MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY
Memorial University-led research yields app for speech-language pathologists worldwide

From Phon to SpeechCatcher, a Memorial University researcher is creating tools to support speech therapists around the world.

Dr. Yvan Rose // Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp

Dr. Yvan Rose, is a phonologist in the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Gregory Hedlund, a staff member in the department, is his longtime collaborator who provides software support in Dr. Rose's work.

Phon

The duo originally co-developed Phon, a speech analysis program; it identifies and analyzes patterns of speech production, including how humans acquire the speech system of their language and how different disorders may affect their ability to speak.

It also helps researchers and students in their descriptions and analyses of patterns of speech, speech acquisition, speech errors or more generally of speech accents across languages, dialects and populations of speakers.

"This includes speech errors such as saying "wing" for "ring," said Dr. Rose. "Phon can detect and compute speech errors over sets of speech data that are much larger than what could be processed by humans without access to this computer program. As a result, we can see things in the data which would otherwise be impossible to observe or quantify."

Since 2016, Phon has been adding the types of analyses that speech-language pathologists need to conduct assessments of speech with children or people with speech disorders.

It provides unparalleled support for research; however, speech-language pathologists needed another kind of tool for their daily work.

"We can compare Phon to a space telescope," said Dr. Rose. "It's very powerful and precise, but too cumbersome to be used for everyday tasks. This is why the idea of a new and better-suited program for clinicians took form. SpeechCatcher is a much easier, more straightforward program, with functions and interfaces dedicated specifically for the everyday needs of speech-language pathologists."

SpeechCatcher

SpeechCatcher is not designed to replace the Phon program.

In fact, Dr. Rose says it's just the opposite.

"If we are successful with the commercialization of SpeechCatcher, which will be sold through the App and Play online stores, we will be able to use some of the generated income to support and expand the open-source Phon program and maintain it as free software for researchers and students," he said. "This is one of the primary goals of this whole enterprise."

Dr. Rose says with more research, SpeechCatcher can become an even better tool for speech-language pathologists.

"Commercialization of research is just one of the ways Memorial University makes a lasting impact." Angela Avery

The innovative work is being supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), through its Idea to Innovation (I2I) market assessment and phase one funding - the first time Memorial has received this funding in almost a decade.

This funding program is designed to advance promising technologies to attract early-stage investment and/or to build valuable intellectual property in anticipation of transferring the technology to a company.

Prior to this, Dr. Rose had secured Springboard Atlantic funding for SpeechCatcher through its Innovation Mobilization Fund under the development of an initial proof-of-concept.

How it's used

To evaluate speech abilities or diagnose speech impairments, clinicians, educators, as well as researchers and their students need to compare speech productions, such as examples of words or sentences, against model or expected productions of the words or sentences on a sound-by-sound basis.

SpeechCatcher's analytic capabilities lie in its ability to automate such descriptions, which are relevant to both research and clinical practice worldwide.

Dr. Rose says most current methods of speech assessment involve cumbersome analyses of speech patterns that must be done manually.

These methods are time-consuming and subject to human error.

SpeechCatcher provides users with much more reliable analyses, and in significantly less time, which will positively impact the daily work of speech-language pathologists that will, in turn, benefit their clients.

SpeechCatcher will also support speech testing for more diverse populations of speakers.

"SpeechCatcher will facilitate the creation and distribution of speech tests better adapted to multilingual people, as well as people who speak minority languages," he said. "This is significant in light of current immigration patterns worldwide, as well as in all areas of technological indigenization."

According to Dr. Rose, traditional methods of publishing and speech assessment tests are not nimble enough to serve the needs of these populations of speakers.

"We will work directly with test creators focused on these language populations to facilitate their access to our technologies."

Research Innovation Office

Luckily, for researchers like Dr. Rose, there is an ecosystem at Memorial University that helps move ideas from the lab to the market.

The Research Innovation Office (RIO), a unit within the research portfolio, provides a number of services and programs for students, faculty and staff to support industrial liaison, technology transfer and commercialization activities at Memorial.

Angela Avery // Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp

Angela Avery is the acting director of innovation and entrepreneurship of RIO. She says research translation is a form of research dissemination.

This can benefit the university community by expediting the translation of research findings into practical applications and real-world solutions, generating revenue, addressing societal and industry challenges, job creation and economic growth.

"Commercialization of research is just one of the ways Memorial University makes a lasting impact," said Ms. Avery. "RIO provided Dr. Rose with access to the Springboard Atlantic funding, and was able to support him in the development of a technology transfer plan for SpeechCatcher, including intellectual property and commercialization strategies that further support his invention's growth and development."

Dr. Rose says after they had worked with numerical clinical specialists from different countries (and languages), they had a good sense of how they could bring their technologies to the market.

He credits members of RIO with helping guide the process.

"The input from Kara Strickland (a former employee) and Angela at RIO was invaluable for our understanding of the logical steps we needed to go through to access funding," he said. "This included the development of a proof-of-concept for our new app, which offered the basis toward our market study, which is a required step in the establishment of the I2I grant we received from NSERC."

Research at Memorial

Memorial is one of 19 universities and colleges that make up Springboard Atlantic, the commercialization network that drives academic and industry collaboration in Atlantic Canada.

The Research Innovation Office is supported partly by the Government of Canada's Research Support Fund, an important source of funding support that helps post-secondary institutions with costs associated with managing their research enterprises.

Learn more about research at Memorial and check out Research Strategy 2023-28 to learn how we're moving ideas forward.