Operating the software

Program first launch and adjustments

Creation of the database

Click the New database icon (Figure 14). When the database is open button is active.

Figure 14. New database icon

We suggest you to create the database file on your computer Desktop or to create a new folder for the database file in My Documents or somewhere else on the hard drive (Figure 15).

Figure 15. Database icon is active

At the next launching of the program, the previously created database usually opens automatically. If the database hasn’t opened automatically use the button “Open the database” and indicate the path to the database file.

Individualization of "BreathMaker" settings

The treatment of speech disorders definitely requires individual approach to the adjustments of the software. It is related to the following individual features:

1. the position of the basic tone in the speech spectrum,

2. the balance of the overtones which are higher or lower than the basic tone,

3. the degree of disorder,

4. anthropometric data etc.

For the treatment of speech disorders we use the resonant speech production training technique. It is only possible to reach this effect by using the Individual Adjustments File which is created by the specialist and takes into account important individual features of the patient including his anthropometric data (weight, height, age, gender, the length of the backbone etc.).

Each patient must use only his personal adjustments because resonant frequencies of speech production are fully individual as well as each person’s voice. Only in fairy tales the wolf changed the pitch and timbre of its voice.

NB! You must not use other people’s Individual Adjustments Files.

Creation of Individual Adjustments File.

The Individual Adjustments File is created by the specialist during an initial reception of the patient or special diagnostic procedure and is installed directly into your version of BreathMaker program or sent to you through e-mail.

If you attended your initial reception and your Doctor created Individual Adjustments File you can go on to the section “Loading of individual adjustments”.

Creation of Individual Adjustments File via the Internet for those patients who did not attend the initial reception.

To get an Individual Adjustments File you should send via the Internet the record of your speech in the wav-file and your individual data which you should fill in the Registration Form of your personal settings and save as the .brt file. These two files are typically stored in the folder C:\Program Files\RC BKB\BreathMaker\out\. They have the same name consisting of 14 digits: year – 4 digits, month – 2 digits, day – 2 digits, hours – 2 digits, minutes – 2 digits, seconds – 2 digits, which correspond to the time of their creation. For example, 20050306184941.brt and 20050306184941.wav were created in 2005, on March 6, at 18h 49m 41s.

Having analyzed the data submitted by you through the Internet, our specialists will create your Individual Adjustments File that will correspond to your current condition, and will return it to you. Upon receiving you should copy it to the same location of a hard drive where the initial .brm file was located and load it into the program.

So, if you haven’t attended your initial reception at our Centre and haven’t received a floppy disk or a CD with the file of your individual adjustments, perform the following:

Choose Options – Create Individual Options to get into the Registration window (Figure 16).

Figure 16. Create Individual Options command in the program window

Fill in the Registration Form with your personal data (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Registration window of the program

The Backbone can be measured with the tape-measure. Select the 1^st resonator for women and the 2^nd for men. Your Doctor will correct the resonator # if necessary. Average backbone = 78 cm (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Measured backbone light

On selecting the Next button follow the instruction in the Voice testing window (Figure 19).

Figure 19. Voice testing window of the program

When you finish recording your personal data into the microphone press Stop button and Send E-Mail button. If you have an Internet connection, your data will be sent through a mailing program (Outlook Express, Netscape etc.) which is installed on default in your computer. If you have problems with e-mail or online Internet connection, attach two 14 digits .brt and .wav files from the folder “out” as indicated in the beginning of this section and send them to the manufacturer’s e-mail addres: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . On default these files are located in C:\Program Files\RC BKB\BreathMaker\out\ folder or you can perform a files search based year-month-day (20050306 in our case) and file extension criteria.

Loading Individual Adjustments File into the program

After receiving the individual adjustments file, download it into the program.

Figure 20. Downloading Individual Options

To perform this choose Options - Download Individual Options command (Figure 20) and in the file Open window choose proper file location (if you received the file on the external storage device it is supposed to be on a floppy disk, CD, USB drive or other. If you received it by e-mail it should be in your Incoming Mail, Download or My Documents folder). The file name starts from the figures denoting the year of its creation and it has .brm extension (Figure 21).

Figure 21. Selecting the Individual Options file location

Then choose the proper file name and click the Open button (Figure 22).

Figure 22. Downloading Individual Options from the file

Opening the Individual Adjustments File displays the Options window were the specific values of your individual parameters are presented. Press “OK” and your parameters will be saved in BreathMaker. After this we recommend you to exit the program and restart it. You must not press “By default” button otherwise your individual parametres will not be saved in the program settings and you will need to load Individual Adjustments File again!

In the 6^th version of BreathMaker after the loading of the file of individual adjustments, the Options window presenting individual parameters can look like this (Figure 23):

Figure 23. Individual Options window of the program

General information on individual parameters presented in the Options window:
Item “Statistics calculation – last 10 sec.” means that only all the successes and failures of the last 10 seconds are being taken into account. “Total time” averaging takes into account the whole training period.

Noise level (1%) – all the sound signals whose value is lower than 1% are considered noise.

Standard deviation (2) defines the degree of trustworthiness of speech spectral characteristics.

DAF is the synonym of “play delay”. It is regulated automatically when FAF is switched on.

FAF is the correction of the voice pitch and it switch on the bisensor effect. This option should be selected.

Backbone means length of spine in centimeters (see above).

The parameter “Resonator” determines the type of the voice (male/female).

All the other adjustments are for the specialists only!

NB! The use of Frequency Range parameters “By default” or other modifications are necessary for the research purposes carried out by experienced specialists only. Patients should never use them.

Working with the program

Description of BreathMaker buttons

BreathMaker buttons toolbar and description are presented on Figure 24 and Table 2.

Figure 24. BreathMaker buttons toolbar

Table 2. BreathMaker buttons description

Attention! 1 minute of record (button 6) file uses approximately 1.5 MB of disk space.

NB! Erase the old database from time to time and create a new one as a large database file decreases the system performance.

Database window and Personal details card

Database record window and Personal details card are presented on Figure 25 and Figure 26.

Figure 25. Database record window

The personal details card appears when you click buttons  or:

Figure 26. Personal details card

Fill in the card and click "ÎÊ". You don’t have to fill in all the fields.

Starting the training session

As soon as you click buttons  or  the work with the microphone with or without recording begins. If you are in a recording mode you can stop the recording by clicking button . You can delete the results by clicking button ; next clicking of button 5 allows you to launch another training with the microphone (Figure 27).

Figure 27. Starting the train session without recording

Buttons for the specialists and researchers

Button 9 - “Review this record” is used only by specialists.

Red color marks the increase of parameters with the reliability specified in "Parameters" window in the column Standard deviation (Sigma). You can insert markers with the mouse and listen to the whole record  or a chosen  part of it if the registration has been made in the regime  “Start with the speech record to the HD”.

Zero value downfalls on the diagram mean that the patient was silent or the loudness of his speech was lower than the level of noise.

Clicking the Close Window button saves the record and returns the program to the Database mode.

Button 13 “Report for this record” is used by specialists only.

The sign "X" in the report means that at the specified moment there was the increase of a marked parameter with the reliability specified in "Parameters" in the Standard deviation column (Sigma). If there has been registered the excess of several parameters simultaneously, the column “Quantity” will contain corresponding number of parameters.

You can listen to a 10-second section of the record pressing buttons (“Scrolling of the record section”) and ”Stop” only if the record was created in the regime  “Start with the speech record to the HD”. Clicking the Close Window button saves the record and returns the program to the Database mode.