TELEPHONE INTERFACE FOR COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENTS

建议开发一种通信接口，以促进具有严重言语和/或听力通信障碍的个人(文本用户)和具有正常言语和听力功能的个人(语音用户)之间的电话通信。该接口将是文本用户所在位置的电话的基于计算机的扩充；它不需要在语音用户端使用特殊设备。该接口将包括自动语音识别(ASR)和/或自动文本到语音合成(TTS)。ASR将通过电话接收的语音用户的语音信号转换为可视显示的文本；TTS系统将文本用户产生的文本输出转换为语音，以便通过电话传输给语音用户。第一阶段的研究将测试该通信接口的可行性。这项工作中的一个关键组件是一种最先进的、大词汇量、基于电话的连续语音识别器。有了这项ASR，拟议的工作旨在开发一个界面，提供容易和快速的错误恢复，使语音用户和文本用户之间的流畅沟通成为可能。如果所设想的界面能够成功实现，它将加强沟通障碍者及其亲属、朋友和同事的沟通渠道和隐私。拟议的商业应用拟议的接口系统的市场将是数百万依赖电话中继系统的严重听力障碍或言语障碍的人。

Work is proposed to develop a communication interface for facilitating telephone communication between individuals with severe speech and/or hearing communication impairments (text users) and individuals with normal speech and hearing function (voice users). The interface would be a computer-based augmentation of the telephone at the location of the text user; it would require no special equipment at the voice user's end. The interface would include automatic speech recognition (ASR) and/or automatic text-to-speech synthesis (TTS). The ASR would transform the voice user's speech signal received over the phone to visually displayed text; the TTS system would transform text output produced by the text user to speech for transmission over the phone to the voice user. Research in Phase I will test the feasibility of this communication interface. A key component in this work is a state-of-the-art, large-vocabulary, telephony- based, continuous speech recognizer. With this ASR, the proposed work is aimed at developing an interface that will provide for easy and rapid recovery from errors, making fluent communication between the voice user and the text user possible. To the extent that the envisioned interface can be successfully realized, it will enhance communication access and privacy for communicatively-impaired persons and their relatives, friends, and associates. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION The market for the proposed interface system would be the several million people with severe hearing impairment or speech impairment who rely on the telephone relay system.