We have a 8 year aold autistic boy who can write but cannot speak. Can
something like a tablet PC be used for handwriting recognition which will get
outptted through speakers as spoken language.

Thank you

R Potnis MD

Haven't heard of handwriting to speech conversion, but you might want to
check out some of the information in the case studies
(http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/t...s/default.mspx)
and contact the folks mentioned like MIT and the Rochester Institute for
Technology.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"speech handwriting autism" <speech handwriting
autism@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C9B79164-F68B-4E60-9B29-2E89381236EF@microsoft.com...
> We have a 8 year aold autistic boy who can write but cannot speak. Can
> something like a tablet PC be used for handwriting recognition which will
> get
> outptted through speakers as spoken language.
>
> Thank you
>
> R Potnis MD

You know I saw this thread and thought it'd make a neat little demo app so I
that's what I created. Basically you can write on here and press the "Speak
Notes" button and it'll highlight your ink word by word, reading aloud what
you wrote.

http://www.josheinstein.com/download/InkToSpeech.zip

No installer, just a couple DLL's and a EXE. It requires the .NET Framework
2.0 to be installed. If you don't have a Tablet PC, you could install the
handwriting recognizers on Windows XP from the following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

So anyhow, with this, yes a Tablet PC *can* do what you want. :) Good luck
with your decision.

--
Josh Einstein / Tablet PC MVP
Einstein Technologies, LLC
-----------------------------------------------------
Tablet Enhancements for Outlook 3.0 Now Available
Unleash the potential of Outlook on your Tablet PC, Origami, or UMPC.
Try it for 15 days - http://www.tabletoutlook.com/Go.ashx?id=ng


"speech handwriting autism" <speech handwriting
autism@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C9B79164-F68B-4E60-9B29-2E89381236EF@microsoft.com...
> We have a 8 year aold autistic boy who can write but cannot speak. Can
> something like a tablet PC be used for handwriting recognition which will
> get
> outptted through speakers as spoken language.
>
> Thank you
>
> R Potnis MD

In article <C9B79164-F68B-4E60-9B29-2E89381236EF@microsoft.com>, =?Utf-8?
B?c3BlZWNoIGhhbmR3cml0aW5nIGF1dGlzbQ==?= <speech handwriting
autism@discussions.microsoft.com> says...
> We have a 8 year aold autistic boy who can write but cannot speak. Can
> something like a tablet PC be used for handwriting recognition which will get
> outptted through speakers as spoken language.

There are plenty of cheap and free programs that will speak what you type
into them. Just use the Text Input Panel to write the handwriting and
have it insert that into the speech program.

It sounds as if you don't already have a Tablet PC. The Text Input Panel
or TIP is a tool that comes with the Tablet PC that allows you to write
in handwriting and it converts that to text. You put the cursor where you
want to type then open the TIP and write in that instead. It then inserts
the text where the cursor was.

So, yes, a tablet PC could be used to speak for your son. This is
provided that your son can write as neatly as a normal person and write
along a pretty straight line. Now normal people don't normally write so
super neatly and a Tablet PC can still figure it out. However, they
derived their algorithms based on thousands of samples of normal
handwriting. Many people with mental difficulties do not write in the
same manner as most normal people. They often write in a jerky manner or
stop and start at odd points in the word. Tablet PCs are pretty dependent
on the timing of when all the strokes in a letter and word were made in
relation to one another. This provides a lot of extra information for the
recognition engine. Fortunately the TIP can be adjusted for writing as
tall as 2.5 inches so large writing won't be a problem. You should try
one out before buying to make sure it will work out for you and your son.


Keep in mind that the battery is not going to last all day. You would
probably have to buy a big supply of spare batteries and external
chargers and keep swapping them out all day. Not all brands of Tablet PCs
offer external battery chargers as accessories so this would limit which
models you could choose from.