Recently, a phonemic-based tactile speech communication system was developed with the goal to transmit speech through the skin for people with hearing impairments and those whose auditory and visual channels are overloaded or compromised. The display, called the TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS), consisted of a 4-by-6 tactor array worn on the dorsal and volar surfaces of the forearm. Earlier work showed that people were able to learn the haptic symbols for 39 English phonemes and reach a mean phoneme recognition rate of 86% correct within one to four hours of training. The current research evaluated the acquisition of up to 500 words using TAPS. A total of 51 participants were trained and tested in three studies with increasing number of phonemes and vocabulary sizes. Individual achievements varied, but the results clearly demonstrate the potential of transmitting any English word using TAPS within a reasonable period of learning. Future work will include increasing the speech transmission rate with TAPS by improving the phonemic codes and reducing the inter-phoneme intervals, addressing the reception of words and sentences composed of strings of tactile phonemes, and assessing the performance of TAPS as a speech communication system for people with severe hearing impairments.

中文翻译：

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通过触觉音素套 (TAPS) 习得 500 个英语单词


最近，开发了一种基于音素的触觉语音通信系统，旨在通过皮肤为听力障碍人士以及听觉和视觉通道过载或受损的人传输语音。该显示器称为 TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS)，由佩戴在前臂背侧和掌侧表面的 4×6 触觉器阵列组成。早期的研究表明，人们能够在一到四个小时的训练内学习 39 个英语音素的触觉符号，并达到 86% 的平均音素识别正确率。当前的研究评估了使用 TAPS 获取最多 500 个单词的情况。三项研究共有 51 名参与者接受了训练和测试，其中音素数量和词汇量不断增加。个人的成就各不相同，但结果清楚地表明了在合理的学习时间内使用 TAPS 传输任何英语单词的潜力。未来的工作将包括通过改进音素代码和减少音素间间隔来提高 TAPS 的语音传输速率，解决由触觉音素串组成的单词和句子的接收问题，并评估 TAPS 作为语音通信系统的性能患有严重听力障碍的人。