5th RTD Framework Programme

Success stories - IST

SPEECH CORRECTOR (SPECO)

A multimedia multilingual teaching and training software system for speech handicapped children - Adopted to four different languages

Description of the product

The SPEECH CORRECTOR is a new multilingual audio-visual pronunciation teaching and training software system for hearing and speech-handicapped persons to help them to control their speech production. The software system development was supported by European Community in the frame of the Inco-Copernicus Program(SPECO Contract no. 977126) on the base of the old version of the Hungarian Speech Corrector. Now Speech Corrector has four versions (four languages) as products: these are Hungarian, English, Swedish and Slovenian versions. Instead of the traditional process-oriented teaching approach, this is a product-oriented method where the appropriate visual feedback is the most important cue. The soundwaves produced by the speaker can be processed by computer, and visualized on the computer screen. The state of art speech technology makes it possible to us how an unambiguous connection between the movement of the speech organs and the visualized speech display.The system helps patients to discover how to control their speech organs by si-multaneously comparing the visual patterns (speech pictures) of the normal acoustic speech signal with the defective one. In the system the patient can see and hear the speech patterns at the same time. A teaching method is drawn up for progression from the individual sound preparation to practice of the sounds in sen-tences.It is very important in our system that we present the speech parameters in a way that is understandable and interesting for young children, while remaining correct from the acoustic-phonetic point of view. The program presents the important cues for different phonemes in sound pictures and emphasizes important parts with amusing drawings to make the pictures understandable for 5 to 6-year-old children. The program follows the traditional steps of speech therapy. These are sound preparation, sound develop-ment, practice in words and automation. A picture symbol belongs to all phonemes for those children who do not know letters, together with the sounds, syllables and words in written form, and the speech-sound patterns. In this way the system helps children to learn letters too.The method would help experts dealing with speech therapy and make speech education and training more efficient.

The company and the team

The Department of Telecommunications and Telematics dealing with the wide range of fields covered: Electronic Circuits, Transmission Systems, Speech Technology, Radio and Television, Acoustics and Passive Devices, Computer Engineering.The Department studies pointedly the present problems of speech recognition, speaker identifica-tion, and speech production by machine. The aim of this research is to produce machine intelli-gence capable of acoustic information exchange, e.g. within the framework of an application in-formation system. A series of speech processing product are based on the principles and know-hows developed by the Department.The Department lectures on general communication theory, on the equipment and systems of up-to-date telecommunication and transmission operations, on telecommunication management and on telematic systems.
Robot Control Software Ltd. is a small private company founded in 1995 for software develop-ment. Above of developing our own products (rMPL, rLib, rIDE, SIMMSys and Speech Corrector) we write custom software for partner companies. The core of the company is a group of software engineers with a thorough knowledge of C/C++, Pascal and assembly programming, data acquisition, process control, digital signal processing, the IBM PC compatible hardware and software platform including DOS, Windows, QNX, UNIX, DSP processors and micro-controller chips. Our programmers took part in several projects such as developing data acquisition and digital signal processing applications, developing speech proc-essing and recognition programs.The organization of RCS Ltd. is optimized for developing high quality software with low overhead costs. The rules of the software development process and the software project management tools are the core know-how of the company.There are 2 full time programmers, 2 consultants, the managing director and the majority share-holder (99%) is Peter Barczikay. We have regular cooperation with the Speech Group of Acous-tics Research Laboratory, Department of Telecommunication and Telematics of the Technical University of Budapest. In the Inco Copernicus: 977126 project we built good relationship with the University of Reading (Mr. Peter J. Roach), Kungl. Tekniska Högskolan in Stockholm (Ms. Anne-Marie Öster) and the University of Maribor (Mr. Zdravko Kacic).

Source: European Communities, CORDIS