Abstract
A multiple-channel electrotactile speech processor worn on the fingers of one hand has been constructed. This processor implements a speech-coding strategy that presents the second formant frequency by electrode position, fundamental frequency by electrical pulse rate, and amplitude envelope by pulse width. This strategy is similar to the one used by the Nucleus cochlear implant. Psychophysical tests with normally hearing and profoundly deaf subjects have measured the discrimination of stimuli differing in pulse rate, electrode, or pulse width. The levels of performance were comparable to those for cochlear implant patients except for pulse rate discrimination. Three untrained normally hearing adults using electrotactile stimulation without hearing or lipreading scored significantly better than chance for a range of two alternative forced-choice speech discrimination tasks. Provided that subjects can learn to associate linguistically meaningful concepts with tactile sensations, an improved level of speech comprehension may be achieved when the electrotactile speech processor is used together with lipreading.
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