Casa Futura Technologies would be its name. Sometime in December, he hopes, Assembly Technology in Longmont will begin manufacturing Kehoe's anti-stuttering units for consumer sales. The units, he explains, manipulate vocal functions and feed the results into the user's telephone receiver or headphones. The stutterer's voice might be delayed a fraction of a second, enabling the user to gain better voice control by speaking more slowly. Kehoe's units also can adjust the pitch of the user's voice, speeding up or slowing the rate of speech.
Telephone calls are the greatest fear for people who stutter.
Auditory feedback, Kehoe says, can offer welcome opportunities to an estimated 2 million Americans suffering from the speech disability. Biofeedback does that. The biofeedback capabilities help the user identify and modify physical processes or behavior that can cause impediments to fluid speech, according to Kehoe. Biofeedback monitors the user's breathing, muscle and speaking activities, sending out warnings when things are out of kilter. It also gives the wearer the green light when all the speech elements are in synch, Kehoe adds.