【English page.1】We have created an English page!

▼ Please watch our greeting message anyway. We prerared two versions.

 

 

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Thank you for opening this page. My name is Haruka Tohara, a professor of Dysphagia Rehabilitation, Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

 

I'm a dentist, but I rarely treat teeth itself. Patients I always come in contact havee dysphagia, they have difficulty to eat and swallow by mouth due to various reasons. I have been focusing on this ever since about 20 years ago.

 

There are various causations of dysphagia. According to a stroke or neuromuscular diseases, the muscles that relate to eating may not work well, and then dysphagia occurs. In addition, even those who do not have such an illness often become unable to eat just because of weakness, such as being bedridden due to long-term hospitalization.

 

 

If you can't eat it by mouth, you need tube feeding for nourishment. We visit patient’s home or nursing homes so that people with dysphagia can feel the "joy of eating by mouth" again. 
 
One study found that approximately one in five (18%) elderly people in need of long-term care had dysphagia in Japan. However, dysphagia is not limited to elderly, so we estimate that there will be more numbers of patients.

 

 

Some patients with dysphagia, has problem of voice also. Those who have had resection of larynx or tracheostomy, cannot make voice.

 

Such patients cannot speak no matter how well they can move their mouth well. That makes communication quite difficult. While interacting with such people, I have been wondering, "Can we do something?" That is the reason for the development of "Voice Retriever".

 

 

 

Now, let me introduce the main subject, "Voice Retriever." Although it is not possible to retrieve the ability to make sound from vocal cords, we are developing and improving the equipment with the ability to speak.

 

It's very easy to use, just put a speaker on a mouthpiece, connect that to an external sound source, and move your mouth while the sound is coming out from speaker.

 

 

 

The concept of "Voice Retriever" has been in the corner of my head for more than 10 years, "Isn’t making a sound in the mouth useful?" So far, Yamada who is a post graduate student and me have made the concept to realty.

 

One night, Yamada smiled and brought this appliance, saying "I'm done!". The moment he heard his artificial speaking, I was really surprised, "Wow !!!!". That was much better than I expected and I still remember being excited.

 

Also, to get closer to a fairly natural vocalization, we connect it to a toy instrument called Otamatone (© ︎MAYWA DENKI, sold by Cube Co., Ltd.) because we could somehow add inflection. 

 

▼It is a video that was uploaded to Twitter and received a lot of feedback. This is a short 20-second video, so please take a look!

 

 

The prototype is almost complete and has been tested by around 10 patients and has a very good reputation. One of the features is that quite a lot of people can use it right after wearing. We also experienced that the patient's atmosphere became brighter in an instant.

 

▼Patients who could not make a voice. Even if you close your eyes and listen, you can see what you are saying. This is a short video of about 40 seconds, so please take a look.

 

 

First of all, we need to verify the significance of “Voice Retriever". We are tring to use this to Japanese patients anyway, and preparing quipments for minimum production. Then, we are planning mass production to provide this to the patient overseas.

 

 

 

For example, you know that the current "leg prosthesis" is completely different from the old image. Is that look "cool" isn't it? In the future, we hope that "Voice Retriever" will be brought on such stage.

 

And the "voice" we think of includes not only "speaking " but also "singing". So the other day we went to ask ESP, a world-famous guitar brand, for their cooperation. This is a picture of our determination, "Let's do our best together!" Music and medical care have same purpose, supporting “someone's wish".

We would like to continue to consult with ESP to find a landing point in the music.

 

 

Furthermore, speaking aloud causes infection of the coronavirus. We even think that now is the time that those who have lost their voices will play an active role. The first half of the video below is when Yamada is talking normally, and the second half is when talking using the Voice Retriever. Of course, we can't say for sure because the result of one person, but you can see a considerable difference of splashing of saliva.

 

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We think there are many people who lost voice. The "Voice Retriever" is still being improved, but feel free to contact us anytime. If you can move your mouth, we think that will work pretty well. We would like to do as much as we can. 

 

And, we are planning to bring the Voice Retriever to patients overseas within few years. We believe we can make this.

 

We look forward to having your support and donation to the "Voice Retriever" that has just begun.

 

Please visit the website of our university also.

https://www.tmd.ac.jp/english/dept/dentistry/drh/