Title:  A Novel Wireless Tongue Tracking System for Speech Applications

Committee: 

Dr. Inan, Advisor

Dr. Anderson, Chair

Dr. Santus

Abstract:

The objective of the proposed research is to develop a tongue tracking system, referred herein as the Multimodal Speech Capture System (MSCS), that would capture tongue motion in real-time and wirelessly. These captured tongue motion would provide meaningful information to speech-language pathologists (SLP) and their patients to improve the outcome of motor speech therapy. To track the tongue, a small magnetic tracer is attached on a desired spot on the tongue, and its magnetic field is recorded by an array of magnetometers. A localization algorithm estimates the 5D state of the tracer (3D position and 2D orientation) from the measured magnetic fields. The first part of the proposed research is to improve the tracking accuracy of such localization by using nonlinear optimization methods and/or machine learning. The second research objective is to investigate the potential of MSCS as a treatment tool in speech therapy. A human study will be conducted with the aim to generate a baseline of tongue positions for key phonemes. This baseline would provide tongue targets as a visual biofeedback for patients to practice their speech exercises more efficiently.