Tongue Position Tracking Device (TPTD): A Discreet Wireless Electropalatography and Glossometry Device

The tongue is a muscular organ that lies on the floor of the mouth and is responsible of a variety of functions. It is involved in food chewing and swallowing, and is one of the main active articulators. But various diseases and accidents can affect the functionality of this important organ. Palatography, electropalatography and glossometry are some of the techniques developed over the years to assess the correct functionality of the tongue muscle and to treat the tongue in the eventuality of malfunctions. Some examples of fields of application are: articulation disorders, cleft palate, Down syndrome, stuttering, hearing impairments, neurological disorders, dysphagia and accent reduction. In this thesis, we propose a novel device called Tongue Position Tracking Device (TPTD). TPTD is a wireless and discreet device that combines electropalatography and glossometry and therefore has the ability to determine the contact pattern between tongue and hard palate as well as measuring the distance between the tongue and the palate during continuous speech or tongue movements in general. TPTD is connected via Bluetooth to an Android application, ensuring that the device is as comfortable as possible for the subject. TPTD consists of two clear plastic retainers encapsulating an array of twelve capacitive proximity sensors. These sensors measure the distance between the tongue and the hard palate during continuous speech. The information relative to the distance between the two is presented to the subject using a smartphone application that provides realtime visual feedback. In the TPTD-app, each sensing electrode is represented by a circle. Each circle changes color based on the capacitance value, which in turned represents the distance of the tongue from that electrode. Tests have shown that the TPTD is able to provide useful information about the position of the tongue with respect to the hard palate when uttering different phonemes. In particular, the results confirm that the electrode data recorded during the uttering of pairs of phonemes that require the tongue to assume different positions have a statistical significant difference. In this work, a discreet wireless electropalatography and glossometry device is presented