Talking Wheelchair

Abstract

Communication is made possible for disabled individuals by means of an electronic system, developed at Stanford University's School of Medicine, which produces highly intelligible synthesized speech. Familiarly known as the "talking wheelchair" and formally as the Versatile Portable Speech Prosthesis (VPSP). Wheelchair mounted system consists of a word processor, a video screen, a voice synthesizer and a computer program which instructs the synthesizer how to produce intelligible sounds in response to user commands. Computer's memory contains 925 words plus a number of common phrases and questions. Memory can also store several thousand other words of the user's choice. Message units are selected by operating a simple switch, joystick or keyboard. Completed message appears on the video screen, then user activates speech synthesizer, which generates a voice with a somewhat mechanical tone. With the keyboard, an experienced user can construct messages as rapidly as 30 words per minute.