Invented by Indian teenagers

There are developmental barriers in 1.4% of the world's population (equivalent to the German population). For example, the recent ice bucket challenged the fundraising campaign for ALS, Locked-In Syndrome (LIS), etc. Scientist Hawking is a frozen person. Such people often have difficulties in expressing and communication barriers. Due to the lack of expression, their expected average life expectancy is 20 years less than that of the general population. At present, its only means of expression is enhanced or alternative communication equipment (AAC).

But the average AAC equipment often needs thousands of dollars, and its input speed is not fast enough, and the equipment is also very bulky. So, at the 2014 Google Science Fair (2014 Google Science Fair, online competition for young people aged 13 to 18), the 16-year-old Indian boy Arsh Shah Dilbagi is determined to come up with a solution to this problem. His answer is - TALK, a cheap, lightweight, efficient, universal AAC device.

TALK is a device that converts a person's breath into a letter. The principle is similar to binary. The device requires the user to emit two kinds of distinguishable breath sounds (intensity and duration are not the same), and then use a MEMS microphone to convert the two breaths into electrical signals. The electrical signal is then processed by the microprocessor—short exhalations will be represented by dots, long exhalations by dashes, and then further parsed into Morse codes, which are then translated into words/sentences and sent to another. The microprocessor synthesizes and reads it out.

TALK has two working modes, one is communication mode, users can use English to communicate with people, and the other is command mode. Users can use 9 different sounds to give special instructions or phrases. According to the inventor, this device is three times more efficient than ordinary AAC and costs less than $100. His current invention is currently in the finals of the Google Science Contest.

Arsh plans to further optimize TALK in the future. For example, increase the automatic prediction function, integration with Google Glass, etc., so that the frozen world becomes more beautiful. In contrast, his efforts may be more meaningful than those of the ice bucket challenge.