Department of Advanced Prosthodontics, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.
Speech Clinic, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
J Oral Rehabil. 2024 Nov;51(11):2361-2367. doi: 10.1111/joor.13832. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) can potentially help older adults and people with disabilities reduce their dependence on others and increase their participation in society. However, maxillectomy patients with reduced speech intelligibility may encounter some problems using such technologies.
To investigate the accuracy of three commonly used ASR platforms when used by Japanese maxillectomy patients with and without their obturator placed.
Speech samples were obtained from 29 maxillectomy patients with and without their obturator and 17 healthy volunteers. The samples were input into three speaker-independent speech recognition platforms and the transcribed text was compared with the original text to calculate the syllable error rate (SER). All participants also completed a conventional speech intelligibility test to grade their speech using Taguchi's method. A comprehensive articulation assessment of patients without their obturator was also performed.
Significant differences in SER were observed between healthy and maxillectomy groups. Maxillectomy patients with an obturator showed a significant negative correlation between speech intelligibility scores and SER. However, for those without an obturator, no significant correlations were observed. Furthermore, for maxillectomy patients without an obturator, significant differences were found between syllables grouped by vowels. Syllables containing /i/, /u/ and /e/ exhibited higher error rates compared to those containing /a/ and /o/. Additionally, significant differences were observed when syllables were grouped by consonant place of articulation and manner of articulation.
The three platforms performed well for healthy volunteers and maxillectomy patients with their obturator, but the SER for maxillectomy patients without their obturator was high, rendering the platforms unusable. System improvement is needed to increase accuracy for maxillectomy patients.
自动语音识别（ASR）有可能帮助老年人和残障人士减少对他人的依赖，提高他们的社会参与度。然而，语音清晰度降低的上颌骨切除患者在使用此类技术时可能会遇到一些问题。
调查三个常用的 ASR 平台在使用上颌骨切除患者及其义齿的情况下的准确性。
从 29 名上颌骨切除患者（有无义齿）和 17 名健康志愿者中获取语音样本。将样本输入三个非特定于说话者的语音识别平台，并将转录的文本与原始文本进行比较，以计算音节错误率（SER）。所有参与者还使用田口法完成了常规语音可懂度测试，以对他们的语音进行分级。还对没有义齿的患者进行了全面的发音评估。
健康组和上颌骨切除组之间的 SER 存在显著差异。有义齿的上颌骨切除患者的语音可懂度评分与 SER 之间存在显著负相关。然而，对于没有义齿的患者，没有观察到显著相关性。此外，对于没有义齿的上颌骨切除患者，根据元音分组的音节之间存在显著差异。包含/i/、/u/和/e/的音节比包含/a/和/o/的音节错误率更高。此外，根据辅音发音部位和发音方式分组的音节也存在显著差异。
三个平台在健康志愿者和有义齿的上颌骨切除患者中表现良好，但没有义齿的上颌骨切除患者的 SER 较高，导致平台无法使用。需要进行系统改进以提高上颌骨切除患者的准确性。
