Method and device for enhancing the recognition of speech among speech-impaired individuals
First Claim
1. A method for providing prerecorded stories to an individual who is language learning impaired so that the individual can better understand the stories, the stories having words, the words having phonemes with consonant and vowel portions, the method comprising:
- providing the prerecorded stories to a computer;
elongating the consonant portion of the phonemes without elongating the vowel portion of the phonemes;
truncating selected vowel portions of the phonemes so that the elapsed time of the processed stories does not exceed that of the prerecorded stories; and
recording the processed stories onto an audible medium so that they are listened to by the individual.
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Abstract
A method and a system is disclosed that provide means to enable individuals with speech, language and reading based communication disabilities, due to a temporal processing problem, to improve their temporal processing abilities as well as their communication abilities. The method and system include provisions to elongate portions of phonemes that have brief and/or rapidly changing acoustic spectra, such as occur in the stop consonants b and d in the phonemes /ba/ and /da/, as well as reduce the duration of the steady state portion of the syllable. In addition, some emphasis is added to the rapidly changing segments of these phonemes. Additionally, the disclosure includes method for and computer software to modify fluent speech to make the modified speech better recognizable by communicatively impaired individuals. Finally, the disclosure includes method for and computer software to train temporal processing abilities, specifically speed and precision of temporal integration, sequencing and serial memory.
20 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for providing prerecorded stories to an individual who is language learning impaired so that the individual can better understand the stories, the stories having words, the words having phonemes with consonant and vowel portions, the method comprising:
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providing the prerecorded stories to a computer;
elongating the consonant portion of the phonemes without elongating the vowel portion of the phonemes;
truncating selected vowel portions of the phonemes so that the elapsed time of the processed stories does not exceed that of the prerecorded stories; and
recording the processed stories onto an audible medium so that they are listened to by the individual. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
if the prerecorded stories are in analog format, converting the prerecorded stories into a digital format so that they are processed by the computer.
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6. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1 wherein said step of recording comprises transferring the processed stories to audio tape.
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7. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1 wherein said step of recording comprises writing the processed stories onto CD-ROM.
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8. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1 wherein said step of elongating comprises:
increasing the time of the consonant portions of the phonemes between 50-100%.
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9. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1 wherein said step of elongating comprises:
performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the prerecorded stories to convert the stories into frequency spectral values.
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10. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 9 further comprising:
interpolating the spectral values to elongate the stop consonant portion of the phonemes.
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11. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1, wherein the prerecorded stories have words and silent time, further comprising:
truncating the silent time within the prerecorded stories so that after the stop consonant portions are elongated, the elapsed time of the prerecorded stories is not changed.
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12. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 1 further comprising:
emphasizing the stop consonant portions of the phonemes within the prerecorded stories so that they are better understood by the individual.
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13. The method for providing prerecorded speech as recited in claim 12 wherein said step of emphasizing increases the energy content of the stop consonant portions relative to the vowel portions of the phonemes within the prerecorded stories.
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14. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 13 wherein the energy content of the stop consonant portion is increased by 20 dB.
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15. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 11 wherein said step of emphasizing the stop consonant portions comprises:
creating a plurality of frequency channels for the prerecorded stories by bandpass filtering.
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16. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 15, further comprising:
for those frequency channels that have rapidly changing frequency envelopes, emphasizing those frequency envelopes.
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17. The method for providing prerecorded stories as recited in claim 16 wherein the rapidly changing frequency envelopes are emphasized by 10-20 dB.
Specification