PRESLA: An original device to measure the mechanical interaction between tongue and teeth or palate during speech production

TL;DR

This paper introduces PRESLA, a novel device that measures the mechanical interaction between the tongue and teeth or palate during speech by using pressure sensors embedded in dental prostheses, validated with French speakers.

Contribution

The paper presents a new experimental setup using pressure sensors in dental prostheses to measure tongue interactions during speech, with demonstrated usability on human subjects.

Findings

System is usable with edentulous subjects.

Data collected shows measurable tongue-prosthesis interactions.

Method does not perturb natural speech.

Abstract

An original experimental procedure is presented to measure the mechanical interaction between tongue and teeth and palate during speech production. It consists in using edentulous people as subjects and to insert pressure sensors in the structure of a replication of their dental prosthesis. This is assumed to induce no speech production perturbation for subjects who are used to speak with their prosthesis. Data collected from 4 subjects of French demonstrate the usability of the system.