|
The Tech Watch Project has been vigorously pursuing the NIDRR
directive to explore research and development activities within
the Federal Laboratories Consortium as a way to locate appropriate
leading edge technologies for the field of AAC. The AAC-RERC
has established a coordinated program with this federal program
to accomplish this goal. Our efforts have resulted in the following:
Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA) - Established first NIDRR CRADA with
the Department of Defense, Navy Air Warfare Center Training
Systems Division to explore movement and automatic speech recognition
technologies for use by people with disabilities. Only a year
into the CRADA, there's a working prototype of a Motion Recognizer.
This prototype is designed to be "trainable" by any
individual, including a person with communicative disorders.
The computer program can learn to recognize the individual's
movements, and communicate the particular meaning of those movements
to a person or system that can respond appropriately; that is,
satisfy a request or need. The potential appears to be great
for helping children with autism, anyone with cerebral palsy
or a hearing impairment, or any condition that renders verbal
communication difficult.
Demand Pull - Partnered
with the T2RERC for Demand-Pull Project on Communication Enhancement.
The goal was to identify unmet needs in the AAC industry and
to facilitate the transfer of technology from Federal Labs,
research institutions, and other advanced technology developers
to meet these needs. The project focused on four technology
areas: input, output, processing, and wireless technology. Technology
needs identified within these four areas represent important
and unmet customer concerns having a significant business potential
for manufacturers.
Microsoft® survey -
Resulting from Demand Pull Stakeholder Forum on Communication
Enhancement, participant AAC manufacturers expressed a desire
to improve their working relationship with Microsoft Corporation.
Working with Microsoft, the T2RERC administered a survey
to 203 manufacturers nationally and worldwide with a 20.7% response
rate. Half of the respondents indicated AAC as their primary
industry segment area. As many AT products employ Microsoft
operating systems/applications and as a result of this survey,
the Accessible Technology Group (ATG) at Microsoft is now creating
a special new AT Initiative to improve the quality of AT products
in the marketplace.
Head Contact Microphone (HCM)
- The HCM underwent preliminary clinical testing at Duke University
Medical Center and Boston Children's Hospital with patients
who exhibit dysarthria and vocal cord paralysis. The Head Contact
Microphone has potential application with several patient populations,
including dysarthric speakers, speakers with spinal cord injuries,
and instructors of persons using auditory trainers such as autistic
children. RadioEar, an AAC manufacturer, modified the microphone
making it functional to individuals with severe communication
impairments.
IT Standards - Participated
in the development of standards for Information Technology Access
Interfaces (V2 Technical Group) of the National Committee for
Information Technology Standards (NCITS).
New Projects - The CRADA resulted in the development of a new
AAC-RERC project (R-7) to research the use of Automatic Speech
Recognition (ASR) as an AAC interface for individuals with speech
impairments.
|
