Artificial palate for use in dynamic palatographical speech researches and improvements and method of fabricating the same

摘要

Improved artificial palate for use in dynamic palatographical speech researches and improvements in the method of fabricating such artificial palate are provided. The artificial palate comprises a shell body mold-formed with an electrically insulative plastic material in conformity with individual user's palate. A flexible insulative circuit board includes a plurality of sensing electrodes provided in the board over the area thereof and lead wires printed on both surfaces of the board for connecting the respective electrodes to terminals arranged on both surfaces of the board adjacent an edge thereof. The circuit board is embedded in the shell body exposing the sensing electrodes on the inner surface of the body to be in contact with user's tongue during the use. Insulation coated wires connect the electrode terminals to the exterior and form means for mounting the artificial palate in user's mouth when embedded in the plastic material contiguous to the shell body. In the fabricating method, the circuit board is preliminarily prepared in different sizes, a proper size of the circuit board is selected to be joined to the mold-formed shell body, and the plastic material is applied over the board to embed it in the body but exposing the sensing electrodes on the tongue contacting surface.