Dysarthric Speech Reconstruction

INVENTION

Dysarthric Speech Reconstruction

Principal Investigator

Professor Helen MENG

Patrick Huen Wing Ming Professor of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management

Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Helen Meng leads the interdisciplinary research team that received the first Theme-based Research Scheme Project in Artificial Intelligence in 2019 from the HKSAR Government’s Research Grants Council.

About

Dysarthric Speech Reconstruction

Our inventors helped to leverage AI-enabled speech technologies to help people with difficulty in pronouncing words due to a neuromotor disorder — a condition known as dysarthria. In order to overcome reduced communicative ability due to the speech impairment, our team proposed a state-of-the-art neural approach to automatically reconstruct dysarthric speech to become normal speech.

Revolutionizing Speech Reconstruction

Dysarthria has a number of causes, including stroke, Parkinsons, brain injuries, etc. The individual needs to devote much effort to speaking and yet dysarthric speech often has reduced intelligibility for listeners.

This invention can automatically reconstruct dysarthric speech to become normal speech, which is not only novel from the technological perspective, but it can potentially offer great enhancements towards social inclusion for dysarthric individuals This invention also helps to advance AI-enabled perceptual and interactive technologies for societal benefits.