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CHS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Increasing Communication Rates through a TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS)

CHS：媒介：协作研究：通过触觉音素套筒 (TAPS) 提高通信速率

基本信息

批准号：
1954886
负责人：
Charlotte Reed
金额：
$ 25万
依托单位：
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-06-15 至 2023-05-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1954886&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CHS Medium Collaborative Research Increasing

项目摘要

How much information can be transmitted through the skin? Conventional wisdom would say not as much as vision or hearing. The researchers argue, however, that there is a need to better understand how to "talk" to the skin in its own language. The team has recently devised a sleeve with 24 vibrators that delivers speech sounds in the form of distinct vibration patterns. Testing results from more than 100 normal-hearing individuals (in addition to one participant with a severe hearing loss) show that the vibration-based representation of speech sounds can be easily learned and combined to "sound out" English words in isolation. The best learners have demonstrated an ability to learn one English word per minute, up to a vocabulary size of 500 English words. This is an exciting breakthrough that can lead to a communication device for people with severe hearing impairments and for those whose hearing is temporarily compromised due to noisy environments such as firefighters. The main objective of this project is to systematically explore ways that the communication rate through the sleeve can be increased. Our goal is to reach at least 60-80 words per minute, a communication rate that has been demonstrated by the Tadoma method of speech communication, in which persons who are both deaf and blind place a hand over the face and neck of the talker to understand speech. Such a communication rate will make the sleeve a practical solution for the community of people who need an alternate means for speech communication, such as the ones with both hearing and vision impairments. If successful, the project will facilitate a better quality of life (in terms of social interactions as well as employability) for this disadvantaged community.This project addresses the fundamental question of the information capacity of the sense of touch within the context of increasing communication rates through a haptic display of speech. The project leverages the team's research and development experience on: (i) natural speech communication methods used by the deaf and deaf-blind; (ii) wearable haptic technologies; (iii) an information-theoretical approach to assessing human performance; and (iv) psychophysical properties of the tactual sense. The project builds upon the researchers' recent success at demonstrating their ability to develop tactile codes for the 39 phonemes of English that were highly recognizable in isolation and in words formed from sequences of phonemes. The research is focused on increasing the rate at which information can be transmitted through touch by trained participants that include observers with normal hearing as well as those with sensorineural hearing impairments who represent a major category of potential end users of the device. The overall goal is to achieve transmission rates of tactile speech stimuli that are comparable to those achieved by deaf-blind users of the Tadoma method, and to employ effective methods of training users of the display for reception of connected speech signals with a high degree of accuracy. Experiments will be carried out in which users of the tactile system are trained and tested on their ability to recognize phonemes, words, short phrases, and finally conversational sentences. Durational properties of the stimuli will be explored in these experiments with the aim of establishing the lower limits on phoneme duration and the intervals between phonemes and words. Estimates of effective communication rates will take into account both the transmission rate and accuracy of reception, with the goal of demonstrating effective communication rates on the order of 50-100 words per minute. A lower-bound estimate for haptic communication rate in terms of bits per second can then be derived from the transmission rate achieved at the end of this project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

皮肤能传递多少信息？传统观点认为，视觉或听觉是最重要的。然而，研究人员认为，有必要更好地了解如何用自己的语言与皮肤“交谈”。该团队最近设计了一种带有24个振动器的套筒，可以以不同的振动模式传递语音。来自100多名听力正常的人（除了一名患有严重听力损失的参与者）的测试结果表明，基于振动的语音表示可以很容易地学习并结合起来，单独“读出”英语单词。最好的学习者表现出每分钟学习一个英语单词的能力，词汇量高达500个英语单词。这是一个令人兴奋的突破，可以为患有严重听力障碍的人以及那些由于嘈杂的环境（如消防员）而暂时听力受损的人带来通信设备。该项目的主要目标是系统地探索如何提高通过套筒的通信速率。我们的目标是达到每分钟至少60-80个单词，这一交流速度已被Tadoma语言交流方法所证明，在该方法中，聋哑人和盲人将一只手放在说话者的脸和脖子上以理解讲话。这样的通信速率将使套筒成为需要语音通信的替代手段的人群的实用解决方案，例如具有听力和视力障碍的人群。如果成功的话，该项目将促进这个弱势群体更好的生活质量（在社会交往以及就业能力方面）。该项目解决了触觉的信息容量的基本问题，在通过触觉显示语音的通信速率增加的背景下。该项目利用了该小组在以下方面的研究和开发经验：㈠聋人和盲人使用的自然语言交流方法; ㈡可穿戴触觉技术; ㈢评估人类表现的信息理论方法; ㈣触觉的心理物理特性。该项目建立在研究人员最近成功证明他们有能力为英语的39个音素开发触觉代码的基础上，这些音素在孤立和由音素序列组成的单词中高度可识别。该研究的重点是提高受过训练的参与者通过触摸传输信息的速度，这些参与者包括听力正常的观察者以及代表设备潜在最终用户主要类别的感音神经性听力障碍者。总的目标是实现与Tadoma方法的双盲用户所实现的触觉语音刺激的传输速率相当的触觉语音刺激的传输速率，并且采用训练显示器的用户以高精度接收连接的语音信号的有效方法。将进行实验，在这些实验中，触觉系统的用户将接受训练，并测试他们识别音素、单词、短语和最后会话句子的能力。在这些实验中，将探索刺激的持续时间特性，目的是建立音素持续时间的下限以及音素和单词之间的间隔。对有效通信速率的估计将考虑到传输速率和接收的准确性，目标是证明有效通信速率为每分钟50-100字。触觉通信速率的下限估计（以每秒比特数表示）可以从该项目结束时达到的传输速率中得出。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（6）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Identification of Words and Phrases Through a Phonemic-Based Haptic Display: Effects of Inter-Phoneme and Inter-Word Interval Durations

通过基于音素的触觉显示识别单词和短语：音素间和单词间间隔持续时间的影响

DOI：
10.1145/3458725
发表时间：
2021
期刊：
ACM Transactions on Applied Perception
影响因子：
1.6
作者：
Reed, Charlotte M.;Tan, Hong Z.;Jiao, Yang;Perez, Zachary D.;Wilson, E. Courtenay
通讯作者：
Wilson, E. Courtenay

Acquisition of 500 English Words through a TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS)

DOI：
10.1109/toh.2020.2973135
发表时间：
2020-02
期刊：
IEEE Transactions on Haptics
影响因子：
2.9
作者：
Hong Z. Tan;Charlotte M. Reed;Yang Jiao;Zachary D. Perez;E. Wilson;Jaehong Jung;J. S. Martínez;F. Severgnini
通讯作者：
Hong Z. Tan;Charlotte M. Reed;Yang Jiao;Zachary D. Perez;E. Wilson;Jaehong Jung;J. S. Martínez;F. Severgnini

Haptic Communication of Language

语言的触觉交流