INDIANA SPEECH TRAINING AID

THE GOAL OF THE INDIANA SPEECH TRAINING AID (ISTRA) PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A COMPUTER-BASED SPEECH TRAINING SYSTEM FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SPEECH PRODUCTION OF IMPAIRED POPULATIONS. DURING AN INITIAL PROJECT, THE ISTRA CURRICULUM WAS IMPLEMENTED ON A PC MICROCOMPUTER EQUIPPED WITH A SPEAKER-DEPENDENT SPEECH RECOGNITION BOARD. FEEDBACK CONCERNING THE QUALITY OF SPEECH PRODUCTION IS BASED ON A GOODNESS-OF-FIT METRIC. THIS METRIC REPRESENTS THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN A NEW UTTERANCE AND A STORED TEMPLATE REPRESENTING THE BEST RECENT EFFORT TO PRODUCE THOSE SAME UTTERANCES. A SPEECH PATHOLOGIST SELECTS SYLLABLES OR WORDS FOR USE IN SPEECH DRILL THAT IS PRESENTEDIN VIDEO-GAME FORMAT. RESEARCH ON THE TECHNICAL MERITS OF THE SPEECH RECOGNITION BOARD USED EARLIER FOUND IT DEFICIENT IN SEVERAL WAYS. THISPROJECT WILL INVESTIGATE NEW SPEECH RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS. SPECIFICALLY, STANDARD CRITERIA FOR THE EVALUATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEMS TO BE USED WITH IMPAIRED POPULATIONS WILL BE DEVELOPED. THIS WILL INCLUDE THE COMPLETION OF A SPEECH DATABASE APPROPRIATE FOR SPEECH-TRAINING APPLICATIONS. THREE TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED SPEECH RECOGNITION BOARDS WILL BE INVESTIGATED USING THESE CRITERIA. IN ADDITION, A SOFTWARE SIMULATION SIMILAR TO ONE OF THESE RECOGNIZERS WILL BE DEVELOPED.