There are numerous medical conditions that can cause dysarthric speech, such as stroke or Parkinson's disease. Patients are still able to understand language and their articulation organs are morphologically intact, but a neurological damage impairs their ability to produce intelligible speech. Although the degeneration of nerve cells itself is irreversible, the consequences can be lessened by appropriate therapy.

The DysarTrain project aims to automatize the therapy process by providing speech and motor exercises through a desktop application. During an exercise, the performance of a patient is evaluated using speech, video and 3D (Time of flight) recording hardware. All signal analysis results contribute to the final assessment of a training session.

SMA² is a joint project between the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, and the FAU. The goal is to collect and analyze speech and motor signals from patients suffering from neurological diseases using Apkinson, our free Android smartphone application. Right now, the project focuses mainly on the evaluation of Morbus Parkinson.