Technical Considerations in the Design of a Wearable Voice Dosimeter

This paper deals with the technical issues and requirements involved in the design of a voice dosimeter, a wearable device to be used by teachers to measure vocal dose on the job, at home and elsewhere during the total waking hours of each day. The concept of vocal dose is introduced and definitions of various dose measures are presented. Practical issues of the work in progress are discussed. These are related to the software design, including the extraction of basic speech parameters, data reduction and storage, user interface design and power management; and hardware considerations concerning microphone selection and attachment to the subject. Unresolved issues are mentioned, and possible solutions are discussed.