RAPID PROTOTYPING OF WIRELESS AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR SPEECH IMPAIRED SUBJECTS

Abstract

Wireless telecommunications holds particular promise for people with speech impairment because it can provide convenience for communication and enhance user's mobility. However, people with speech impairments are likely to also have varied movement disorders which result in the inability to use the existing voice telephone facility. The aim of this research is to extend the current augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system to wireless telecommunication service for speech-impaired subjects. A pocket personal computer (PPC) with wireless modules is adopted herein, that can be functioned as a portable AAC device, voice pager within a range, and mobile phone. The touch screen of PPC with designed graphics icon can be served as large buttons to activate the high-fidelity sound that is in turns sent to the wireless modules for "talking" through the phone. An AAC layout editor is used to link the pre-recorded sound to the graphics icon and to compile the icon-based graphics for each individual. In addition, levels of dynamic linkages, including script-based, category of use, semantic linkage, and frequency of use are implemented for assisting the speech impairment user to retrieve these pre-stored conversational items which can speed up the communication rate.