TileTalker
TileTalker is a range of hardware and software aimed at people with severe difficulty in communicating.
Initially it will consist of software to allow severely physically handicapped people to gain access to
a PC in order to facilitate simple communication with others by converting signals from switches which can be operated with limited movement into speech.
Of course, people with only speech difficulties can also use the system to give rapid access to words and phrases which can then be spoken as either computer generated or user recorded voices.
The TileTalker screen consists of a page filled with tiles.
Each tile consists of a picture, a word, a sound and an action. Selecting a tile will cause one of many things to happen such as speaking a word or phrase, playing a sound or MP3 track, opening a Word document and inserting a phrase into that document, or opening another page of tiles to allow for unlimited expansion.
The contents of each page and tile are entirely at the users discretion, we place no restriction on this at all.
The number of tiles on a page is also configurable so anything from 2 to 200 tiles can be displayed on each page.
A typical example is shown in the picture.
As many pages as required can be stored and interlinked limited only by the memory available in the computer.
The user interface will be via scanning switches, mouse, keyboard, touchscreen or vocal (reacting to noise in order to select an event).
Activating the device will cause the computer to perform one of a range of actions including speaking the word or phrase, playing music, displaying a picture, opening an e-mail, opening a word processor document etc. and with the addition of the external hardware expected to be released in late 2007, TileTalker will allow control of equipment around the home via remote control, wireless links.
The initial product will consist only of software and will work on any WindowsXP based PC, including TabletPCs to allow it to be used on the move. Many features will also work on Windows98 but some functionality will be missing and we do not intend to support Windows98.
A little later, we may package the TileTalker software with a TabletPC or PalmTop computer but if you already have such a device then you won't need to buy another one from us, just pay for the software and install it on a desktop, laptop or TabletPC of your choice.
Subsequently, a range of interface devices will be added to allow interaction by means other than the standard switches currently available.
This will include wireless remote sensing of body movements from any part of the body to allow severely disabled to gain access to the TileTalker software and from there to interact with their environment.
A typical example would be full control of TV/video devices and equipment to allow control of any electrical device remotely via a positional sensor located on the head or ankle or any part of the body over which the user has control.
Test versions of the software are expected to be released by late 2007 with the hardware appearing in 2008.
Other, related products on the market which may be of interest include the following:
Dynavox
Dynavox sell a range of communication aids which do similar things to TileTalker. For full details, see the Dynavox website.
The advantages of Dynavox include a large customer base and a wide product range including software and computers.
Some disadvantages include:
The cost! Dynavox software is very expensive and quite complicated to use.
While it may have lots of bells and whistle added on, most users will simply never use them and will be confused by them so they serve no useful purpose for the majority of users. However, all users are required to pay for them.
For example the Dynavox "Speaking Software for Windows". This will cost you $2,495 (£1,400) compared with a target price of £100 ($170) for TileTalker software which will be more than adequate for most users.
Other related products can be found on sites such as Inclusive Technology and Ablenet Inc.
For more details of TileTalker, click here.