Speech Coding Based On Vector Quantization For A Tactile Vocoder Hearing Device

A portable digital speech processing system for deaf patients is described in the paper. This real-time processing system provides appropriate information to a ten-channel tactile prosthesis depending on speech signal caracteristics to be perceived. The system is based on three chips: a Codec TCM29C13, a DSP Digital Signal Processor TMS320E17 and a full custom integrated BiCmos circuit. Speech coding is based on LPC coefficients estimation and vector quantization. The architecture of this portable low power unit allows a marked improvement synthetic vowel discrimination.