# Real-Time Communication Aid System for Korean Dysarthrie Speech
## 5 Conclusions  
This paper proposes a real-time communication aid system for Korean dysarthria using ASR and TTS models. The dysarthric ASR model, the core component of the system, is designed using a conformer-based encoder and GTN-CTC, and is targeted at Korean, a language that has rarely been applied to previous dysarthric ASR research. The proposed dysarthric ASR model achieves a performance improvement of about 42% in terms of CER and 38% in terms of WER compared to the conventional transformer-based model. The TTS model for Korean speech synthesis was developed based on JETS, resulting in high-quality Korean speech synthesis. It also showed the highest MOS score of 4.64, outperforming existing Tacotron2 and transformer-based TTS models. The developed ASR and TTS models are integrated via a web server, converting approximately 5-10 s of input dysarthric speech into clear non-dysarthric speech within 2-3 s. By achieving the real-time transformation of dysarthric speech, this research fulfills its ultimate goal of significantly aiding communication for individuals with dysarthria.  
However, this system has some limitations. First, although real-time results are guaranteed for short voice inputs, long voice inputs of 10 s or more have a long delay. To solve this problem, research can be conducted on how to ensure real-time results for speech recognition and synthesis through streaming processing for long speech inputs.  
Figure 8: Visualization of the system output for the Korean dysarthric speech input: (Meaning: “Iate bibimbap with a gentle breeze from the sea”) and (English phonetic transcription: “badaeso budeuroun barameul majeumyeo bibimbabeul meogeosda”). The gray areas in the graph indicate silent segments within the speech, which were caused by dysarthric speech disfluencies.  
Also, the process of real-world usability verification has not been sufficiently studied in this research. For ethical considerations such as data privacy and user acceptance for vulnerable groups, it is essential to investigate various user feedback from real-world vulnerable groups. Therefore, future verification is needed to discuss the user-friendliness, convenience, accessibility, and functionality of the system according to user feedback, and to ensure fair and equitable performance across various user groups. Finally, a separate stand-alone device is required for a communication aid with even higher usability. The proposed system can be used by using a computing device such as a smartphone via a web server, but a separate stand-alone device is required for immediate and continuous use in the daily lives of people with dysarthria. To this end, we can design and manufacture a user-friendly hardware structure and optimize and embed the system to create a stand-alone device for dysarthria. In future research based on the device, we will investigate various user feedback from the aforementioned actual vulnerable groups and aim to develop a more effective communication aid by reflecting ethical considerations such as data privacy and user acceptance.  
Conceptualization, [PERSON] and [PERSON]; methodology, [PERSON] and [PERSON]; software, [PERSON]; validation, [PERSON]; formal analysis, [PERSON]; investigation, [PERSON]; resources, [PERSON]; data curation, [PERSON]; writing--original draft preparation, [PERSON]; writing--review and editing, [PERSON] and [PERSON]; visualization, [PERSON]; supervision, [PERSON]; project administration, [PERSON] and [PERSON]; funding acquisition, [PERSON] All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the 'Student-Initiated Creative Research Project' at Changwon National University in 2024.  
This research (paper) used datasets from 'Dysarthric speech recognition data (AI-Hub, S. Korea)'. All data information can be accessed through 'AI-Hub (www.aihub.or.kr)', accessed on 27 January 2025.  
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.