Study reveals disposable surgical masks have best acoustic effect on speech ANI | Updated: Dec 26, 2020 09:45 IST Washington [US], December 26 (ANI): A new study has evaluated the acoustic effects that face masks have on speech. The team of researchers tested disposable surgical masks, masks with a clear plastic window around the mouth, medical masks, along with homemade and store-bought cloth masks which comprised of different fabric types and no. of layers. Ryan Corey, an electrical and computer engineering postdoctoral researcher under Professor Andrew Singer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, leads a team that studies audio signal processing, especially for listening devices like hearing aids. The results of the team's new study evaluating the acoustic effects of face masks on speech are published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.