Speech Recognition for Evaluation of phonetic Fundtion in Prosthodontic Treatment at the Dental Chair-side

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Phonetic function is the most important oral function for human communication. Conventional speech evaluating methods require plural estimators or special equipment and environment, are time-, and it is difficult to show the results of the assessments instantly. Hence, we developed a new evaluating system using speech recognition, which allows quantitative assessment of. the intelligibility of spoken sounds at the dental chair-side.Each sound was recorded with a head-set type microphone and a laptop computer. The acoustic time-frequency pattern of each sound was accentuated in local changes in the frequency and time directions, and the pattern of multiple acoustic-feature planes (MAFP) was extracted. We proposed a speech recognition based on 213 types of integrated phonetic segments representing phoneme and inter-phoneme features. The system performed macro-period quantitative syllable evaluation using the ratio between the correct and incorrect integrated phonetic segment label number … More s during the periods of evaluated syllables.The test sound was determined as the syllable [Shi], which is the post-alveolar fricative consonant. And the test word was selected as [iShimatsu] or [iShikawa], which included the test sound as the second syllable.Using this new system, we analyzed the relationship with the incisal overjet or the augmentation of the palatal contour in a maxillary denture and the phonetic functions.By increasing the incisal overjet in 5 subjects, correct pronunciation of [Shi] became difficult, and in 4 mm overjet relative to that of the dentures already in use showed significant decrease in numbers of correct labels.In 6 complete denture wearers, the palatal contour at the incisal portion augmented horizontally from 2 to 4 mm represented significant increase in numbers of correct labels.It is suggested that speech evaluation at the time of trial arrangement in wax dentures is expected to be useful for fabricating the final denture without speech disorders.Since the intelligibility can be expressed by the appearance ratio of the correct labels in this mechanical system and almost no differences arise from variation of auditory perception ability among listeners, it can be said that objective and quantifiable assessments can be made. Less