An Articulatory Speech-Prosthesis System

• Main Authors: Wee, Keng Hoong (Author), Turicchia, Lorenzo (Contributor), Sarpeshkar, Rahul (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2012-09-27T15:12:42Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We investigate speech-coding strategies for brain-machine-interface (BMI) based speech prostheses. We present an articulatory speech-synthesis system using an experimental integrated-circuit vocal tract that models the human vocal tract. Our articulatory silicon vocal tract makes feasible the transmission of low bit-rate speech-coding parameters over a bandwidth-constrained body sensor network (BSN). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first articulatory speech-prosthesis system reported to date. We also present a speech-prosthesis simulator (SPS) as a means to generate realistic articulatory parameter sequences.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant NS056140)