Macquirer

Hardware

The Macquirer 516 data acquisition system in KUPPL can collect an array of phonetic and aerodynamic data, including:

  • Oral flow
  • Oral pressure
  • Nasal flow
  • Acoustic signals

These data are collected with oral and nasal masks. Tubes carry the aerodynamic signals to a transducer, which also contains a microphone (all pictured below).

research participant wearing mask to capture speech

The transducer is wired to the data acquisition system, which in turn is hooked up to a Macintosh laptop for data analysis.

The types of data listed above can be collected in part or in whole.

To ensure accurate readings, KUPPL also has a CAL110 for calibrating the Macquirer 516. See Calibrations for instructions.

Software

The aerodynamics station at the University of KansasPPL currently runs Macquirer 8.9.2 (though an upgrade is currently in development at Scicon R&D). This program is specifically designed to interpret the data collected by the Macquirer 516.

The Macquirer software offers synchronized waveforms of a subject’s vocalizations, oral flow, oral pressure, and nasal flow.

figure showing audio representation, oral flow and oral pressure of sounds

This software can also provide spectrograms, pitch tracks, and intensity readings, as well as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) outputs.

Macquirer Links