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. 2021 Dec 23;22(1):67.
doi: 10.3390/s22010067.

Performance Evaluation of a Voice-Based Depression Assessment System Considering the Number and Type of Input Utterances

Masakazu Higuchi  1 , Noriaki Sonota  1 , Mitsuteru Nakamura  1 , Kenji Miyazaki  2 , Shuji Shinohara  1 , Yasuhiro Omiya  3 , Takeshi Takano  3 , Shunji Mitsuyoshi  1 , Shinichi Tokuno  1   4
Affiliations

Performance Evaluation of a Voice-Based Depression Assessment System Considering the Number and Type of Input Utterances

Masakazu Higuchi et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

It is empirically known that mood changes affect facial expressions and voices. In this study, the authors have focused on the voice to develop a method for estimating depression in individuals from their voices. A short input voice is ideal for applying the proposed method to a wide range of applications. Therefore, we evaluated this method using multiple input utterances while assuming a unit utterance input. The experimental results revealed that depressive states could be estimated with sufficient accuracy using the smallest number of utterances when positive utterances were included in three to four input utterances.

Keywords: mental health; mood change by positive utterances; voice biomarker.

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Conflict of interest statement

M.H., M.N. and S.T. had received financial support from PST Inc. until 2019 and currently report no financial support from the company. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Details of utterance analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The scatter plot of HDRS score and standard vitality in depressed patients.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatter plots of age and standard vitality.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Box plots of the standard and adjusted standard vitality distributions for the healthy and depressive groups.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Healthy group/depressive group discrimination accuracy for each number of utterances.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Difference from standard vitality for each number of utterances.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Vitality distribution of healthy group/depressive group by utterance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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