Evaluation of speaking-aid system with voice conversion for laryngectomees toward its use in practical environments

In this paper, we evaluate our previously proposed speakingaid system with voice conversion for laryngectomees. The proposed system employs a sound source unit generating extremely small signals to keep them from annoying other persons, and then it statistically converts articulated signals captured with a body-attached microphone into natural speech. We have so far shown the effectiveness of the proposed system using speech data imitated by a non-laryngectomee, which have recorded in a sound proof room. In this paper, we further investigate 1) whether such small sound source signals cause the lack of auditory feedback under noisy environments and 2) whether the proposed system is effective for real laryngectomees. Experimental results demonstrate that 1) an explicit auditory feedback is useful to keep the speaker’s articulation stable and 2) the voice conversion dramatically improves the naturalness of the laryngectomee’s speech but it slightly degrades its intelligibility.