PocketVoice Aids The Speech Impaired

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.pocketvoice.com/en/pocket%20voice/pocketvoice1.asp">http://www.pocketvoice.com/en/pocket%20voice/pocketvoice1.asp</a><br /><br />PocketVoice allows those with speech impairments to communicate more easily. You set up categories on your PC (Greetings, Emotions, Requests, etc.) and then load various sounds for each of the categories. Emotions might have "I am feeling good" or "I am feeling happy." The user can access these sounds by tapping on images or phrases on the screen or you can buy switches that allow the Pocket PC to be mounted in front of the user and they can tap switches with their hands or feet to trigger speech.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030528-pocketvoice.gif" /><br /><br />The software in initially available only with phrases in Portuguese and English. A trial is not yet available and pricing has not been set. If you are interested in learning more about this software, you can visit their site, click the Download link and subscribe to their newsletter which will keep you up to date on these issues.<br /><br />It is great to see technology is able to help the handicapped in this way. A few years ago, I went to church with a young man that had to communicate by sliding his fingers over a tray that had about 15 images. He was only able to communicate those 15 items to people other than his parents, who understood more by facial inflections and sounds he could make. Imagine if was able to have this with a library of information to convey limited only by the amount of memory in his Pocket PC.

[donbacardi]

This is truly technology at its finest !! Just imagine, if someone with some type of speech impediment can be provided with a Pocket PC & it's PocketVoice Aid to help them live normal lives ! Thanks for sharing this Ed.

[lurch]

I know a similar gentleman at my church that I would imagine could make great use of this... he currently uses the alphabet on a piece of paper to spell things out. Thanks for this post!!!

[trachy]

The emoticons sound like a great starting point, but I think they could take this concept a lot further for those with minimal dexterity. I envision an interface where the user could input various acronyms or symbols that would be interpreted and matched to an output sound. Searching around for the correct emoticon might get tedious after a while, considering how few appear to fit on a single screen.

[albsilva]

AFAIK pocketVoice can also have pre-recorded sentences... I guess that the idea of the emoticons is intented mainly for people who doesn't know how to read.

Alberto Silva

[Kati Compton]

Sounds also like a good traveler's aid....

[Iznot Gold]

This is a very interesting development, which I'm going to monitor carefully. Current systems such as Liberator are very expensive tablet PC based systems, see: -

http://www.liberator.co.uk/liberator-pre/docs/main.htm

Regards
David

[Kathy_Harris]

This will be an interesting alternative to those larger augmentive communication products like Liberator and Dynamite. The larger ones are far more expensive and less portable, thereby, less used. Kids and adults with autism that simply can't sign need a method of communication and this might just be a good option.