The long term objective of this plan is to make wearable multiple channel tactile aids available on a commercial basis.
The specific aims during this study are the following: 1. To develop a smaller version of our present vibrotactile transducers that are suitable for use in wearable arrays of 8 or more elements, the major issues being size and efficiency. 2. To demonstrate that closely packed linear arrays with on center spacings of .3"""""""" or less are able to transmit useable speech cues to deaf users. 3. To develop and evaluate a compact """"""""psuedospectral"""""""" processing scheme that enables a cosmetically accepted wearable multichannel (8 to 16 channels) processing package. 4. To combine the tactile array and the processing scheme into a compact wearable multichannel vibrotactile aid and subject it to extensive evaluation in controlled field and clinical settings. This item would be made available commercially during Phase 111. We are confident that the introduction of this advanced multichannel tactile aid will significantly impact the learning capabilities of the prelingually deaf and the speech reading capabilities for all profoundly deaf individuals many of whom are already being helped by less advanced tactile aids.
