Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
A monotonous voice, soft, broken and sometimes decreases its volume are among the main symptoms of Parkinson's. A new technology allows these patients to speak louder. Go to a disco or in any other location that makes noise, unconsciously, people increase the tone of his voice to facilitate understanding of a conversation. Based on this, Jessica Huber, Purdue University, U.S., has led the development of a technology that will enable patients with Parkinson's have a conversation with a voice loud enough to be understandable.
Parkinson's is the most common degenerative neurological disease and about 89 percent of cases with a change in his voice, and about 45 percent prensentan changes in the clarity of his speech. "At some point in their illness will have some sort of disruption in voice or speech that usually occurs over time," said Huber.
Huber to develop this technology using an approach that had not yet been developed: the noise that simulates a restaurant full of customers, but without the noise of plates and glasses, they asked the patients to increase the volume of your voice . The device, voice activated, this murmur played back when a person begins to speak. In addition, a sensor placed on the neck detected when has begun to transmit sound and connects to the device to play the sound through a headset worn by the patient.
Six people used this portable system for eight weeks. The results showed that the system worked effectively in patients who spoke with a louder sound and more clearly. Additionally, the device succeeded not only during treatment, but the improvement in speech improved after eight weeks and without the use of technology. "Normally, when I asked, twice, to speak louder, they responded that they could not. They could not talk about 10 decibels louder, but when the noise began to function, their voices that far exceeded decibels".
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