Tests of an interactive, phrasebook-style, post-laryngectomy voice-replacement system

Bruce Denby (1) , Jun Cai (1) , Pierre Roussel (1) , Gerard Dreyfus (1) , Lise Crevier-Buchman (2, 3) , Claire Pillot-Loiseau (2) , Thomas Hueber (4) , Gérard Chollet (5)

1 SIGMA - Laboratoire Signaux, Modèles et Apprentissage Statistique
2 LPP - LPP - Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie - UMR 7018
3 Voice & Speech lab
4 GIPSA-MAGIC - GIPSA - Machines parlantes, Gestes oro-faciaux, Interaction Face-à-face, Communication augmentée
5 LTCI - Laboratoire Traitement et Communication de l'Information

The article presents the results of tests of a portable post-laryngectomy voice replacement system that allows a silently articulating speaker to select and play back short phrases contained in a 60-phrase phrasebook. Such a system could be a useful communication tool for post-laryngectomy patients unable to use tracheo-oesophageal speech. Experiments on two non-pathological speakers and one person having undergone a total laryngectomy in 1998 are presented. Results are promising and provide proof of principle for a more sophisticated system currently being developed.

Mots clés: laryngectomy; voice replacement; ultrasound; silent speech interface

Domaines: Linguistique

Bruce Denby, Jun Cai, Pierre Roussel, Gerard Dreyfus, Lise Crevier-Buchman, et al.. Tests of an interactive, phrasebook-style, post-laryngectomy voice-replacement system. ICPhS 2011 - 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Aug 2011, Hong Kong, China. pp.1. ⟨halshs-00683753⟩