Citation

Legros C, Ruiz R, Plantin De Hugues P. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2008; 123(5): 3070.

Affiliation

Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail, Laboratoire d'Acoustique LAUTM, 5, allees Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 1, France, legros@univ-tlse2.fr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, American Institute of Physics)

DOI

10.1121/1.2932837

PMID

18529591

Abstract

Analysis of pilots' voices was undertaken under controlled laboratory conditions, using aeronautical terminology, standard professional equipment, and a standardized recording environment. The aim of the experiment was to determine the way the acoustic characteristics of the voice are modified after a phase of sleep. The results, which are presented in this paper, show very significant variations in the dispersion parameters, like jitters, associated with the fundamental frequency. In an aircraft cockpit, the electro-acoustic and environmental conditions are not so good. Therefore, it is essential to improve and adapt voice analysis methods to achieve reliable results. Cockpit Voice Recorder recordings have poor acoustic characteristics due to microphone quality and the signal to noise ratio, in addition to the non-predetermined vocabulary range. This paper will outline the modifications made to the laboratory methodology and the comparative results obtained, to improve the analysis of CVR recordings. Comparisons of the test recordings meant that it was feasible to determine, via voice analysis, the state of drowsiness of a pilot and, made possible the study of CVR recordings from accidents using new analytical techniques.

Language: en