Could Electronics Majors At A College Build Me A Lightwriter?

[BFritz21]

(12-30-2020, 03:41 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: I'm kind of surprised that the technology these days for such a system has not moved more toward tablets/ipad.  It seems a tablet paired with a rechargeable Bluetooth speaker for louder volume would work well for that.   I got kind of curious and did a search.  I found a product called TalkTablet that is made for assisted speech and works on android and I think iPad.  I watched a few youtube videos on it. It seems to be customizable with built in phrases as well as a keyboard for typing out whatever it is you want to say but I'm not sure if that is what you are looking for though.

Here is one example video I found that demonstrates the keyboard function:
https://www.facebook.com/TalkTablet/videos/647256239003248/

There may be other software like that as well.  I really didn't look in to it that much.  But to get back to your question.  I think if what you want doesn't already exist for tablets you might be more likely to find a group to create the software for existing devices android tablet/iPad.  It's much, much more involved to not only create the hardware like your Lightwriter as well as the software that works on it than to create the software compatible with current devices.

Plus if you have a tablet that does what you want, as long as you have internet access you could view your favorite "entertainment" sites between conversations.  Just don't forget to turn off the speaker when others are around.  

Good looking out!

They had me try out one of those in the link when they had me trying out new devices but I just chose the updated Lightwriter because, like it shows in the video with those pictures and things, the ones they showed me were for people that function a lot less normally than I do.  Like pictures for food and whatever are fine and I'm glad that people have that to communicate with their caregivers. but I type and communicate like anyone talks.  It does have, in that tablet/device, a keyboard function, but it would be annoying if it didn't speak each word and only repeated the entire phrase after I finished.  It also doesn't look like it has a reverse side so people standing in front of me didn't have to try and read it upside down.

They had me try out an iPad but, the same as above, people standing in front of me wouldn't be able to read it.

The elevated keys on mine also help me a lot because, as I've mentioned as a reason why I can't drive, my blinks are usually delayed for a second or two, so I have to type blind, which would be difficult on a touch screen.

With how advanced technology and things are becoming, I guess I'm just hoping that it wouldn't be too tough to replicate an older technology or to mix parts of old ones to make a new one work.

Nice find!  I'll look into it more!