MyVoice: Rescuing voices of ALS patients

An overview of a collaborative project on 'MyVoice' is discussed, which is a system that is intended to rescue voices of those patients who may end up not being able to speak with their own voice. MyVoice builds upon HeartyLadder, which is an independently-usable keyboard inputting device. This software allows one to use a keyboard without actually typing on the keyboard without using hands. Hearty-Ladder shows a keyboard screen on a PC's monitor and with this, one can use a computer mouse to select a particular Japanese letter or English alphabet on the screen. For those patients who are not physically able to use a mouse, it also allows them to select a letter by gradually narrowing the selected field. MyVoice considers higher levels of prosodic structure, especially syllables. MyVoice also allows users to make subtle adjustments within a CV-mora unit. MyVoice can also assign word-level accent. MyVoice contains an accent dictionary of Tokyo Japanese; based on the input information, it assigns the accent patterns of the inputted words. Phoneticians also contributed to the improvement of the acoustic realizations of geminate consonants.