In our last newsletter we announced our involvement in the Nuvoic Project, a collaboration with specialist app developer Voiceitt, which aims to improve access to speech recognition technology for people who have non-standard or dysarthric speech. Voiceitt are developing an app for people who want to communicate using their own voice but have difficulty being understood by unfamiliar people, or who want to use their voice for smart home control but can’t access mainstream technologies. You can see video clips here of Voiceitt in action for communication and smart home control.
The Karten Network is leading on user involvement and testing in the UK. Since June, we’ve been working hard to produce resources, we’ve received ethical approval for the planned work with participants, and now we’re pleased to announce that recruitment is open and we’re in the process of enrolling our first testers at The Grange Centre in Surrey!
We’re currently looking for people who would like to get involved in testing the app, particularly the new Smart Home feature which gives integrated control of an Amazon Echo smart speaker. We’re looking for people who:
- Are aged 16+
- Have ‘non-standard’ speech, sometimes not understood by others
- Want to use speech to communicate
- Are interested in technology
- Can use a tablet or phone by touchscreen
- Can read in-app instructions
- Can understand what’s involved & agree to take part
The app runs on an iPad or iPhone, we can provide testing kit on loan as needed. We will ask participants to choose around 15 commands or phrases which will be useful to them in daily life, to train the app to recognise how they say these and then to practise using them over 3-4 months. At the end of this time we’d like participants to tell us about how easy or difficult they found it to train and use the app, how well it worked for them, what they liked and what could be improved. Participants who complete the feedback interview will receive a £20 app store voucher as a thank you for their time and effort, and a further 6 months’ free use of the Voiceitt app.
As well as working directly with individuals, family members and carers we hope to work with partner organisations such as our Karten Centre hosts and others offering services and support to people with impaired speech. We have funding available to reimburse local support teams for help to recruit and work with participants. We’re delighted that The Grange Centre in Surrey will be taking part and we look forward to working closely with them and other partners in future!
We would love to hear from you if you, your organisation or someone you know may be interested in taking part, or if you would like more information. Please email our project co-ordinator: liz@karten-network.org.uk and look out for our Nuvoic project web pages, available soon, linked from the Karten Network website.
Article meta data
Clicking on any of the links in this section will take you to other articles that have been tagged in the same category.
- Featured in the Karten Autumn 2020 Newsletter
- This article is listed in the following subject areas: Karten Network News, Nuvoic Project