Green B G, Craig J C, Wilson A M, Pisoni D B, Rhodes R P
J Acoust Soc Am. 1983 May;73(5):1766-78. doi: 10.1121/1.389401.
The ability of subjects to identify vowels in vibrotactile transformations of consonant-vowel syllables was measured for two types of displays: a spectral display (frequency by intensity), and a vocal tract area function display (vocal tract location by cross-sectional area). Both displays were presented to the fingertip via the tactile display of the Optacon transducer. In the first experiments the spectral display was effective for identifying vowels in /b/V/ context when as many as 24 or as few as eight spectral channels were presented to the skin. However, performance fell when the 12- and 8-channel displays were reduced in size to occupy 1/2 or 1/3 of the 24-row tactile matrix. The effect of reducing the size of the display was greater when the spectrum was represented as a solid histogram ("filled" patterns) than when it was represented as a simple spectral contour ("unfilled" patterns). Spatial masking within the filled pattern was postulated as the cause for this decline in performance. Another experiment measured the utility of the spectral display when the syllables were produced by multiple speakers. The resulting increase in response confusions was primarily attributable to variations in the tactile patterns caused by differences in vocal tract resonances among the speakers. The final experiment found an area function display to be inferior to the spectral display for identification of vowels. The results demonstrate that a two-dimensional spectral display is worthy of further development as a basic vibrotactile display for speech.
针对两种类型的显示器，测量了受试者在辅音-元音音节的振动触觉转换中识别元音的能力：一种是频谱显示器（频率与强度），另一种是声道面积函数显示器（声道位置与横截面积）。两种显示器都通过Optacon传感器的触觉显示器呈现给指尖。在第一个实验中，当向皮肤呈现多达24个或低至8个频谱通道时，频谱显示器对于识别/b/V/语境中的元音是有效的。然而，当12通道和8通道显示器的尺寸减小到占据24行触觉矩阵的1/2或1/3时，性能下降。当频谱表示为实心直方图（“填充”模式）时，减小显示器尺寸的影响比表示为简单频谱轮廓（“未填充”模式）时更大。填充模式内的空间掩蔽被假定为性能下降的原因。另一个实验测量了多个说话者发出音节时频谱显示器的效用。由此产生的反应混淆增加主要归因于说话者之间声道共振差异引起的触觉模式变化。最后一个实验发现，对于元音识别，面积函数显示器不如频谱显示器。结果表明，二维频谱显示器作为一种基本的语音振动触觉显示器值得进一步开发。
