This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award of $304,935 to Luca AI, LLC provides funding to develop an innovative, technology-driven solution for improving the reading skills of individuals with dyslexia. The key products and services to be delivered through this project grant include:
Building a grapheme-phoneme extension of an existing pronunciation dictionary to enhance the accuracy of phonetic automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for transcribing the speech of dyslexic readers.
Training a specialized phonetic ASR model to accurately identify reading errors, such as phoneme insertions, deletions, and substitutions, that are common among individuals with dyslexia.
Refining an error tracking solution to pinpoint decoding challenges at the grapheme-phoneme level to provide personalized feedback and learning content.
Developing a customized story generation pipeline to create engaging, easy-to-decode reading materials tailored to the needs of dyslexic learners.
The overarching goal of this SBIR Phase I project, funded under the NSF's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, is to enhance decoding abilities and reading fluency for individuals with dyslexia, addressing a significant educational, economic, and social challenge.