AAC@IITM¶

Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) is our effort to provide non-verbal individuals the ability to independently express their ideas. The platform being used is the BeagleBoard, revC. The final hardware will have

1. Minimum 3-hr battery backup
2. Software that works with a single-click
3. Access is through two buttons, which can be programmed either as left-click or left and right clicks

HOPE¶

HOPE
The need for a simple text to speech (TTS) software for children in the early stages of literacy led to the development of HOPE. This is an open-source initiative from the students and faculty at IIT-Madras built using python. Both Windows and Linux platforms are supported, using pyspeech and espeak respectively as the underlying TTS engine. HOPE delivers a platform by which children can spell words and construct sentences using only the single click of a space-bar or a similar input device to a computer or mobile embedded platform. The software auto-scrolls between groups of alphabets, then letters, and finally provides the user with the ability to continue spelling, or predicts the word that is being constructed. The prediction also remembers previous constructions. Although HOPE was designed for the English language, with simple modifications it can be easily adapted to any character or symbol based language. The challenge to a software designer is to be able to accommodate all the characters and accents in different languages, while not slowing down the user's ability to construct simple sentences.

LaunchBox¶

HOPE is often used in conjunction with a second open-source software, LaunchBox, that remembers user preferences such as speed of scrolling, gender of user and volume settings. LaunchBox also offers the user the ability to save user preferences such as speed of auto-scrolling, and gender of TTS voice.

Open Problems¶

1. Incorporate prediction into Hope (see e.g. Dasher)
2. Local language version of Hope
3. Improvements to I-Draw
4. Mouse-like interface by dividing up the screen into sections and zooming
5. Software to teach mathematics
6. Scroll type access to other programs like audio/video players, openoffice, etc