Dialogue enabling speech-to-text user assistive agent system for hearing-impaired person

A novel approach for assisting bidirectional communication between people of normal hearing and hearing-impaired is presented. While the existing hearing-impaired assistive devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants are vulnerable in extreme noise conditions or post-surgery side effects, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical & biological engineering & computing 2016-06, Vol.54 (6), p.915-926
Main Authors: Lee, Seongjae, Kang, Sunmee, Han, David K., Ko, Hanseok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Algorithms
Analysis
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Biomedicine
Cochlear implants
Communication
Computer Applications
Deafness
Design
Devices
Hearing Aids
Hearing loss
Hearing Loss - therapy
Human body
Human Physiology
Humans
Imaging
Interactive computer systems
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Medical
Medical devices
Microphones
Noise
Noise reduction
Original Article
Radiology
Rendering
Speech
Studies
Transplants & implants
User interface
User-Computer Interface
Verbal communication
Voice recognition
Voice simulation
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Summary:A novel approach for assisting bidirectional communication between people of normal hearing and hearing-impaired is presented. While the existing hearing-impaired assistive devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants are vulnerable in extreme noise conditions or post-surgery side effects, the proposed concept is an alternative approach wherein spoken dialogue is achieved by means of employing a robust speech recognition technique which takes into consideration of noisy environmental factors without any attachment into human body. The proposed system is a portable device with an acoustic beamformer for directional noise reduction and capable of performing speech-to-text transcription function, which adopts a keyword spotting method. It is also equipped with an optimized user interface for hearing-impaired people, rendering intuitive and natural device usage with diverse domain contexts. The relevant experimental results confirm that the proposed interface design is feasible for realizing an effective and efficient intelligent agent for hearing-impaired.
ISSN:0140-0118
1741-0444
DOI:10.1007/s11517-015-1447-8