Research on speech recognition interface for elderly people based on acoustic feature extraction of elderly speech

本研究旨在研究老年人语音的声学特征，以提高老年人的语音识别率。通过听力测试了解老年人与非老年人言语主观印象的差异。我们总结了老年人言语的特点是三个形容词短语：声音沙哑，声音不清晰，说话缓慢。然后，研究了老年人言语中每个形容词短语对应的肢体特征。因此，老年人言语的声学特征为；平均功率谱在高频区域能量提升，话语静止部分频谱波动，相邻音素转换速度慢，语速慢，话语节奏不规则。

This research aims at investigating acoustic features of elderly speech for improving speech recognition rate of elderly speakers. Listening tests are carried out to know difference of subjective impressions between elderly and non-elderly speech. We summarized that elderly speech was characterized by three adjective phrases : hoarse voice, ill-articulated voice and slow utterance. Then a physical characteristic of elderly speech is investigated corresponding to each adjective phrase. As the result, acoustic characteristics of elderly speech are ; energy lift in higher frequency region in average power spectra, fluctuations in spectra during stationary parts of utterance, slow transition speed between adjacent phonemes, slow utterance speed and irregular utterance rhythm.