With the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of face masks covering mouth and nose has become ubiquitous all around the world. This study investigates the impact of typical face masks on voice radiation. To analyze the transmission loss caused by masks and the influence of masks on directivity, this study measured the full-spherical voice directivity of a dummy head with a mouth simulator covered with six masks of different types, i.e., medical masks, filtering facepiece respirator masks, and cloth face coverings. The results show a significant frequency-dependent transmission loss, which varies depending on the mask, especially above 2 kHz. Furthermore, the two facepiece respirator masks also significantly affect speech directivity, as determined by the directivity index (DI). Compared to the measurements without a mask, the DI deviates by up to 7 dB at frequencies above 3 kHz. For all other masks, the deviations are below 2 dB in all third-octave frequency bands.
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December 2020
December 14 2020
Impact of face masks on voice radiationa)
Special Collection:
COVID-19 Pandemic Acoustic Effects
Christoph Pörschmann;
Christoph Pörschmann
b)
Institute of Communications Engineering
, TH Köln—University of Applied Sciences, Betzdorfer Straße 2, 50679 Cologne, Germany
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Tim Lübeck;
Tim Lübeck
Institute of Communications Engineering
, TH Köln—University of Applied Sciences, Betzdorfer Straße 2, 50679 Cologne, Germany
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Johannes M. Arend
Johannes M. Arend
Institute of Communications Engineering
, TH Köln—University of Applied Sciences, Betzdorfer Straße 2, 50679 Cologne, Germany
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J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 148, 3663–3670 (2020)
Article history
Received:
August 14 2020
Accepted:
November 11 2020
Citation
Christoph Pörschmann, Tim Lübeck, Johannes M. Arend; Impact of face masks on voice radiation. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 December 2020; 148 (6): 3663–3670. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0002853
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