UB iTalker - An augmentative communication device for the speech impaired State University of New York At Buffalo 1

2 M EET D AVID 2

3 3 David is 41 years old now. When he was 29 years, he suffered from a stroke which left him unable to speak for 12 years. After the stroke, David’s life changed drastically. He is now not able to express himself as he once used to do. Expressing simple things to someone has become a great challenge for him. He has been struggling to get that precious voice back which he had lost 12 years back…..

4 D AVID IS N OT A LONE David is not the only one who is unable to verbalize his thoughts and needs. There are many disabled people who are unable to speak because of being born severely handicapped, suffering from a stroke or being in a severe accident. For them, every minute is a struggle to communicate their needs or wants. 4

5 H ENCE T HERE IS A N EED… The speechless community requires an easy, user friendly and affordable augmentative communication device that can accommodate all levels of literacy comprehension. This would help improving the quality of speech-impaired individuals lives by using commercial-grade technology at affordable price. 5

Now, David and others can EXPRESS themselves !! 6

7 C URRENT S OLUTIONS 7 ALT-Chat™D Plus $4, Vanguard Plus $7, Vantage Plus $6, Dynavox V $7, Dynavox Vmax $8, Zygo Polyana 4 $4, oo

8 D RAWBACKS OF C URRENT S OLUTIONS 8 Too Expensive for individuals to afford Too Specific - Caters specific ages and specific levels of literacy/comprehension - Unable to adapt to educational progression of person using it - Educational organizations reluctant to buy them due to their specific nature

9 O UR A PPROACH: UB iTALKER 9 Provide disabled person like David and others the ability to communicate Accommodate all age groups, all levels of literacy/comprehension and all levels of disability! Develop Text-to-Speech communication device called UB iTalker, a n intelligent talker system with an agile user interface Design iTalker system to run on the affordable and accessible Tablet PC.

10 UB iTALKER F EATURES 10 Simple and user friendly Customizable user profiles Various modes of operation based on user comfort and literacy level High Level of customization (Voice, Display, Profile, etc.) Supports latest technologies like Touch Screen and Ink Recognition Provides AI (Artificial Intelligence) functionality to reduce user efforts

11 UB iTalker DESIGN

12 iTALKER D ESIGN 12 Three Modes Of Operation 1. Beginner/Learning Mode More of a training mode for new users or young users that have limited literacy and comprehension. Helps user in acquainting with Talker device and its components like Touch Screen, Screen Ink and interfaces Covers generic chapters like Color Identification, Alphabets, Shapes, Family Individuals, etc. Provides Auto scan mode for people with limited motor function. Items are selected in sequential order until a very simple or large button is hit.

13 B EGINNER M ODE S TART

14 B EGINNER M ODE: F UN n L EARN

15 B EGINNER M ODE

16 B EGINNER M ODE: A UTOSCAN M ODE

17 UB iTalker D ESIGN 17 Three Modes Of Operation (continued) 2. Intermediate Mode For users comfortable in beginner mode Two Input Modes 1. Keyboard Mode a. Provides basic keyboard with some of the most common words embedded in it.

18 I NTERMEDIATE M ODE: K EYBOARD

19 2.Category and Phrase Mode a. Covers day-to-day necessities organized in logical categories (like Food, Bath Room, Doctor, etc.) b. Each category divided in sub categories if required (like beverages, snack for the food category) which contains popular phrases I NTERMEDIATE M ODE: K EYBOARD

20 I NTERMEDIATE M ODE: C ATEGORY

21 UB iTalker D ESIGN 21 Three Modes Of Operation (continued) 3. Advanced Mode Allows users with high literacy/comprehension to quickly and easily generate custom sentences. Full QWERTY Touch Screen keyboard. Allows user to talk as fast as they can type. Readily available recently and frequently used words Intelligence Options 1. Sentence/Word Completion 2. Spell Check 3. Microsoft Ink Recognition Allows user have the iTalker speak hand written sentences. User will use tablet stylus to write on the touch screen

22 A DVANCED M ODE: T ALK F AST

23 UB iTalker D ESIGN 23 Customizable User Profiles Allows users to manage custom profiles. The profile holds default settings set by the user. The customizable settings include: 1. Name 2. Default Mode 3. Default Volume Level and Voice Settings 4. Default Colors of System Layout 5. Default Icon Size 6. Default Dictionary settings User can create new categories or add to or change the phrases within that category.

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25 UB iTalker D ESIGN 25 Microsoft MySQL Databases User Profile Database - Stores user profile information Modes Database - Stores mode specific information Text Database - Stores list of inbuilt and user specific words/sentences Speech Database - Stores voice format of words and all the phonetic sounds

26 UB iTalker F ULL D ESIGN

27 Technologies Used Tablet PC (Touch Screen) - For portability and accessibility Microsoft Speech (SAPI) - For Speech Synthesis Microsoft Visual Studio.NET - For Software Development Microsoft Ink Analysis - For interpreting Screen ink Microsoft SQL Server - Various Databases

28 B ENEFITS Improves Quality of life Configurability User friendly Cost effective Utilizes existing technology 28

29 C ONCLUSION Using iTalker, David and others could soon achieve an increased level of communication skills that they had been previously denied due to their unfortunate disability and the lack of affordable solutions. iTalker will cost less than $2000. This is about half of what current solutions cost. iTalker can accommodate many people of all levels of disability, literacy/comprehension. Therefore iTalker will be a very beneficial tool for many organizations. 29

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31 More Details Project Website Problem Statement System Specification Software Requirements Specification Project Plan Microsoft Project

32 Thank You!!! Team Members: Ajay V. Nagrale Gautami R. Chitteti Jiayi Ren Joseph W. Lee Kalyani Beeravelly Kenneth A. Cloutier 32