Bionic voice reconstruction in dysphonic individuals

This translational research proposal aims to develop and evaluate novel algorithms for creating a new rehabilitative method to restore natural sounding speech for those with significant dysphonia and laryngectomy patients, through a real-time speech processing framework. The new method would be non-invasive, non-surgical and capable of turning whisper-like voice into normal speech. Participants in the study will provide voice samples which will be recorded in a sound-proofed room. These samples will be analysed using computing algorithms to enhance and 'fill in' missing parts of speech to reconstruct full words and sentences. The study will evaluate the accuracy of the reconstruction eg. did the computer regenerate the correct words? and the speed at which the reconstruction can be achieved. It will also evaluate the intelligibility of the reconstructed speech by blind ratings from both researchers and subjects.