Estimation of vocal cord biomechanical parameters by non-linear inverse filtering of voice

Abstract. Voice pathologies are a growing social concern, due to the role that voice and speech play in the performance of certain professions, and in the general population quality of life. In these last years emphasis has been placed in the early detection of these pathologies, for which computer tools performing voice processing are used to evaluate certain time and spectrum domain pa-rameters to infer the presence of pathology. Going one step ahead the present work is aimed to estimate the values of the biomechanical parameters of the vocal fold system, as mass, stiffness and losses by the inversion of the vocal fold structure, which could help in classifying the specific patient’s pathology. The model structure of the vocal cord will be presented, and a method to esti-mate the biomechanical parameters of the cord body structure will be de-scribed. Results for normal and pathological cases will be presented and dis-cussed.