Throat mic

[Jaguarjoe]

Does anybody know of a decent throat mic for a woman to wear? I don't need the earpiece part.
One of my doctors had throat surgery and speaks at a very low level making her strain to raise her voice or for that matter even talk at all.

Thank you,

Joe

 

[Tony Stewart]

I used a strap mounted throat mic once in a nuclear inspection environment with a forced air suit. It suppresses some wind noise but was very limited in bandwidth and muted sounded requiring a lot of treble boost and squelch.

For a room environment, I think the best type are the simple electret mics. Some are very good at far field cancellation with the open back, so pressure cancellation occurs. Packaging and puff filter fabric is also critical. Some webcam mics pickup the whole room, and some desktop mics cancel out almost everything beyond a few cm. by front rear cancellation in a 8 mm package.

The gain margin ought to be at least 10 dB ( below feedback oscillation) and could be made > 20dB margin with an upper pocket mounted amplified speaker or tiny radio. It is very important to ensure phase to get negative feedback over the mid band vs positive feedback and mic balance ( front rear.)

For comfort and proximity, a necklace with inline dual mics ( tiny Panasonic electret mics) used in differential mode for far field cancellation, is what I would try. But the strongest S/N ratio might still be just <1cm outside the corner of the mouth.

Phones with inline mics are single but open back for far field cancellation are pretty good. THat would be the quickest solution to add to a suitable radio or micro-amp / piezo speaker.

Conclusion. Check inline mobile Microphones and Plantronics website ( biggest pro mic-set co. , I can think of)

edit....
This is a **broken link removed**($99) that has noise cancelling technology and is BT, so BT speakers might be a total solution.

 

[audioguru]

I agree that a throat mic sounds awful. VERY muffled vowels only.

 

[AnalogKid]

Agree with both responses: contact throat mics are very difficult to process into decent audio, and Plantronics' history and rep are outstanding.

Another thought is to look at what motivational speakers, televangelists, CEO's, and other moving-around-the-stage talkers use these days. They look like a current version of the original Plantronics StarSet (for decades the gold standard in mobile mic technology), nearly invisible, sculpted to the curve of the face and jaw, outstanding audio, etc.

ak

 

[Tony Stewart]

The key is voice mics is to maximize signal and minimize noise (breathing)

This optimal point is not in front of mouth, rather just outside corner of lips.

A pencil desktop mic as a wand can be the cheapest solution with trial and error on the best noise cancelling properties.
Then choose any preamp that can drive mic to small speaker with low standby current (squelch)

I have a broken cheap desktop mic and found it was the best for performance was excellent 1cm to side of corner of mouth with amplified sound coming over speakers much louder than normal voice only a foot behind me. In Windows , you can enable Mic on playback to test it.

 

[mvs sarma]

http://solutions.3mindia.co.in/wps/...ne-kit?N=7576579+3294363845+3294857442&rt=rud
the above link takes you to a possible mic.

perhaps there could be an equivalent in OPs locality too.