＜科技＞父親發明了與自閉兒溝通的工具
史蒂芬羅茲是一位11歲嚴重自閉男孩的父親，這位男孩名叫柯倫，不幸的是他完全無法說話。 然而史蒂芬奮發圖強地想要發明一種既簡單又有用的系統，以便可以讓他與兒子溝通。
其結果就是他發明了一種稱為 Speaks4Me 的系統，如此一來，柯倫可以透過雙手來進行互動。觸控式螢幕上面用來代表文字的影像。 影像被分成不同的類別，例如動物，標誌，我的最愛，片語和句子的開頭，這些都可以被拉到螢幕上並且開始造句，然後系統會大聲地把句子念出來。 裡面共有2700種預設資料可供使用者選擇，除此之外，使用者也可以自行加入新的類別或影像來幫助他們的孩子。
為了提供該系統發展所需的資金，史蒂芬已經耗盡了他畢生的積蓄，並且抵押了自己的房子。這半年多來，科倫非常樂於使用 Speaks4Me，而且史帝芬現在想要把它商品化，以便幫助更多自閉兒。 他同時也把 Speaks4Me 視為一種重要工具，可用來幫助更多有語言障礙或無法說話的人，例如正在接受醫療的病人。
目前 Speaks4Me 只推出5"吋和7"吋兩種硬體模式。然而他們正在研發如何將該系統轉換成軟體專用，所以它可以被用在其他設備裡。 一開始該系統只能用在與 Windows 相容的設備裡，但是無庸置疑的是，有興趣的開發者應該會把它轉換成與 iPad，iPhone和 Android 設備相容的系統。
(Technology) Father creates tool to communicate with autistic son
Steven Lodge is the father of a severely autistic 11-year-old boy, Callum, who is unfortunately non-verbal. However, Steven set to work developing a system that would allow for easy and effective communication with his son.
The result is a device that Callum can interact with using his hands, called Speaks4Me. Its a touchscreen tablet with images representing words on the screen. These images are divided into such categories as animals, attributes, favorites, phrases and sentence starters, and can be dragged to the top of the screen to make sentences that the system then reads out loud. There are 2,700 pre-programmed pieces of information to choose from, and users can also add their own categories and images to help their child.
Steven had to use up all his savings and use his familys house as collateral to fund the systems development. Callum has been happily using Speaks4Me for over half a year, and Steven now wants to commercialize it to assist other autistic children. He also sees Speaks4Me as being a valuable tool for a much wider audience who find it difficult to talk or cant talk, such as people having treatment in hospital.
For the time being, Speaks4Me is available only as a hardware option on a 5 or 7 device. However, they are working on a software-only alternative, which will allow it to be used on other third-party devices. The initial plans are for devices that run on Windows, but willing developers will no doubt convert the system to the iPad, iPhone and Android devices.
(本文截自http://n.yam.com/funday/garden/201004/20100429049532.html)
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