A study on computer-based speech therapy system to improve speech naturalness

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26750217
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: National Institute of Informatics (2015-2016); National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities (2014)
• Principal Investigator: OCHI Keiko 国立情報学研究所, 情報学プリンシプル研究系, 特任研究員 (20623713)
• Research Collaborator: MORI Kochi 国立障害者リハビリテーションセンター(研究所), 研究所・感覚機能系障害研究部, 部長 (60157857) ; SAKAI Naomi 国立障害者リハビリテーションセンター(研究所), 研究所・感覚機能系障害研究部, 研究員 (60415362)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 言語訓練 / 吃音 / 音声

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Fluency shaping is widely used in therapy for stuttering, one of speech disorders. Soft voice onset, which is included in the fluency shaping, was conventionally measured by the rise time of the volume and that might cause the unnatural prolongation of the first syllable. In this study, we proposed the acoustic features which were related to the periodicity at the beginning of the phonation to identify the soft onset. We obtained high discrimination rate of 99% by the experimental evaluation. We also developed a home-based training system which visually fed back the acoustic features and showed that one participant could phonate soft onsets without the instruction for soft onset after a long-term training.

Free Research Field

音声信号処理