Sibylle, An Assistive Communication System Adapting to the Context and Its User

Abstract

In this article, we describe the latest version of Sibylle, an AAC system that permits persons who have severe physical disabilities to enter text with any computer application, as well as to compose messages to be read out through speech synthesis. The system consists of a virtual keyboard comprising a set of keypads that allow for the entering of characters or full words by a single-switch selection process. It also includes a sophisticated word prediction component which dynamically calculates the most appropriate words for a given context. This component is auto-adaptive, that is, it learns with every text the user enters. It thus adapts its predictions to the user's language and the current topic of communication as well. So far, the system works for French, German and English. Earlier versions of Sibylle have been used since 2001 in a rehabilitation center (Kerpape, France).

Effect of dynamic keyboard and word-prediction systems on text input speed in persons with functional tetraplegia

“…The CVK (Figure 1) includes a word-prediction module that is based on SibySem, a context-sensitive prediction module that has been shown to reach state-of-the-art performance in French, English, and German [28]. This module is not based on a simple dictionary like standard commercial systems.…”

“…This characteristic allows the prediction to adjust dynamically to the current topic of interest. Experiments with participants have shown that the word-prediction system can achieve about 60 percent keystroke savings [28] when five predicted words are displayed at a time.…”

Predictive Input Interface of Mathematical Formulas

“…We introduce the N-gram model, a popular probabilistic language model, into predictive math entry. An N-gram model is usually used for predictive text entry in the research area of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) [14,15]. Reactive Keyboard is a typical study of word prediction using an N-gram model for AAC [5].…”

DualScribe: A Keyboard Replacement for Those with Friedreich’s Ataxia and Related Diseases

“…One example is a row-column scanning keyboard where the computer suggests first the row, and then the column within the row, of a character in a two-dimensional matrix. These systems (e.g., [5,6]) typically do not make full use of the physical capabilities of an FA patient (who can employ both hands, for example). So, input is unnecessarily cumbersome, resulting in a very low input rate.…”