The Hyper Helmet is an ultra-light multisensor headset. It was originally created as part of the European project I-Treasures, for the purpose of collecting rare songs. It now forms an integral part of the lab’s instrumentation and is used in different projects that require synchronous recording of the movements of different articulators. It has 6 non-invasive sensors which can be used as needed for different experiments:
- Ultrasound probe (to measure tongue movement)
- Infrared video camera (to measure lip movement)
- Microphone (to record the acoustic signal)
- Piezoelectric accelerometer (to measure nasality)
- Electroglottograph (to measure vocal fold contact)
- Abdominal belt (to measure movement related to respiration).
Synchronous recording is done using the acquisition software I-THRec (I-Treasures HyperHelmet Recording) developed by the LPP for the Hyper Helmet. The I-THRec (I-Treasures HyperHelmet Recording) software makes it possible to visualize the recorded signals and extract the following descriptive data that enable quantitative analysis:
- Spectrograms
- F0 / pitch / musical notes
- H1-H2
- Open quotient
- Voicing
- ReNOr (Relative Nasal Oral Ratio)
- Ab volume
- Respiration
The following video was created as part of the I-Treasures project. It demonstrates the Hyper Helmet and theh I-THRec and I-THAn tools.