AAC User Interface Updates from Environmental Sound Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing augmentative alternative communication (AAC) devices are costly, difficult to navigate, and lack sensory feedback, failing to replicate the natural speech experience by not providing bone vibrations and prosodic features, thus limiting expressive and receptive language development for individuals with complex communication needs.
Innovation Solution
An AAC apparatus and app that uses a microphone, geolocation sensor, and biosensors to update user interface options in real time, incorporating bone conduction feedback and customizable prosodic features based on environmental sounds, user interactions, and biometric data to enhance communication with emotion and emphasis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If high-tech AAC apparatuses are provided, then communication functionality is improved, but cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses software-based AAC functionality on smartphones to replicate the communication capabilities of expensive dedicated AAC devices. The app copies essential AAC functions including voice output, symbol selection, and communication strategies, making them accessible through widely available mobile devices rather than requiring costly specialized hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The AAC app leverages the existing multi-functional smartphone device to provide communication assistance. By utilizing the smartphone's existing microphone, speaker, processor, and operating system, the patent eliminates the need for separate dedicated AAC hardware, allowing one device to serve both as a communication tool and a general-purpose device.
2Ease of operation
If traditional AAC apparatuses are used, then basic communication is enabled, but sensory feedback and natural speech experience are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates bone conduction technology to provide tactile feedback through vibrations that mimic natural speech patterns. The bone conduction transducer delivers subtle vibrations through the skull to the inner ear, allowing users to feel the rhythmic patterns and prosody of speech, thereby recovering the sensory feedback that is typically lost in traditional AAC devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses mechanical vibrations generated by the bone conduction transducer to convey speech information. The vibrations are synchronized with the audible speech output, creating a multi-sensory experience that includes both auditory and tactile components, thus restoring the natural speech experience that includes bone vibrations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If environment-based selection options are implemented, then communication relevance is improved, but processing time and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-loads and organizes communication symbols and phrases in the app database, and uses the smartphone's existing sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone) to continuously monitor environmental context. When a user indicates interest in a location or activity, the system quickly retrieves pre-organized relevant communication options, reducing the time needed to present contextualized selections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically uses the smartphone's built-in sensors and processing capabilities to detect environmental context and generate relevant communication options without requiring additional external sensors or complex processing hardware. The app leverages the device's own resources to perform context analysis and interface updates efficiently.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances user engagement and language development by providing sensory-rich communication experiences, allowing users to express emotions and adapt to social contexts, thereby improving language growth and reducing apparatus abandonment.
Implementation Method 1
the bone conduction transducer delivers subtle vibrations through the skull to the inner ear
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for an augmentative alternative communication (“AAC”) apparatus which presents a user with selection options of words and/or phrases that can be audibly transmitted to others. The AAC apparatus can optionally include one or more bio-feedback sensors which enable the audible transmissions to be adapted based on the sensed bio data. Such adaptations can include prosodic changes in the transmitted words and/or phrases. Optionally, the selection options that are presented to the user can be adaptively updated and presented to the user based on sensed surroundings of the AAC apparatus.