The estimation of signal-to-noise ratio in continuous speech for disordered voices

Presented is a method of estimating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of continuous utterances for patients with various types of voice disorders that ranged in severity of dysphonia from mild to severe. The SNR is estimated based on the residual that is left after systematically removing the short- and long-term correlations that exist in the speech signal. Results indicate that the SNR is consistent with human perceptual judgments, particularly those that consistently differentiate close-to-normal versus highly disphonic voices.