Page 259 - Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics

Prosthesis
PROSODIC FEATURES
In human speech, meaning is conveyed by inflection (tone of voice) as
well as by the actual sounds uttered. Perhaps you have heard primitive
speech synthesis devices with their monotone, emotionless quality. You
could understand the words perfectly, but they lacked the changes in
pitch, timing, and loudness that give depth to spoken statements. These
variations are called prosodic features.
To illustrate the importance of prosodic features, consider the sen-
tence, “You will go to the store after midnight.” Try emphasizing each
word in turn:
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
• You will go to the store after midnight.
Now,instead of making a statement,ask a question,again emphasizing each
word in turn. Just replace the period with a question mark.You have 16 dif-
ferent prosodic variations on this one string of words. A few of them are
meaningless or silly, but the differences among most of them are striking.
Prosodic variations are important in speech recognition. This is because,
if you say something one way, you might mean something entirely different
than if you utter the same series of words another way. Programming a
machine to pick up these subtle differences is one of the greatest challenges
facing researchers in artificial intelligence.
See also SPEECH RECOGNITION and SPEECH SYNTHESIS.
PROSTHESIS
A prosthesis is an artificial limb or part for the human body. Robotics has
made it possible to build electromechanical arms,hands,and legs to replace
the limbs of amputees.Artificial organs have also been made. Mechanical
legs have been developed to the point where they can let a person walk.
Artificial hands can grip; prosthetic arms can throw a ball.
Some internal organs can be replaced, at least for short periods, by
machines. Kidney dialysis is one example. An artificial heart is another.
Some electronic or electromechanical devices do not completely replace
human body parts, but help living organs do what they are supposed to
do. An example is a heart pacemaker.
One of the biggest problems with prostheses is that the body some-
times rejects them as foreign objects. The human immune system, which

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