SpeechSpecs

You Can Participate!

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:56:17 +0000

You Can Participate!
You will wear a simple pair of glasses, called iGlasses, that house a small microphone in the glasses and a small LED screen in the periphery of the lens. The iGlasses will record the speech of your conversation partner and simultaneously display its sound properties as simple bars of colored lights on the LED screen. The meaning of these lights can be learned with practice. This information will complement the information conveyed by the face and limited hearing to help understanding. Our research has shown that individuals can learn to use the colored bars of light to enhance their speech perception. This system does not require any learning on the part of the talker.

We are seeking individuals who are hard of hearing and have an interest in learning to use our iGlasses to improve their face-to-face communication. The learning process is somewhat involved but it offers a qualitative improvement of interpersonal communication. $12/ hour plus bonuses. To apply, please submit the following form.

Name
email
age
occupation
hearing
hours available for participation

Do you have difficulty in face-to-face conversations, especially in noisy environments? One reason is that we lose our hearing as we become chronologically gifted. You may even have hearing aids or cochlear implants, and still have difficulty. We are researching how to supplement the sound of speech and lipreading with an additional informative visual input presented on common eyeglasses. The speech of your conversational partner will be transformed into readily perceivable visual cues in the periphery. These cues will supplement the other speech information, which will improve your understanding. This is a form of sensory substitution analogous to blind persons when the visual world is transmitted through vibrators on the back or even the tongue.

How you can help. In order to benefit from our eyeglasses, it is important to learn the meaning of these visual cues and to use them in combination with the sound of the speech and the information on the face. As a participant in this research, you will participate in a series of learning sessions in order to master the cues. Then you will graduate to wearing the glasses in your everyday activities in order to facilitate your language understanding. People who have an investment in improving their speech understanding are preferred. We are also interested in studying persons who use sign language to communicate and also know English as a second language and persons who use Cued Speech.

Your participation might continue for several months. You will be paid, and will receive a bonus if you complete the learning. You will also be given a complimentary pair of the eyeglasses, call speechspecs, once they are commercially available.

The Solution

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:44:16 +0000

The Solution. We propose to develop and implement iGlasses that will show on LEDs acoustic features extracted from the speech that will complement the information conveyed by the face and help many different individuals perceive speech. This device will supplement the sound of speech and speechreading of the face with an additional informative visual input. Acoustic characteristics of the speech will be transformed into readily perceivable visual characteristics. The goal of the proposed research is to develop and test the technology required to design a device seamlessly worn by the listener, which will perform continuous real-time acoustic analysis of his or her interlocutor’s speech. The iGlasses would transform several continuous acoustic features of the talker’s speech into continuous visual features, which will be simultaneously seen in the periphery of the lens. These acoustic features provide important linguistic information not directly observed on the face and are transformed into visual cues intended to enhance intelligibility and ease of comprehension. Pilot research has demonstrated that the acoustic features can be extracted and tracked in real time and that individuals can learn to use these visual cues to enhance their speech perception. This system does not require any learning on the part of the talker and is perceptually and linguistically motivated because it is directly based on acoustic and phonetic properties of speech and gives continuous rather than only categorical information. Continue reading →

The Problem:

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:23:33 +0000

The need for language aids is pervasive in today’s world. Millions of individuals have language and speech challenges, and these individuals require additional support for communication and language learning. For example, about 10% of the population in the United States is hearing-impaired, and this population is even larger worldwide. Currently, however, the needs of these persons, such as limited understanding in face-to-face communication, are not being met. This proposal develops technology to supplement the common face-to-face language interaction to enhance intelligibility, understanding, and communication.

Welcome

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:22:22 +0000

Welcome, this is the welcome post.

SpeechSpecs: An Automatic Wearable Speech Supplement
in Face-to-Face Communication and Classroom Situations