Speech to Visual Aid Translator Assembly and Method

Abstract

This invention is a speech-to-visual-display translator assembly and method that can convert, or translate, spoken words into visual signals that can be seen by a hearing-impaired person at whom the spoken words are directed. The invention allows the receiving person to supplement speech sounds received with simultaneous visual signals. The invention presents phoneme sounds as phoneticized words. Essentially, it detects and converts to digital format information relating to spoken words, including frequency, relative loudness, suprasegmental information (i.e., the rhythm and rising and falling of voice pitch), and intonation contour (i.e., the change in vocal pitch that accompanies production of a sentence). The user sees the words in a "traveling sign" format with the intensity of the displayed phonemes dependent on the relative loudness with which they are spoken. (2 figures)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 12, 2002
Accession Number
ADD020064

Entities

People

  • Gennaro R. Lopriore
  • Robert V. Belenger

Organizations

  • United States Department of the Navy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Detectors
  • Alphabets
  • Analyzers
  • Assembly
  • Attorneys
  • Detectors
  • Frequency
  • Hearing Loss
  • Intensity
  • Inventions
  • Loudness
  • Patent Applications
  • Patents
  • Phonemes
  • Translators
  • Undersea Warfare
  • Visual Signals

Readers

  • Computer Science.
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.