Unimodal and multimodal variants of voice output communication aids

语音输出通信辅助设备的单模态和多模态变体

• 批准号: 261530-2007
• 负责人: Baljko, Melanie
• 金额: $ 1.09万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=362659
• 关键词: Unimodal; multimodal; variants; voice; output

Individuals with little or no functional speech, gesture, or writingdue to underlying physical disorder may instead use a computationaldevice, called a Voice Output Communication Aid (VOCA), to producesynthetic speech (synthesized or digitized).  This device affordsanother, albeit aided, mode of communication.  Empirical evidenceshows that this mode is a complement to, and not a replacement for,the other, unaided modes, such as vocalization, facial expression andgaze, and gestures of the hand, head and torso.  Thus, the evaluationand design of VOCAs must take into consideration not only the issue ofrate of output (e.g., words-per-minute) but also issues that relate tothe utility of the individual's entire repertoire of mode strategies,of which synthesized speech is but one component.The goal of this program of research is to develop better VOCAsthrough the development of software techniques and modelling toolsthat take into account this "global" context.  The research will focuson the contrastive evaluation of unimodal and multimodal interfacevariants, and the use of design principles based on informationtheory.  The formal and theoretical analyses will be validated byempirical studies.

由于潜在的身体障碍，很少或没有功能性语言，手势或写作的人可以使用一种称为语音输出通信辅助设备（VOCA）的计算设备来产生合成语音（合成或数字化）。这种设备提供了另一种尽管是辅助的交流模式。经验证据表明，这种模式是对其他无辅助模式的补充，而不是替代，例如发声、面部表情和凝视，以及手、头和躯干的姿势。因此，VOCA的评估和设计不仅必须考虑输出速率的问题（例如，本研究的目的是通过开发软件技术和建模工具来开发更好的VOCA，这些软件技术和建模工具考虑到了这种“全球”背景。本研究将集中于对单模态和多模态界面变量的对比评估，以及基于信息论的设计原则的运用，并通过实证研究对形式和理论分析进行验证。