Title
User evaluation of a communication system that automatically generates captions to improve telephone communication
Author
Zekveld, A.A.
Kramer, S.E.
Kessens, J.M.
Vlaming, M.S.M.G.
Houtgast, T.
TNO Defensie en Veiligheid
Publication year
2009
Abstract
This study examined the subjective benefit obtained from automatically generated captions during telephone-speech comprehension in the presence of babble noise. Short stories were presented by telephone either with or without captions that were generated offline by an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. To simulate online ASR, the word accuracy (WA) level of the captions was 60% or 70% and the text was presented delayed to the speech. After each test, the hearing impaired participants (n = 20) completed the NASA-Task Load Index and several rating scales evaluating the support from the captions. Participants indicated that using the erroneous text in speech comprehension was difficult and the reported task load did not differ between the audio + text and audio-only conditions. In a follow-up experiment (n = 10), the perceived benefit of presenting captions increased with an increase of WA levels to 80% and 90%, and elimination of the text delay. However, in general, the task load did not decrease when captions were presented. These results suggest that the extra effort required to process the text could have been compensated for by less effort required to comprehend the speech. Future research should aim at reducing the complexity of the task to increase the willingness of hearing impaired persons to use an assistive communication system automatically providing captions. The current results underline the need for obtaining both objective and subjective measures of benefit when evaluating assistive communication systems. © 2009 SAGE Publications.
Subject
Acoustics and Audiology
Assistive text display
Automatic speech recognition
Communication device for hearing impaired
User evaluation
accuracy
adult
aged
article
assistive technology
auditory stimulation
automatic speech recognition
clinical article
controlled study
female
follow up
hearing impairment
human
information processing
Internet
low frequency noise
male
rating scale
simulation
speech discrimination
task performance
telecommunication
telephone
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cognition
Communication Aids for Disabled
Comprehension
Computer Systems
Female
Hearing Loss, Mixed Conductive-Sensorineural
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural
Humans
Male
Memory
Middle Aged
Noise
Perceptual Masking
Questionnaires
Rehabilitation of Hearing Impaired
Speech Perception
Speech Reception Threshold Test
Speech Recognition Software
Telephone
Time Factors
Visual Perception
telephone
communication
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4143b910-332d-46c1-81d1-3347e5ccc564
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1084713808330207
TNO identifier
181173
ISSN
1084-7138
Source
Trends in Amplification, 13 (1), 44-68
Document type
article