Color display of vowels as a speech articulation training aid

The development and preliminary testing of a computer-based visual speech training aid for the hearing impaired is described. Efforts to date have been devoted to mapping vowels to colors in a robust speaker-independent manner. The best mapping has been achieved using overall spectral shape to represent each vowel and a combination nonlinear/linear transformation from spectral variables to color variables. Extensive simulation experiments with vowel data indicate that vowels can be reliably mapped to a specified target color. More limited testing with the real-time system also indicate that most vowels can easily be identified and matched from their visual display patterns.<>