A portable digital speech-rate converter for elderly hearing-impaired listeners

Author

Nejime, Yoshito ; Aritsuka, Toshiyuki ; Imamura, Toshiki ; Hokimoto, Takao ; Ifukube, Tohru ; Matsushima, Jun´ichi

Author_Institution

Central Res. Lab., Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

fYear

1994

fDate

3-6 Nov 1994

Firstpage

271

Abstract

A new portable device that reduces speech speed in real time has been developed to aid hearing-impaired listeners. The device employs real-time digital signal processing to expand the time scale of the speech signal without changing the pitch. Seven out of ten elderly hearing-impaired listeners have shown improvements in word discrimination tests when using this speech-rate conversion. The subjects´ temporal resolution showed a correlation with the observed improvement, with a coefficient value of 0.859. The results suggest that this device provides support at the cognitive level of the auditory system

Keywords

handicapped aids; hearing; medical signal processing; speech processing; auditory system; coefficient value; cognitive level support; elderly hearing-impaired listeners; portable digital speech-rate converter; real-time speech speed reduction; temporal resolution; time scale expansion; word discrimination tests; Analog-digital conversion; Auditory system; Digital signal processing; Laboratories; Senior citizens; Signal processing; Signal processing algorithms; Signal resolution; Speech processing; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1994. Engineering Advances: New Opportunities for Biomedical Engineers. Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2050-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.1994.412050

Filename

412050