Abstract
Silent Speech Interfaces (SSIs) are alternative assistive speech technologies that are capable of restoring speech communication for those individuals who have lost their voice due to laryngectomy or diseases affecting the vocal cords. However, many of these SSIs are still deemed as impractical due to a high degree of intrusiveness and discomfort, hence limiting their transition to outside of the laboratory environment. We aim to address the hardware challenges faced in developing a practical SSI for post-laryngectomy speech rehabilitation. A new Permanent Magnet Articulography (PMA) system is presented which fits within the palatal cavity of the user’s mouth, giving unobtrusive appearance and high portability. The prototype is comprised of a miniaturized circuit constructed using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and is implemented in the form of a dental retainer, which is mounted under roof of the user’s mouth and firmly clasps onto the upper teeth. Preliminary evaluation via speech recognition experiments demonstrates that the intraoral prototype achieves reasonable word recognition accuracy and is comparable to the external PMA version. Moreover, the intraoral design is expected to improve on its stability and robustness, with a much improved appearance since it can be completely hidden inside the user’s mouth.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Helen Dehkordy from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust for prototyping the dental retainers. The work is an independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)’s Invention for Innovation Programme (Grant Reference Number II-LB-0814-20007). The views stated are those of the authors and not necessary reflecting the thoughts of the sponsor.
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Cheah, L.A. et al. (2017). Towards an Intraoral-Based Silent Speech Restoration System for Post-laryngectomy Voice Replacement. In: Fred, A., Gamboa, H. (eds) Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. BIOSTEC 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 690. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54717-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54717-6_2
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