Overview
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[edit] About the HelpMeSpeak Project
There is a need for low cost but functional assistive communication technology to aid people with speech disabilities. Although there are many types of software and hardware technologies already available, most are not Open Source (ie they are proprietary). This category of software and devices is also known as Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCA).
HelpMeSpeak is the product of our research into VOCA. The primary objectives of the HelpMeSpeak software are to provide a communication aid that is low cost, easy to use, simple to configure and modify, and highly flexible. Most of the VOCA software currently available are stand-alone software packages or devices. However, very few are web-based. We decided that we would investigate the use of a web-based VOCA.
The HelpMeSpeak software is available for various operating environments. Since the Centre for OpenSource Development (CQU-COSD) at Central Queensland University had already developed a Linux Live-CD called ADIOS, a specialised ADIOS distribution, with the HelpMeSpeak software was created and is described in this paper. Currently, the ADIOSKIDS Linux Live-CD contains the HelpMeSpeak software. The primary benefit of distributing HelpMeSpeak on a Live-CD is that the software is highly portable and can run on any desktop or from a bootable CD or USB device.
In addition, the HelpMeSpeak software is also available for download from the CQU-COSD website for a Microsoft Windows platform. It utilizes the WAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) web server software to host the HelpMeSpeak content management system. WAMP software allows the system to run from a CD or USB device.
As mentioned previously, HelpMeSpeak software is web-based. An open-source content management system, namely Drupal, was used and modified as the basis and then AJAX (Javascript, PHP and XML as later explained in this paper) was applied to call the underlying multi-lingual speech synthesis system. The images used on the site were either sourced from the Open Clipart Library or taken with a digital camera and uploaded as png or jpeg files.
In this paper, an analysis of the user requirements as well as a discussion of the features of the HelpMeSpeak software is presented. A list of recommendations for future work is also presented, as well as alternate uses of this technology.
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