Gerald C. Imazue, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has received a U.S. patent for a system designed to deliver personalized speech therapy outside the clinic. The patent, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, covers 鈥淎daptive Audio and Audiovisual Recursive Self-Feedback for Speech Therapy,鈥 a system that generates, manages, adapts and delivers therapy to users via mobile devices in at-home or out-of-clinic settings. Users may include people experiencing aphasia or other speech conditions.
The system works by presenting prompts to users, recording their spoken responses, and analyzing them to guide therapy. Based on this analysis, it can determine the most effective mode of response, such as playing back the user鈥檚 own speech to support self-assessment and correction. Performance and improvement trends are tracked to tailor future therapy sessions, making each session adaptive to the user鈥檚 progress.
As a patent holder, Imazue is now eligible to join USF's chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. Co-inventors include Ofer Tchernichovski and Mira Goral.