Effect of Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

Conference paper


Vazquez Amos, R., Green, J., Dance, S., Thomas, J., Gohil, H., Telford, J. and Mapp, P. (2022). Effect of Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility. Inter-Noise 2022. Glasgow 21 - 24 Aug 2022 Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE). https://doi.org/10.3397/in_2022_0396
AuthorsVazquez Amos, R., Green, J., Dance, S., Thomas, J., Gohil, H., Telford, J. and Mapp, P.
TypeConference paper
AbstractWith the advent of COVID, the wearing of face covering has been obligatory in both medical and everyday life. This paper describes three experiments undertaken to establish the effect of face coverings on speech sound power, speech directivity and speech intelligibility. The experiments used two different approaches acoustic measurements and word scores. The face coverings assessed were a 'standard blue' surgical mask, a typical fabric mask, and a plastic transparent visor. The results showed that non-native English speakers had by far the most difficulty in comprehending the English language speech when face coverings were worn in speech intelligibility tests, as measured using phonetically balanced word lists. All the masks were found to noticeably affect speech intelligibility, with the surgical mask having the least detrimental effect. The results are also compared to objective measurements of their physical acoustics characteristics to establish their performance.
Year2022
JournalINTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE)
Journal citation265 (5), pp. 2842-2850
ISSN0736-2935
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3397/in_2022_0396
Accepted author manuscript
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Open
Publication dates
Online21 Aug 2022
Print21 Aug 2022
Publication process dates
Accepted01 Jun 2022
Deposited24 Feb 2023
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In22 8 page Facemasks v5.pdf
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