Computer system for quantitative evaluation of an electrotactile vocoder for artificial hearing

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Neuroscience
• Speech Processing

Background:

• Deaf individuals face challenges with auditory prosthetics.
• Tactile sensory substitution offers a potential alternative for speech perception.
• Electrotactile vocoders aim to convey speech information through skin stimulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a computer-controlled electrotactile vocoder system.
• To quantitatively assess speech information transmission via electrotactile displays.
• To test design options for tactile vocoders as artificial hearing devices.

Main Methods:

• A digital speech synthesizer and vocoder were employed.
• A computer-driven electrotactile display belt was used for stimulation.
• Adaptive psychophysical techniques and labeling tests quantified speech parameter transmission.

Main Results:

• The system successfully synthesized speech stimuli with manipulated subphonemic features.
• Quantitative evaluation of speech parameter transmission through the skin was achieved.
• The system demonstrated potential for assessing tactile vocoder configurations.

Conclusions:

• The developed electrotactile vocoder system provides a quantitative method for evaluating tactile speech perception.
• This technology holds promise for developing advanced artificial hearing devices for the deaf.
• Further research can optimize vocoder designs for improved speech information transfer via skin.