Abstract
Stand-alone devices for tactile speech reception serve a need as communication aids for persons with profound sensory impairments as well as in applications such as human-computer interfaces and remote communication when the normal auditory and visual channels are compromised or overloaded. The current research is concerned with perceptual evaluations of a phoneme-based tactile speech communication device in which a unique tactile code was assigned to each of the 24 consonants and 15 vowels of English. The tactile phonemic display was conveyed through an array of 24 tactors that stimulated the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the forearm. Experiments examined the recognition of individual words as a function of the inter-phoneme interval (Study 1) and two-word phrases as a function of the inter-word interval (Study 2). Following an average training period of 4.3 hrs on phoneme and word recognition tasks, mean scores for the recognition of individual words in Study 1 ranged from 87.7% correct to 74.3% correct as the inter-phoneme interval decreased from 300 to 0 ms. In Study 2, following an average of 2.5 hours of training on the two-word phrase task, both words in the phrase were identified with an accuracy of 75% correct using an inter-word interval of 1 sec and an inter-phoneme interval of 150 ms. Effective transmission rates achieved on this task were estimated to be on the order of 30 to 35 words/min.
Highlights
Four participants advanced to an inter-word interval (IWI) of 500 ms, and PU205 was able to identify 75% of the phrases correctly at an IWI of 300 ms within a cumulative training time of 99 min
The results reported here on word recognition through Tactile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS) may be compared to those obtained with other approaches for encoding and displaying words through the tactile sense, including spectral-based displays of speech, alphabetic-based displays of text, and phonemic-based codes
The results reported here have demonstrated the feasibility of a phonemic-based haptic code for transmission of words in the English language
Summary
The information capacity of the tactual sensory system has been demonstrated through studies of experienced deaf-blind users of several natural methods of tactual communication, in which the tactual stimulation of the deaf-blind “receiver” is achieved through direct physical contact with the “sender.” These methods are referred to as natural in that they do not employ any devices for tactual stimulation Among these are the Tadoma method of speechreading [1,2,3], as well as the tactual reception of fingerspelling and sign language [4,5,6]. Experienced users of the Tadoma method are able to understand speech by placing a hand over the face and neck of a talker to monitor a variety of cues that can be felt during the production of speech (such as airflow, lip and jaw movements, and laryngeal vibration) This information is sufficient to support the reception of key words in conversational sentences produced at slow-to-normal speaking rates at a level of roughly 80% correct. The information rates achieved with Tadoma and the tactual reception of sign language (12–14 bits/sec) are higher than those for tactual reception of fingerspelling (7.5 bits/sec), but are roughly one-half of those achieved for the auditory reception of speech and the visual reception of sign language [7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
