Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35252959›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in digital health2022

Preliminary Evaluation of Automated Speech Recognition Apps for the Hearing Impaired and Deaf.

Leontien Pragt, Peter van Hengel, Dagmar Grob, Jan-Willem A Wasmann

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in digital health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 27% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Leontien PragtDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Peter van HengelDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Dagmar GrobDepartment of Medical Imaging, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Jan-Willem A WasmannDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Radboud University Medical Center · NLRadboud University Nijmegen · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveAutomated speech recognition (ASR) systems have become increasingly sophisticated, accurate, and deployable on many digital devices, including on a smartphone. This pilot study aims to examine the speech recognition performance of ASR apps using audiological speech tests. In addition, we compare ASR speech recognition performance to normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners and evaluate if standard clinical audiological tests are a meaningful and quick measure of the performance of ASR apps.

methodsFour apps have been tested on a smartphone, respectively AVA, Earfy, Live Transcribe, and Speechy. The Dutch audiological speech tests performed were speech audiometry in quiet (Dutch CNC-test), Digits-in-Noise (DIN)-test with steady-state speech-shaped noise, sentences in quiet and in averaged long-term speech-shaped spectrum noise (Plomp-test). For comparison, the app's ability to transcribe a spoken dialogue (Dutch and English) was tested.

resultsAll apps scored at least 50% phonemes correct on the Dutch CNC-test for a conversational speech intensity level (65 dB SPL) and achieved 90-100% phoneme recognition at higher intensity levels. On the DIN-test, AVA and Live Transcribe had the lowest (best) signal-to-noise ratio +8 dB. The lowest signal-to-noise measured with the Plomp-test was +8 to 9 dB for Earfy (Android) and Live Transcribe (Android). Overall, the word error rate for the dialogue in English (19-34%) was lower (better) than for the Dutch dialogue (25-66%).

conclusionThe performance of the apps was limited on audiological tests that provide little linguistic context or use low signal to noise levels. For Dutch audiological speech tests in quiet, ASR apps performed similarly to a person with a moderate hearing loss. In noise, the ASR apps performed more poorly than most profoundly deaf people using a hearing aid or cochlear implant. Adding new performance metrics including the semantic difference as a function of SNR and reverberation time could help to monitor and further improve ASR performance.

Indexed as

automated speech audiometry(automatic speech recognition), automated speech recognition, (ASR)evaluation metrichearing impairmentspeech-to-textvoice-to-text technology

Identifiers

PMID35252959
PMCPMC8889114
OpenAlexW4213321285

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.