Many assist applications aimed to help people who have communication disorder have already introduced.
But because of the high price and complicated functions, people who need communication assistance cannot make the best use of them.
Therefore, we TORIKEN, M.Torii’s laboratory of Media Information Science of Aichi Institute of Technology in JAPAN, worked on the development of a new assist tool for people who have communication disorder with cooperation of teachers of a special support school.
We succeeded in developing an inexpensive and easy use application for smart phones for people who have difficulty with communication to be able to use a high-tech AAC(Augmentative and Alternative Communication) with no hesitancy.
We focused to express basic requests such as “I want to do (something).” or “I need (something).” with simple operations.
It is the big advantage of this app to express a request with only one action.
Our app will useful for autistics or people who have difficulty for communication.
And also, little children will enjoy learning words and sentences with it.
Some unique contents, such as “Jokes” and “Sounds”, appeal to autistics or little children and make them feel like to use it naturally.
There are two modes of this app.
On “Supportive Mode”, a supporter who helps handicapped starts to communicate with him/her.
On “Self-use Mode”, a handicapped can show his/her request by voice with this application.
Supportive Mode
It is difficult for people with heavy mental retardation to choose what they really need to say among too many choices.
On Supportive Mode of this app, a supporter picks symbols fitting to the situation and the condition of a user who needs help for communication.
Then a user can make a choice which is suitable for his/her request easily.
To limit the numbers of symbols picked by a supporter from 1 to 4 makes it easy to choose and fulfills a simple operation for a user.
When a user touches the symbol what he/she wants to tell, a simple 2 words sentence comes out by voice sound and it will help to communicate with others easily.
Self-use Mode
If a user understands how to manipulate this application, he/she can tell what they want directly with categories or symbols by Self-use Mode.
Wide reacting area makes it easy to operate for handicapped people.
Plain and clear pictures are used for the categories and symbols to easy to understand for anyone.
Official Website
http://ne-kite.com/