Telephone Speech Enhancement System

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Telephone communication is problematic for 28 million individuals in the US with hearing loss, many of whom are elderly. An innovative laboratory-based algorithm has been developed that enhances speech before it is transmitted over a telephone, so that it can be better understood by persons with hearing loss, even if they do not own hearing aids or a telephone amplifier. Previous research on the algorithm is positive, but, to have the widest impact for listeners with hearing loss, the algorithm must be integrated into a commercial system. FutureCom Technologies, Inc. developed CommUnify, the only telephony system to integrate speech recognition, text-to-speech, TDDs, Fax, Email/Web integrations, and Interactive Voice Response on a single platform. FutureCom is interested in porting the speech enhancement algorithm into its platform where it could be used for a variety of applications, the most encompassing being its use in call centers that handle thousands of calls-many from older callers with hearing loss. This Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of integrating the laboratory-based algorithm into FutureCom's commercial platform. The specific aims of this project are to: 1) demonstrate the technical feasibility of integrating the telephone speech enhancement system into a commercial system; 2) determine which type of speech intelligibility test serves as the best tool for evaluating the device; 3) confirm that the commercial implementation of the algorithm results in improvement in speech recognition over the phone equal to that achieved by the laboratory implementation. At the conclusion of Phase 1, we anticipate that the laboratory telephone speech enhancement algorithm will be fully integrated with a commercial signal processing server platform, the speech intelligibility test best for evaluating the speech understanding ability over the phone in listeners with hearing loss will be known, and the equivalence of the existing laboratory implementation and the proposed commercial application of the speech enhancement algorithm will be documented. This proposal is a response to PA-04-064, Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging, Development of Devices for the Amelioration of Age-Related Changes in Human Sensory and Motor Systems.