title: Markerless Analysis of Articulatory Movements in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A large percentage of patients with Parkinson's disease have hypokinetic dysarthria, exhibiting reduced peak velocities of jaw and lips during speech. This limitation implies a reduction of speech intelligibility for such patients. This work aims at testing a cost-effective markerless approach for assessing kinematic parameters of hypokinetic dysarthria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Kinematic parameters of the lips are calculated during a syllable repetition task from 14 Parkinsonian patients and 14 age-matched control subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Combining color and depth frames provided by a depth sensor (Microsoft Kinect), we computed the three-dimensional coordinates of main facial points. The peak velocities and accelerations of the lower lip during a syllable repetition task are considered to compare the two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that Parkinsonian patients exhibit reduced peak velocities of the lower lip, both during the opening and the closing phase of the mouth. In addition, peak values of acceleration are reduced in Parkinsonian patients, although with significant differences only in the opening phase with respect to healthy control subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The novel contribution of this work is the implementation of an entirely markerless technique capable to detect signs of hypokinetic dysarthria for the analysis of articulatory movements during speech. Although a large number of Parkinsonian patients have hypokinetic dysarthria, only a small percentage of them undergoes speech therapy to increase their articulatory movements. The system proposed here could be easily implemented in a home environment, thus, increasing the percentage of patients who can perform speech rehabilitation at home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy; Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering (DEI) "Guglielmo Marconi", Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: andrea.bandini@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bandini
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orlandi
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority, Ospedale "Nuovo San Giovanni di Dio", Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giovannelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Felici
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority, Ospedale "Nuovo San Giovanni di Dio", Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cincotta
authors.affiliation: Private Practice, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clemente
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority, Ospedale "Nuovo San Giovanni di Dio", Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanni
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority, Ospedale "Nuovo San Giovanni di Dio", Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaccara
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Manfredi
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D059925:Anatomic Landmarks; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007568:Jaw / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008046:Lip / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D013060:Speech; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013997:Time Factors; D014741:Video Recording
keywords: Hypokinetic dysarthria; Kinect; Markerless; Parkinson's disease; Speech articulation