SENSORY ROUTES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED

AIDING THE HEARING HANDICAPPED IN PERCEIVING SPEECH BY THE SENSE OF TOUCH REQUIRES FIRST THAT SPEECH CUES BE ACQUIRED AND RECONSTRUCTED TO LOW DATA RATE FORM, COMPARABLE TO THAT CONVEYED BY VISUAL SIGNING AND TACTILE BRAILLE. SEVERAL PROMISING CUE EXTRACTING METHODS ARE DESCRIBED BASED ON EXISTING COVOX WORLD RECOGNITION PRODUCTS AS WELL AS ON STATISTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES WHICH USE OVERLAPPING FILTERING MECHANISMS SUGGESIVE OF THE HUMAN EAR.THE EXTRACTED CUES ARE THEN CONVERTED TO TACTILE FORM IN A MANNER PREVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATED WITH ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED SPEECH AS A SPEECH COMPATIBLE TACTILE CODE. RESULTS OF THE FIRST PHASE OF THE RESEARCH WILL BE TWO OR MORE WORKABLE DEMONSTRABLE SYSTEMS WITH SUFFICIENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONSBEING MADE TO DEFINE THE SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTPROGRAM.