Patent US 4,769,846

The Speech Therapy Translator converts minimal manipulations to aural conversation using basic words and statements necessary for rehabilitating patients who are speech handicapped. The system is also used for language and minor utterance translation. Applications in the fields of animal sound and language translation, Linguistic Anthropology, and aids to the permanently speech-handicapped are evident. The main feature of the system is that the sight sense is not needed for fluent conversation. There are three primary modes of operation. The first mode is DC switch excitation. The switches are attached to the fingers, eyelids or convenient movable positions on the body. The second mode of operation utilizes audio microphone inputs. The microphones, with sufficient amplification, are sensitive to touch excitation. The microphones are also activated by various pulse-type sounds. These sounds are in the nature of clicks, whistles, or cricket sounds. The basic system contains two active coding channels and the sounds for this mode must be made directional. If the patient is incapable of any minor utterances, this mode could not be used. The third mode uses selective filters, external to the basic system. Preselected sounds such as (e) and (uh) excite the two channels of the system. The coding arrangement sets up the translation process from the step incrementing channel operation to the selected word in the voice synthesizer. This third mode may also contain phase time delay coding detection which is coded into the translation process. The third mode may be used for animal sound verses action response translation and applications in Linguistic Anthropology.