title: Evaluation of an audiovisual-FM system: investigating the interaction between illumination level and a talker's skin color on speech-reading performance.
abstract: A program designed to evaluate the benefits of an audiovisual-frequency modulated (FM) system led to some questions concerning the effects of illumination level and a talker's skin color on speech-reading performance. To address those issues, the speech of a Caucasian female was videotaped under 2 conditions: a light skin color condition and a dark skin color condition. For the latter condition, makeup was applied to the talker's face. For both skin color conditions, the talker was recorded while speaking sentences under 7 different levels of illumination: 2, 3, 4, 16, 60, 256, and 600 footcandles (fc). Fifteen participants completed the speech perception task in a visual-only modality. The results revealed a significant interaction of illumination level and skin color. For the light skin color condition, speech-reading performance improved systematically as the illumination level increased from 3 to 16 fc. For the dark skin color condition, no differences in speech-reading performance were observed between the 2-fc and the 3-fc conditions. However, a large improvement in speech-reading performance was observed as the illumination level increased from 4 fc to 16 fc. It is speculated that in addition to an overall effect of illumination level, the contrast in luminance at the level of the talker's face has an effect on speech-reading performance.
authors.affiliation: Ecole d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Université de Montréal, Succursale centre-ville, Québec, Canada. Jean-Pierre.Gagne@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gagné
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laplante-Lévesque
authors.forename: Maude
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Labelle
authors.forename: Katrine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Doucet
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Potvin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D012880:Skin Pigmentation; D013067:Speech Perception