The tongue is a muscular organ that is involved in food chewing and swallowing and is one of the main active articulators. Various diseases and accidents can affect the functionality of this important organ. Palatography, electropalatography and glossometry are some of the techniques developed over the years to assess the correct functionality of the tongue muscle and to treat the tongue in the eventuality of malfunctions. Some examples of fields of application are: articulation disorders, cleft palate, Down syndrome, stuttering, hearing impairments, neurological disorders, dysphagia and accent reduction. In this work we propose a novel device called Tongue Position Tracking Device (TPTD). TPTD is a wireless and discreet device that combines electropalatography and glossometry and therefore has the ability to determine the contact pattern between tongue and hard palate as well as measuring the distance between the tongue and the palate during continuous speech or tongue movements in general. TPTD is connected via Bluetooth to an Android application, ensuring that the device is as comfortable as possible for the subject. TPTD consists of two clear plastic retainers encapsulating an array of twelve capacitive proximity sensors. These sensors measure the distance between the tongue and the hard palate during continuous speech. Tests have shown that the TPTD is able to provide useful information about the position of the tongue with respect to the hard palate when uttering different phonemes. A feed forward neural network has been implemented to classify the data into phoneme classes. In this work, a discreet wireless electropalatography and glossometry device is presented.
La lingua è un muscolo coinvolto nella masticazione e nella deglutizione del cibo ed è uno dei principali articolatori attivi. Varie malattie e incidenti possono influire sulla funzionalità di questo importante organo. Palatografia, elettropalatografia e glossometria sono alcune delle tecniche sviluppate nel corso degli anni per valutarne la corretta funzionalità riabilitarne i movimenti in caso di malfunzionamenti. Alcuni esempi di campi di applicazione sono: disturbi articolari, palatoschisi, sindrome di Down, balbuzie, problemi di udito, disturbi neurologici, disfagia e riduzione dell'accento. In questa tesi viene proposto un dispositivo chiamato Tongue Position Tracking Device (TPTD). Il TPTD è un dispositivo wireless e discreto che combina elettropalatografia e glossometria e quindi ha la capacità di determinare il pattern di contatto tra lingua e palato e di misurare la distanza tra la lingua e il palato durante i movimenti continui della lingua. Il TPTD è connesso tramite Bluetooth a un'applicazione Android. E’ costituito da un apparecchio per denti in plastica trasparente che racchiude dodici sensori di prossimità capacitivi. I test condotti hanno dimostrato che il TPTD è in grado di fornire informazioni utili sulla posizione della lingua rispetto al palato durante la pronuncia di diversi fonemi. E’ stata implementata inoltre una rete neurale feed-forward per classificare i dati in classi di fonemi. In questo lavoro viene presentato un dispositivo wireless elettropalatografico e glossometrico discreto.
Tongue position tracking device (TPTD) : a discreet wireless electropalatography and glossometry device
PASTORE, GRETA
2018/2019
Abstract
The tongue is a muscular organ that is involved in food chewing and swallowing and is one of the main active articulators. Various diseases and accidents can affect the functionality of this important organ. Palatography, electropalatography and glossometry are some of the techniques developed over the years to assess the correct functionality of the tongue muscle and to treat the tongue in the eventuality of malfunctions. Some examples of fields of application are: articulation disorders, cleft palate, Down syndrome, stuttering, hearing impairments, neurological disorders, dysphagia and accent reduction. In this work we propose a novel device called Tongue Position Tracking Device (TPTD). TPTD is a wireless and discreet device that combines electropalatography and glossometry and therefore has the ability to determine the contact pattern between tongue and hard palate as well as measuring the distance between the tongue and the palate during continuous speech or tongue movements in general. TPTD is connected via Bluetooth to an Android application, ensuring that the device is as comfortable as possible for the subject. TPTD consists of two clear plastic retainers encapsulating an array of twelve capacitive proximity sensors. These sensors measure the distance between the tongue and the hard palate during continuous speech. Tests have shown that the TPTD is able to provide useful information about the position of the tongue with respect to the hard palate when uttering different phonemes. A feed forward neural network has been implemented to classify the data into phoneme classes. In this work, a discreet wireless electropalatography and glossometry device is presented.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/145185