How Does It Work?
Speakjo makes it easy to build customized communication and playtime layouts for your
young special communicator. Using Speakjo is easy: just three steps...
1. DESIGN.
First, use the Speakjo Studio to design a Speakjo Project, which is simply a collection of
layouts. Each layout is designed for interaction through a touch-screen environment.
At this time, Speakjo supports one type of layout: picture layout (most
commonly found on so-called dynamic display devices).
Picutre layouts are just that: a series of pictures, linked to
- a recorded sound
- a text-to-speech word or phrase
- videos
- another layout
Speakjo comes with a number of prefabricated layouts (like typical foods, household items,
and zoo animals), but you can design your own layout using your own pictures. Finally,
Speakjo is not just software; it's a
community. You can use and combine
layouts created by other Speakjo users!
In the future, Speakjo will support other types of layouts:
- Visual Scenes. Research has shown that augmenting "scenes" (like a photo
of your kitchen, or a picture from a story book) with clickable hotspots enhances learning
and speech development. They can just be fun too :)
- Media Studio. Kids like to see and hear themselves. The media studio will
allow users to easily record their own sounds and videos and automatically add them
to a layout—without using the more full Speakjo Studio!
- Keyboard. For more advanced communicators, Speakjo will include a fully
customizable keyboard interface, complete with word prediction.
2. DOWNLOAD.
Step 2, download your project (including all its embedded media) to your touch-screen
computer for your special communicator to use.
You can also use Speakjo over the Internet, right from your browser, without having to download
anything! This is great since you can access Speakjo from anywhere: a friend's house, an
Internet cafe, school, etc.
Some supported devices include...
- Any Windows-based tablet PC.
- HP TouchSmart PCs.
- iPhones
- and more to come!
3. COMMUNICATE AND PLAY!
It's that simple. :)