Wireless communication for speech impaired subjects via portable augmentative and alternative system

People with speech impairments are likely to also have varied movement disorders which result in the inability to use 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 a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) module is adopted herein. The touch screen of PPC with designed graphics icon can be used as large buttons to activate the high-fidelity sound that is in turns sent to the GSM module 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.