Disordered speech recognition using acoustic and sEMG signals

Abstract

Parallel isolated word corpora were collected from healthy speakers and individuals with speech impairment due to stroke or cerebral palsy. Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals were collected for both vocalized and mouthed speech production modes. Pioneering work on disordered speech recognition using the acoustic signal, the sEMG signals, and their fusion are reported. Results indicate that speakerdependent isolated-word recognition from the sEMG signals of articulator muscle groups during vocalized disorderedspeech production was highly effective. However, word recognition accuracy for mouthed speech was much lower, likely related to the fact that some disordered speakers had considerable difficulty producing consistent mouthed speech. Further development of the sEMG-based speech recognition systems is needed to increase usability and robustness.