VoiceConnect

VoiceConnectLinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011 Parker Boundy

What is VoiceConnect? Voice Controlled Social Media iPad Application for Disabled VeteransParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Background Information • iPad is an amazing product • 100,000+ applications available • Apple has support for visually impaired users through VoiceOver technology • But without touching the screen, the iPad is nearly impossible to useParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Target Market for VoiceConnect • There are 5.5 million disabled veterans1 • Of those, 20.3% have a disability rating of 70% or higher2 • Disabled veterans deserve to use the same technologies as everyone else 1: http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/veteran-statistics.php 2: http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/acs.cfm?statistic=10Parker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Additional Potential Users • VoiceConnect is also useful to anyone with a physical disability • 15.9 million Americans have difﬁculty lifting a 10 pound object12 • 7.6 million Americans are unable to lift 10 pounds12 • 7.1 million Americans are unable to grasp objects such as a glass or pencil12 1: Americans With Disabilities Household Economic Studies Published December 2008 2: This number includes the veterans listed on the previous slideParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

How Can VoiceConnect Help? • Speech recognition software controls the application for the user • Every action in the application can be completed using voice commands • Application can also read to the userParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

What Can VoiceConnect Do? • Allows disabled users to access: • News • Twitter • FacebookParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

VoiceConnect ScreenshotsParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Parker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

News • News comes from Yahoo! News • Switch between News sections: US, World, Politics, Sports, Business, Technology, Entertainment • View Articles • Read Articles AloudParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Twitter • View Timeline • View Tweets • Read Tweets Aloud • New Tweet • Reply to Tweets • Direct Message TweetParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Facebook • View News Feed • View Statuses • Read Statuses Aloud • Post Status Update • Comment on Status Updates • Like Status UpdatesParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Technologies Used • Nuance Dragon Mobile SDK • Carnegie Mellon University Flite • ASIHTTPRequest • Apigee OAuth API • Apigee Objective-C library • MBProgressHUD • JSONKit • MWFeedParser • PSStackedViewParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Voice Recognition Technology Using Nuance Communication’s Dragon Mobile SDK for recognizing voice commandsParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Text to Speech • Started by using Nuance Communications Dragon Mobile SDK • Dragon Mobile SDK has rate limits on usage • Switched to using a combination of Nuance as well as Carnegie Mellon University’s Flite (festival-lite) libraryParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Additional Technologies• Used the Apigee OAuth API to connect to Facebook and Twitter• This allowed rapid development by abstracting authentication between VoiceConnect and Facebook and TwitterParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

User Interface • VoiceConnect user interface is based on Twitter’s ofﬁcial iPad application • Easy to navigate with voice because of simple to understand visual cues • Allows the user to consume large amounts of information quicklyParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

User Interface Continued • Voice commands are listed on the left side of the screen • Commands change when switching between News, Twitter and FacebookParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Future of VoiceConnect (if I had more time...) • Make VoiceConnect accessible for users with any type of disability • Add Email support • Add additional commands and functions for each of the social networks supportedParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

Team VoiceConnect • Developed solo by Parker Boundy • Graduated 2011, Hobart College, Geneva, NY • B.A. in Asian Studies, Minor Political Science • Freelance iOS Developer • 32 hours development time plus presentation and video • Email: ParkerBoundy@gmail.comParker Boundy LinkedIn Hackday for Heroes 2011

VoiceConnect

by Parker Boundy on Nov 14, 2011

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