2026-05-20T09:16:00Zhttps://keep.lib.asu.edu/oai/request

oai:keep.lib.asu.edu:node-2007832025-06-05T17:52:08Zoai_pmh:alloai_pmh:repo_items

200783 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.200783 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2025-05 20 pages Mitbander, Anushka Daliri, Ayoub Merrikhiahangarkolaee, Yaser Barrett, The Honors College School of Biological & Health Systems Engineering School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences School of Public Affairs This study presents the development and evaluation of a lightweight, cost-effective nasometer prototype designed to measure nasalance—the ratio of nasal to total acoustic energy—during speech. Traditional nasometry systems, while clinically valuable, are often bulky and expensive, limiting their accessibility. In response, a novel system was engineered using a contact microphone placed on the nose, a headset microphone, and a Tascam audio recorder to simultaneously capture nasal and oral acoustic signals. MATLAB was used to analyze recorded sentences containing nasal and non-nasal phonemes, applying signal processing techniques to compute nasalance values. Supplementary vowel segment analysis was performed using Praat to isolate phonetic contrasts. Results showed consistently higher nasalance scores for nasal contexts, with measurable differences of up to 3.59% between nasal and non-nasal vowel instances. Despite elevated absolute nasalance values—likely due to microphone sensitivity and environmental factors—the prototype reliably distinguished speech resonance variations while significantly reducing costs and weight. This work demonstrates the potential of a low-cost, portable nasometry system for clinical and educational applications, especially in resource-limited or remote settings. Nasometry Biomedical Engineering Speech and Hearing Science Innovating Nasometry: Prototyping a Lightweight and Cost-Effective Nasometer