Skip to main content

CABA2L a Bliss Predictive Composition Assistant for AAC Communication Software

  • Conference paper
Enterprise Information Systems VI
  • 645 Accesses

Abstract

In order to support the residual communication capabilities of verbal impaired peoples softwares allowing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) have been developed. AAC communication software aids provide verbal disables with an electronic table of AAC languages (i.e. Bliss, PCS, PIC, etc.) symbols in order to compose messages, exchange them via email, or vocally synthetize them, and so on. A current open issue, in thins kind of software, regards human-computer interaction in verbal impaired people suffering motor disorders. They can adopt only ad-hoc input device, such as buttons or switches, which require an intelligent automatic scansion of the AAC symbols table in order to compose messages. In such perspective we have developed Caba2l an innovative composition assistant exploiting an user linguistic behavior model adopting a semantic/probabilistic approach for predictive Bliss symbols scansion. Caba2l is based on an original discrete implementation of auto-regressive hidden Markov model called DAR-HMM and it is able to predict a list of symbols as the most probable ones according to both the previous selected symbol and the semantic categories associated to the symbols. We have implemented the composition assistant as a component of Bliss2003 an AAC communication software centered on Bliss language and experimentally validated it with both synthetic and real data.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aliprandi, C., Barsocchi, D., Fanciulli, F., Mancarella, P., Pupillo, D., Raffaelli, R., and Scudellari, C. (2003). AWE, an innovative writing prediction environment. In Proc. of the Int. Human Computer Conf., Crete, Greece.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amari, S., Finke, M., Muller, K. R., Murata, N., and Yang, H. (1995). Asymptotic statistical theory of overtraining and cross-validation. Technical Report METR 95-06, Dep. of Math. Eng. and Inf., Physics, Uni. of Tokyo, Tokyo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilmes, J. (1998). A gentle tutorial of the EM Algorithm and its application to parameter estimation for Gaussian Mixture and Hidden Markov Models. Technical report, Dep. of Electrical Eng. and Comp. Sci. at Uni. of California, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliss, C. K. (1966). Semantography. Semantography Blissymbolic Communication, Sidney, Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloomberg, K. and Johnson, H. (1990). A statewide demographic survey of people with severe communication impairments. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 6:50–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caruana, R., Lawrence, S., and Giles, C. L. (2001). Overfitting in neural networks: Backpropagation, conjugate gradient, and early stopping. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Denver, Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronk, S. and Schubert, R. (1987). Development of a real time expert system for automatic adaptation of scanning rates. In Proc. of the Conf. on Rehabilitation Technology, RESNA, volume 7, pages 109–111, Washington, DC, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, A., Laird, N., and Rubin, D. (1977). Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the EM algorithm. Journal of Royal Statistical Society B, 39:1–38.

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J. (1983). The modularity of mind. MIT Press, Cambridge, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghahramani, Z. (2001). An introduction to hidden markov models and bayesian networks. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, 1:9–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higginbotham, D. J., Lesher, G. W., and Moulton, B. J. (1998). Techniques for augmenting scanning communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 14:81–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ISAAC (1983). Int. Soc. for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Internet site. http://www.isaaconline.org. Last accessed October 1th, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juang, B. and Rabiner, L. (1990). The segmental k-means algorithm for estimating parameters of hidden markov models. In IEEE Trans. on Acoustics Speech and Signal processing, ASSP–38, pages 1639–1641. IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juang, B., Rabiner, L., and Wilpon, G. (1986). A segmental k-means training procedure for connected word recognition. AT&T Technical Journal, 65:21–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koester, H. and Levine, S. (1994). Learning and performance of ablebodied individuals using scanning systems with and without word prediction. Assistive Technology, page 42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, H.-Y., Yeh, C.-K., Wu, C.-M., and Tsuang, M.-F. (2001). Wireless communication for speech impaired subjects via portable augmentative and alternative system. In Proc. of the Int. Conf. of the IEEE on Eng. in Med. and Bio. Soc., volume 4, pages 3777–3779, Washington, DC, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prechelt, L. (1996). Early stopping-but when? In Neural Networks: Tricks of the Trade, pages 55–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quillian, M. (1968). Semantic memory. In Minsky ed. Semantic Information Processing. MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabiner, L. (1989). A tutorial on hidden markov models and selected applications in speech recognition. In Proc. of the IEEE, 77, pages 257–286. IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shane, B. (1981). Augmentative Communication: an introduction. Blackstone, Toronto, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, R. C. and Koester, H. H. (1999). Adaptive one-switch row-column scanning. IEEE Trans. on Rehabilitation Engineering, 7:464–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swiffin, A. L., Pickering, J. A., and Newell, A. F. (1987). Adaptive and predictive techniques in a cammunication prosthesis. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 3:181–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer

About this paper

Cite this paper

Gatti, N., Matteucci, M. (2006). CABA2L a Bliss Predictive Composition Assistant for AAC Communication Software. In: Seruca, I., Cordeiro, J., Hammoudi, S., Filipe, J. (eds) Enterprise Information Systems VI. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3675-2_33

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3675-2_33

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-3674-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-3675-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics