A Voice Conversion System from Electrolarynx Speech to Preoperative Patient's Speech for Total Laryngectomy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a voice conversion system to help laryngectomy patients retain their pre-surgery voice, improving their quality of life.

Contribution

A novel voice conversion system is proposed to convert electrolarynx speech back to a patient's original voice before laryngectomy.

Findings

The VC system successfully converted electrolarynx speech to preoperative patient speech.

A mobile application was developed for high-quality voice recording before surgery.

Preserving original speech through VC can significantly enhance patient quality of life.

Abstract

Laryngectomy is a life‐changing procedure typically performed as a surgical treatment for patients with head and neck cancer. Voice conversion (VC) is a technology that converts one voice into another without changing the linguistic information. Recently, “Save the Voice Project” for patients planning to undergo laryngectomy using our VC technique has been initiated. This study evaluated the speech converted from EL speech using the VC technique in a patient with head and neck cancer who had undergone laryngectomy. Additionally, details of an iPhone/iPad application for voice recording were reported. VC technology would greatly improve the quality of life of patients planning to undergo laryngectomy, especially those with relatively well‐preserved vocal function. To preserve the patient's original normal speech, medical staff should perform voice management before and after laryngectomy, and high‐quality voice recordings are essential.

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