Audio psychological stress indicator alteration method and apparatus
OwnerPatrick O'Neal Nunallyinventor
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Abstract
A method of changing psychological stress indices by evaluating manifestations of physiological change in the human voice wherein the utterances of a subject under examination are formatted as electrical signals and processed to alter selected characteristics which have been found to change with psycho-physiological state changes, such that the resultant output data signals are perceptually unchanged yet display none of the undesired physiological response characteristics. Apparatus for performing changes of this type includes a data input port, means for spectral alteration and a data output port.
Claims29
A method of changing physiological manifestations of psychological stress in a human source audio comprising the steps of:
- receiving an oral utterance by a subject in the form of electrical signals;
- and identification of portions of said electrical signals which represent variations in the psychological stress of the voice of the subject;
- and transformation of said identified portions of audio data into like audio data where the signal segments are transformed via selective variation of frequency domain characteristics such that the presence of stress indicative characteristics are removed from said signal;
- and providing the electrical signals for use as an electrical representation of audio utterances.
An apparatus for producing electrical output signals approximating electrical input signals both representative of oral utterances, which removes indications of involuntary physiological manifestations of psychological stress, the apparatus comprising:
- means for receiving an input signal representing audio utterances;
- and processing means for reduction of stress indicators present in said input signal based on no less than one involuntary stress indicating metric of the identified segments of said electrical input signal;
- and means for providing resultant data as signals representing audio utterances.
An apparatus for producing output electrical signals that are representative of electrical input signals where the difference between said input signals and said output signals is the absence in the output signals of indicators of involuntary physiological manifestations of psychological stress, the apparatus comprising the combination of:
- means for receiving electrical signals representative of oral utterances;
- and processing means for analyzing said electrical signals to identify involuntary stress indicating characteristics thereof;
- and additional processing means for altering said stress indicating characteristics of said electrical signals;
- and means for outputting the altered electrical signals.
An apparatus for producing an electrical representation of oral utterances of a subject, which does not display observable indications of involuntary physiological manifestations of psychological stress, the apparatus comprising means for receiving electrical signal representations of oral utterances;
- and processing means for deriving no less than one metric indicative of psychological stress and for synthesis of secondary signal representations where the synthesized secondary signal representations lack stress indicating characteristics;
- and means for output of said synthesized secondary signal representations.
An apparatus for producing signals, which are free of indications of involuntary psychological stress manifestations comprising the combination of:
- means for receiving utterances of a subject as electrical signals;
- and means for identifying frequency characteristics in said electrical signals and for producing an indication of the degree of presence of no less than one stress indicative component in said electrical signals;
- and means for varying frequency domain characteristics proportionately to said indication to produce signals having no characteristics associated with indications of involuntary psychological stress.
A method of producing data, which is free of indications of involuntary psychological stress manifestations comprising the steps of:
- receiving utterances of a subject as electrical signals as data;
- and varying frequency domain characteristics to produce data having no characteristics associated with indications of involuntary psychological stress.
An apparatus for producing data, which is free of indications of involuntary psychological stress manifestations comprising the combination of:
- means for receiving utterances of a subject as electrical signals;
- and means for identifying frequency characteristics in said electrical signals and for producing an indication of the degree of presence of no less than one stress indicative component in said electrical signals;
- and means for varying frequency domain characteristics proportionately to said indication to produce signals having no characteristics associated with indications of involuntary psychological stress.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.