贴近客户感知的业务质量评估体系;需要贯通手机上网“端管云”各个环节,分析定位质差问题、开展优化提升。本文介绍了一种手机上网业务质量端到端分析方法和系统,基于4G信令构建业务感知评估体系,通过业务端到端分析模型定界到业务质差环节。     

Design and evaluation of optimal cepstral lifters for accessingarticulatory codebooks

It is noted that of great importance to the success of the articulatory approach to speech coding is the use of a good distortion measure between a given speech signal and the entries in a stored codebook of impulse responses and corresponding vocal-track shapes (articulatory codebook). One promising distortion measure is the weighted cepstral distortion. Since the impulse responses in the articulatory codebook do not include glottal characteristics, the authors derive optimal weighting functions (cepstral lifters) to reduce the influence of a varying glottal source on the cepstral distortion measure. This is done by examining the ensemble of cepstral coefficients of speech produced by an articulatory speech synthesizer that also includes a vocal-cord model. The obtained cepstral lifters are optimal for the given ensemble of cepstral coefficients and for given constraints on the weighting function. They are different for cepstral coefficients derived from the power spectrum (FFT cepstra) and for those derived from LPC (linear predictive coding) coefficients (LPC cepstra). The performances of the obtained cepstral lifters are compared in an articulatory codebook search