Graeme Clark Collection
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ItemA review of the biological, psychophysical, and speech processing principles used to design the tickle talker( 1992)The Tickle Talker is a wearable electrotactile speech processor, designed to be used by profoundly hearing-impaired children and adults in conjunction with lipreading and residual hearing. The effectiveness of such a device is affected by an interaction between biological, human engineering, psychophysical, and speech processing considerations. The requirements, the design principles, and the performance of the Tickle Talker in each of these areas will be discussed. Electrical stimulation of the nerve bundles lying along the sides of the fingers was chosen to provide safe, comfortable, energy-efficient stimulation of a well-organised and sensitive part of the tactile sensory system. This is achieved at a small cost to the appearance and mobility of one hand when using the Tickle Talker. The biphasic pulse waveform used to stimulate the nerve bundles has been chosen to ensure a biologically safe stimulus. The electrical parameters (pulse duration, pulse rate, and electrode position) that are used to encode speech information are varied within ranges that are matched to the characteristics of the tactile sense. The usable ranges and information-carrying potential of each of these parameters have been assessed in psychophysical experiments. A comparison of these results with similar experimental data for cochlear implant and hearing aid users is instructive in assessing the possible limitations of tactile and auditory speech processors. The results discussed will include the discrimination and identification of stimuli differing in intensity, duration and pulse rate; the identification of different spatial patterns of stimulation, and the detection of gaps in stimuli. In most respects, the tactile results are similar to the corresponding auditory measures. The resolution of temporal differences such as pulse rate discrimination or gap detection are generally not as good as in the auditory case, but may be as good or better than the corresponding results for some profoundly hearing-impaired individuals. The speech processor used in the Tickle Talker is a "feature extraction" device that explicitly estimates the second formant frequency, amplitude envelope, and fundamental frequency of the voice and encodes them in terms of electrode position, pulse width and pulse rate of the electrical stimulation pattern. Consideration of the psychophysical results and the speech information available from these parameters allows optimization of the Tickle Talker's operation and a broad estimation of its potential performance in speech discrimination. The perception of duration and place of articulation (front/back) of vowels, and the manner and voicing of consonants are expected to be improved by the Tickle Talker. Prosodic variations conveyed by pulse rate are expected to be perceived by some users, but not all. High frequency consonants such as: /s/,/z/./?/, and /t?/ are encoded in a particularly salient manner by the Tickle Talker.
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ItemClinical experience with the University of Melbourne multichannel electrotactile speech processor (Tickle Talker)( 1992)The Tickle Talker is a multiple channel electrotactile speech processor, developed for use by profoundly hearing-impaired adults and children. The device is intended to be used in combination with lipreading and aided residual hearing, to assist the greatest potential range of users. Sound detection and speech reception threshold levels for a group of 14 congenitally hearing-impaired children were shown to be lower when using the Tickle Talker than for hearing aids across the speech frequency range. Tactile-alone feature contrast testing with adults demonstrated that both segmental and suprasegmental speech feature information was available from the tactual display presented by the Tickle Talker. Clinical results from an ongoing program involving fourteen hearing-impaired children demonstrate benefits in speech perception achieved through use of the Tickle Talker. The children have a range of degree of hearing impairment and educational setting. Results show improvements in discrimination scores for vowel and consonant speech features, and increased scores for recognition of closed-set words and for open-set words and sentences. In addition, anecdotal evidence indicates changes in speech production which may be attributed to perceptual input from the device (both from perception of other speakers, and from voice self-monitoring). Results from a group of 4 adult patients show that tactile input may be effectively combined with either aided residual hearing, or aided residual hearing and lipreading to improve speech discrimination across a similar range of closed and open-set word and sentence tests and on speech tracking. The results indicate that some specific tailoring of the speech information provided through the device for the needs of users with differing degrees of hearing-impairment may be required to optimize potential benefits to speech discrimination.
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ItemCombined electrical and acoustical stimulation using a bimodal prosthesis( 1993)A new device incorporating a cochlear implant speech processor and a speech-processing hearing aid for the un-implanted ear has been designed and tested with four severely hearing-impaired patients. The aim of the device is to provide a more acceptable and effective combination of electrical and acoustic signals to the two ears. When used monaurally, and binaurally in conjunction with the cochlear implant, the speech-processing hearing aid mean scores for open-set sentences, words, and consonants were as good as or better than the mean scores for the patients' own conventional hearing aids. Some patients improved much more than did others. Although not conclusive, these results are encouraging, especially as they were achieved with a laboratory prototype that did not allow the patients to become accustomed to the processor in everyday situations.
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ItemPhonemic information transmitted by a multichannel electrotactile speech processor( 1988)A wearable electrotactile speech processor was evaluated in a study with seven normally hearing and four hearing-impaired subjects. The processor estimated the fundamental frequency, the second-formant frequency, and amplitude of the acoustic speech signal. These parameters were presented as a pattern of electrical pulses applied to eight electrodes positioned over the digital nerve bundles on one hand. The device was shown to provide useful information for the recognition of phonemes in closed sets of words using tactile information alone. The device also supplemented lipreading to improve the recognition of open-set words. The recognition of duration and first-and second-formant frequencies of vowels and the recognition of voicing and manner of consonants were improved over recognition with lipreading alone. Recognition of final consonants was improved more than recognition of initial consonants. These results indicate that the device may be useful to both severely and profoundly hearing-impaired people.
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ItemInterim results of open-set speech discrimination with a wearable multichannel electrotactile speech processor( 1987)Abstract not available due to copyright.
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ItemAcoustic parameters measured by a formant-estimating speech processor for a multiple-channel cochlear implant( 1987)Abstract not available due to copyright.
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ItemVowel and consonant recognition of cochlear implant patients using formant-estimating speech processors( 1987)Abstract not available due to copyright.
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ItemA formant-estimating speech processor for cochlear implant patients( 1987)A simple formant-estimating speech processor has been developed to make use of the “hearing” produced by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve with a multiple-channel cochlear implant. Thirteen implant patients were trained and evaluated with a processor that presented the second formant frequency, fundamental frequency, and amplitude envelope of the speech (F0F2). Nine patients were trained and evaluated with a processor that presented the first and second formant frequencies, fundamental frequency, and first and second formant amplitudes (F0F1F2). The most common use of the speech processor was in conjunction with lipreading, so the patients were trained in lipreading plus hearing, as well as hearing alone. The F0F1F2 group performed significantly better in discrimination tasks and word and sentence recognition through hearing alone. The F0F1F2 group also showed a significantly greater improvement when hearing and lipreading was compared with lipreading alone in a speech tracking task. A study of spondee recognition in noise with hearing alone indicated that the added first formant information produced an improvement that was equivalent to a 5 dB increase in the signal-to-noise ratio.
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ItemPsychophysical studies relevant to the design of a digital electrotactile speech processor( 1987)Abstract not available due to copyright.
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ItemA wearable multiple-electrode electrotactile speech processor for the profoundly deaf( 1985)Abstract not available due to copyright.