• MALSORI
• /
• no.43
• /
• pp.25-44
• /
• 2002

The intelligibility of a spoken message is influenced by a number of factors. Intelligibility is a joint product of a speaker and a listener. In addition, intelligibility varies with the nature of the language context and the context of communication. Thus a single intelligibility score can not be ascribed to a given individual apart from listener and listening situation. But there is a clinical and research need to develop assessment measures of intelligibility that are quantitative and analytic. Before developing the index of intelligibility, the crucial factors need to be examined. Among them, the most significant in intelligibility is the speech factors of speakers. The following section reviews the literature dealing with the contribution of segmental and suprasegmental factors in speech intelligibility regarding the hearing impaired, alaryngeal, and motor disorders.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.173-184
• /
• 2004

This study aims to discuss the test methodologies that evaluate the speech intelligibility of hearing-impaired adults using various contexts. Seven adults with severe hearing loss participated in the experiment. The context of the speech intelligibility consists of 77 pairs of one-syllable words with phonemic contrasts, 30 two-syllable words and the list of each 12 and 10 sentences. The speech intelligibility of various contexts had significant correlation, and both one-syllable words with phonemic contrasts and the sentence 1 had higher correlation than other tests. The one-syllable words with phonemic contrasts took longer to test than others, and it demanded more effort to select the pair of words. However, from the point of view of the identification of segmental difficulties, the one-syllable words with phonemic contrasts that reflected segmental factors contributing to the intelligibility was useful.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.94-102
• /
• 2009

In this paper, we propose a hearing impairment simulator considering reduced frequency selectivity of the hearing impaired, and verify it's performance through experiments. The reduced frequency selectivity was embodied by spectral smearing using linear prediction coding(LPC). The experiments are composed of 4 kinds of tests; pure tone test, speech reception threshold(SRT) test, and word recognition score(WRS) test without spectral smearing and with spectral smearing. The experiments of the hearing impairment simulator were performed with 9 subjects who have normal hearing. The amount of spectral smearing was controlled by LPC order. The percentile score of WRS test without smearing is $89.78{\pm}2.420%$. The scores of WRS with 24th LPC order and with 8th LPC order are $88.00{\pm}3.556%$ and $83.78{\pm}2.123%$ respectively. It is verified that WRS score is lowered by decreasing LPC order. This is a reasonable result considering that spectral smearing is getting heavier according to decreasing LPC order. It is confirmed that spectral smearing using LPC simulates the reduced frequency selectivity of the hearing impaired and affects the clearness of speech reception.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.51-70
• /
• 2000

Twenty normal and 20 severe-to-profound hearing-impaired subjects participated in the present study. The two groups are matched by their chronological age. Each subject made a recording of three vowels of /i/, /a/, and /u/, and nine $VC_{plosive}V$ (hereafter, VCV) disyllables of /epe/, /ep'e/, /$ep^{h}e$/, /ete/, /et'e/, /$et^{h}e$/, /eke/, /ek'e/, and /$ek^{h}e$/, each five times. Formant frequencies of $F_1,\;F_2,\;and\;F_3$ were measured for the three vowels and six measures were made for the nine disyllables. The six measures were (1) the total duration of the disyllable, (2) the duration of the first vowel, (3) the duration of the closed period, (4) the ratio of the first vowel over the first vowel plus the closure period of the consonant, (5) the duration of the aspiration, and (6) the duration of the second vowel. Results shows that the three formants and each of the measures were significantly different between the two groups of subjects.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.155-167
• /
• 2006

Hearing impairment children possess poor underlying perceptual knowledge of the sound system and show delayed development of segmental organization of that system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between phonological awareness ability and word identification ability in hearing impaired children. 14 children with moderately severe hearing loss participated in this study. All tasks were individually administered. Phonological awareness tests consisted of syllable blending, syllable segmentation, syllable deletion, body-coda discrimination, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation and phoneme deletion. Close-set Monosyllabic Words(12 items) and lists 1 and 2 of open-set Monosyllabic Words in EARS-K were examined for word identification. Results of this study were as follows: First, from the phonological awareness task, the close-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with the coda discrimination, phoneme blending and phoneme deletion. The open-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with phoneme blending, phoneme deletion and phoneme segmentation. Second, from the level of phonological awareness, the close-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with the level of body-coda awareness and phoneme awareness while the open-set word identification showed a high positive correlation only with the level of phoneme awareness.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2016

The number of visually-impaired people using a smartphone is currently increasing with the help Text-to-Speech(TTS). TTS converts text data in a mobile application into sound data, and it only allows sequential search. For this reason, the location of buttons and contents inside an application should be determined carefully. However, little attention has been made on TTS service environment during the development of mobile newspaper application. This makes visually-impaired people difficult to use these applications. Furthermore, a mobile application interface which also reflects the desire of the low vision is necessary. Therefore, this paper presents a mobile newspaper interface which considers the accessibility and the desire of various visually impaired people. To this end, the proposed interface locates buttons with the consideration of TTS service environment and provides search functionality. The proposed interface also enables visually impaired people to use the application smoothly by filtering out the words that are pronounced improperly and providing the proper explanation for every button. Finally, several functionalities such as increasing font size and color reversal are implemented for the low vision. Simulation results show that the proposed interface achieves better performance than other applications in terms of search speed and usability.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.129-131
• /
• 2009

Hearing loss is one of the most common birth defects among infants. Most hearing-impaired children are not diagnosed until one to three years of age, which is too late to treat for normal speech and language development. If a hearing impairment is identified and treated in its early stage, child's speech and language skills could be comparable to his or her normal-hearing peers. In this study, we applied the 'Fsp' method to distinguish between normal and impaired hearing. We have developed a battery-operated portable A - ABR(automated auditory brain stem response) system that automatically detects hearing impairment for neonates or infants in a nursery room, as well as in a sound-proof room. We partially validated the accuracy of the system in five normal-hearing adults.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.103-113
• /
• 1998

The human baby appears to be born with preexistent knowledge of language. This specialized neural structure in the brain awaits auditory experience with language to trigger it into functioning. The auditory-linked acquisition of language is a time-locked function related to early maturational periods in the infant's life. The longer auditory language stimulation is delayed, the less efficient the language facility will be. It is for these reasons that it is urgent to fight the hearing problems of children with all the skill, knowledge and insights of which we are capable, the so called 'rehabilitative process'. An understanding of the timetable and the origin of prenatal to early life development of auditory mechanism will help in planning the aural rehabilitation. Further interests and studies are needed to establish the systematic structure of rehabilitative audiology.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.555-567
• /
• 2019

Speech recognition rate is lowered even in a noisy environment, and it is difficult for a person with a speech disability or an inconvenient language to use it in a social life. In addition to improving the inconvenience of using the language, 280 words were selected using the word selection method which was improved when the word was selected considering the pronunciation characteristics of the language impaired. The MEMS development device used in the experiment was made considering material, lead wire type, length and direction. We improved the speech recognition rate by using the developed word selection method and the MEMS device developed to improve the speech recognition rate due to incorrect pronunciation and severe noise. The new method of selecting words and the mems device were improved and the results were included.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.95-103
• /
• 2020

The current study aimed to identify the characteristics of speech rate and pause in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) and their relationships with speech intelligibility. In all, 26 children with CP, 4 with no speech motor involvement and age-appropriate language ability (NSMI-LCT), 6 with no speech motor involvement and impaired language ability (NSMI-LCI), 6 with speech motor involvement and age-appropriate language ability (SMI- LCT), and 10 with speech motor involvement and impaired language ability (SMI-LCI) participated in the study. Speech samples for the speech rate and pause analysis were extracted using a sentence repetition task. Acoustic analysis were made in Praat. First, it was found that regardless of the presence of language impairment, significant group differences between the NSMI and SMI groups were found in speech rate and articulation rate. Second, the SMI groups showed a higher ratio of pause time to sentence production time, more frequent pauses, and longer durations of pauses than the NSMI groups. Lastly, there were significant correlations among speech rate, articulation rate, and intelligibility. These findings suggest that slow speech rate is the main feature in SMI groups, and that both speech rate and articulation rate play important roles in the intelligibility of children with spastic CP.