Breathing and speech monitoring wearable device to help people who stammer gain fluency

大约有1%的人口吃。这是一种深深影响口吃者（PWS）在所有社会，个人和专业层面的情况。即使目前无法治愈口吃，也有一系列的练习，当掌握时，可以帮助PWS获得流畅性并达到与非口吃者相似的清晰度水平。一些公司，如海星项目，德尔费罗研究所或麦圭尔计划，目前在全球范围内开设课程，帮助人们通过这些学习的技术来克服口吃。PWS最大的挑战是将这些做法变成习惯，因为这需要耐心和奉献精神。我们已经开发出一种原型可穿戴设备，可以跟踪语音和呼吸模式，提供实时反馈，帮助将这些提高PWS流畅性的技术转化为习惯。我们已经为这个原型背后的技术申请了专利，因为它是同类产品中的第一个，去年12月，我们的想法被授予Stammer Trust的Terence巴里奖。通过这个项目，我们将在商业和科学上验证我们的概念（与潜在客户和语言治疗师），并完成原型开发。通过这个过程，我们希望了解我们的设备如何最好地帮助PWS获得流畅性。

About 1% of the population stutters. This is a condition that deeply affects people who stutter (PWS) at all social, personal and professional levels. Even if it is currently not possible to cure stuttering, there exists a series of practices that, when mastered, help PWS to gain fluency and reach an articulation level similar to that of a non-stutterer. Several companies such as the Starfish Project, Del Ferro Institute or McGuire Program, currently run courses worldwide to help people to overcome their stutter via these learned techniques. The largest challenge to a PWS is turning these practices into habits, as this requires patience and dedication. We have developed a prototype wearable device that tracks speech and breathing patterns, providing real-time feedback to help turn those techniques that improve the fluency of PWS into habits. We have patented the technology behind this prototype as it is the first of its kind, and last December our idea was awarded the Terence Barry Grant Award from the Stammer Trust. Through this project we will commercially and scientifically validate our concept (with potential customers and speech therapists) and finish prototype development. From this process we hope to understand how our device can best help PWS to gain fluency.