As a result of severe autism and learning disabilities, 11-year-old Callum Lodge is unable to talk. In order to allow his son to communicate with the world around him, his father has developed Speaks4me, an electronic communication device.
As you can see in the video, Speaks4me appears to allow the user to choose images in order to communicate needs or thoughts. And while it’s a pretty simple system, I think it might make quite a difference in the life of someone who was previously unable to express himself in a manner that could be understood by those around him. [Speaks4Me via BBC via Wired UK]
Splinton
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 4:35 PMThere’s no reason an autistic person would have trouble with a complex interface, that’s not quite how it works. I would have much rathered this to social interaction, growing up with autism myself. I always found human emotions to be far more complicated any day, heh.
brendan
Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 5:17 PMWhy wouldn’t you just develop this for the ipad? Surely would work out much cheaper than developing on proprietary hardware?
I personally see this kind of application being developed for all sorts of conditions / disabilities / therapies. It is one of the areas where the ipad is really changing the status quo.
That, and it really opens up these interesting technologies to families / individuals who would otherwise struggle with the very high prices of the currently available alternatives.
Nathan
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 4:40 PM@brendan
Probably because when he started to develop it the iPad didn’t exist and his and other kids had a real need. So forgive him for not waiting for the iPad to exist before trying to do this.
Secondly, he may now move it to the iPad but that will add to his time and cost to re-develop it. Also the iPad is probably not purpose built with autistic and developmentally challenged children in mind who might not be able look after the iPad carefully enough. So it may be cheaper but will it be cheaper if they have to buy them repeatedly over the life of one of his machines?
Add to that there are other devices coming out that may be more compatible with his already developed software like HPs Slate, it is based on Windows 7 and it also might be easier to install Linux on if thats what it needs given Apple’s track record with locked down hardware he might wanna wait for that.
As for the iPod changing the status quo? Nope it’s a tablet PC they have existed before. Technology has just caught up with the idea and Apple are the first to retry it. Microsoft, Apple and others have tried it before and failed.
Hey brendan you personally see this software being developed for blah blah blah. Yeah well, while you are watching and giving your awesome feedback on such things someone out there is actually developing them.
From an uplifting story to a douche with a degree in hindsight taking the opportunity to say how awesome the iPad is.