Development and evaluation of a tactile display for a tactile vocoder

摘要

We have been studying a tactile vocoder which can convert speech information into tactile stimulation patterns as an aid to lipreading for deaf people. At present, we are trying to manufacture a portable tactile vocoder in cooperation with a manufacturer of electronic products. Specifically, we have made a small tactile display which presents vibratory stimulations to a finger. In this paper, we have investigated the mechanical characteristics of the tactile display and evaluated its usefulness through a consonant identification test. From the results, the average identification rate was found to be about 55% conclude that this new tactile display was relatively practical.