Method for Improving Intelligibility of Elderly Speech Based on Formant Frequency Shift

In general, aging is progressing in developed countries. Elderly people have difficulty controlling their articulation accurately due to aging. We need to improve the quality of elderly speech for smooth communication. In this paper, we analyzed the 1st formant frequency (F1) and 2nd formant frequency (F2) between the more intelligible speech and less intelligible speech of Japanese elderly people. In addition, we improved the intelligibility of less intelligible elderly speech by using the formant frequency shift method. This method is the correcting by shift value of formant frequency based on LPC. The shift value is the magnification such as expanding the F1-F2 size of less intelligible speech.