Continuous Voice Analysis of Warfighters at Risk for PTSD

The need for remote, daily or possibly near-real-time psychological assessment of injured warfighters, at risk for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), during their recovery period, is critical given the preverlance of this condition and the need for a rapid and effective medical response. The goal of this project is to characterize changes in human voice characteristics as the psychological state of the speaker changes and to use this information as the basis of an effective, psychological condition assessment (PCAs) system. Our proposed system of continuous voice monitoring during the day will be superior to ‘point-to-point’ recording sessions in its’ ability to differentiate voice changes due to stress or anger from those associated with fatigue or consumption of alcohol or medication. Leveraging our previous work in these areas, Phase I will employ publicly available speech corpra to validate the overall concept. During Phase II wearable Voice Change Analyzers (VCAs) will be used to collect and analyze voice data from patients exhibiting PTSD. These results will be compared to manual assessment of voice and data logs performed by clinical personnel.