Non-contact measurement of facial surface vibration patterns during singing by scanning laser Doppler vibrometer

This paper presents a method of measuring the vibration patterns onfacial surfaces by using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer(LDV). The surfaces of the face, neck, and body vibrate duringphonation and, according to Titze (2001), these vibrations occur whenaerodynamic energy is efficiently converted into acoustic energy atthe glottis. A vocalist's vibration velocity patterns may thereforeindicate his or her phonatory status or singing skills. LDVs enablelaser-based non-contact measurement of the vibration velocity anddisplacement of a certain point on a vibrating object, and scanningLDVs permit multipoint measurements. The benefits of scanning LDVsoriginate from the facts that they do not affect the vibrations ofmeasured objects and that they can rapidly measure the vibrationpatterns across planes. A case study is presented herein todemonstrate the method of measuring vibration velocity patterns with ascanning LDV. The objective of the experiment was to measure thevibration velocity differences between the modal and falsettoregisters while three professional soprano singers sang sustainedvowels at four pitch frequencies. The results suggest that there is apossibility that pitch frequency are correlated with vibrationvelocity. However, further investigations are necessary to clarify therelationships between vibration velocity patterns and phonation statusand singing skills.