Research | ISRL
During its first decade, the ISRL has developed research programs in several major directions:
Since beginning this work, we have co-founded a new international workshop ("UltraFest"), which is now counting its fifth meeting. Our efforts have effected a major transformation in the way speech articulation is currently being studied, and have helped spur the creation of dozens of new ultrasound speech labs worldwide. A particularly exciting aspect of this is that ultrasound imaging technology, being both portable and less invasive than other methods of physiological data collection, is enabling researchers to study populations never before studied, including disordered populations, children, and speakers of endangered or seldom-studied language (e.g., First Nations languages).
This stream of research is showing that humans engaging in speech perception readily integrate event-specific tactile information from all over the body, suggesting a whole-body amodal perceptual system. Results have also uncovered an asymmetry in the temporal window of perception of speech sound versus air flow, corresponding to the temporal difference between the speed of sound and the speed of speech-initiated air flow. This research is funded in part through a collaborative NIH grant (Doug Whalen, PI) at Haskins Laboratories.
3. The use of visual biofeedback to treat speech and hearing disorders.
The ISRL has developed new techniques using feedback from ultrasound and electropalatography in speech intervention for deaf, hard of hearing and speech disordered populations. A number of publications (mostly in collaboration with Barbara Bernhardt and Penelope Bacsfalvi, Audiology & Speech Sciences) have shown these techniques to be extremely effective, both in the short and long term. Our research has spurred a great deal of interest in this new area, particularly with respect to the use of ultrasound in speech therapy, including a program to bring ultrasound intervention to rural areas.
4. Computer modeling of the vocal tract.
This highly interdisciplinary research is providing new possibilities for modeling oral surgery, and for integrating audio and visual components of speech synthesis and resynthesis for telecommunications, animation and other industry applications.
http://hct.ece.ubc.ca/research/speech/index.html
5.Exploration into speech production development of normally and abnormally developing children.
This line of research has the potential to provide early signs and possible therapies, as well as providing more meaningful diagnostics and alternative therapies for speech disordered children. We have conducted a number of clinical intervention studies with speech-delayed children, as well as a dissertation providing a baseline study of articulatory timing in children's oral motor behavior
