The Application of Natural Language Processing to Augmentative and Alternative Communication

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Jeffery Higginbotham ◽  
Gregory W. Lesher ◽  
Bryan J. Moulton ◽  
Brian Roark
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Alternative Communication

scholarly journals Interpretation of iconic utterances based on contents representation: Semantic analysis in the PVI system

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
PASCAL VAILLANT
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Language Disabilities ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Conceptual Graph ◽  
Processing Techniques

This article focuses on the need for technological aid for agrammatics, and presents a system designed to meet this need. The field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) explores ways to allow people with speech or language disabilities to communicate. The use of computers and natural language processing techniques offers a range of new possibilities in this direction. Yet AAC addresses speech deficits mainly, not linguistic disabilities. A model of aided AAC interfaces with a place for natural language processing is presented. The PVI system, described in this contribution, makes use of such advanced techniques. It has been developed at Thomson-CSF for the use of children with cerebral palsy. It presents a customizable interface helping the disabled to compose sequences of icons displayed on a computer screen. A semantic parser, using lexical semantics information, is used to determine the best case assignments for predicative icons in the sequence. It maximizes a global value, the ‘semantic harmony’ of the sequence. The resulting conceptual graph is fed to a natural language generation module which uses Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAG) to generate French sentences. Evaluation by users demonstrates the system's strengths and limitations, and shows the ways for future developments.

scholarly journals Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Advances: A Review of Configurations for Individuals with a Speech Disability

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmin Elsahar ◽  
Sijung Hu ◽  
Kaddour Bouazza-Marouf ◽  
David Kerr ◽  
Annysa Mansor
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Signal Processing ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Computer Interfaces ◽  
Ease Of Access

High-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods are on a constant rise; however, the interaction between the user and the assistive technology is still challenged for an optimal user experience centered around the desired activity. This review presents a range of signal sensing and acquisition methods utilized in conjunction with the existing high-tech AAC platforms for individuals with a speech disability, including imaging methods, touch-enabled systems, mechanical and electro-mechanical access, breath-activated methods, and brain–computer interfaces (BCI). The listed AAC sensing modalities are compared in terms of ease of access, affordability, complexity, portability, and typical conversational speeds. A revelation of the associated AAC signal processing, encoding, and retrieval highlights the roles of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in the development of intelligent AAC solutions. The demands and the affordability of most systems hinder the scale of usage of high-tech AAC. Further research is indeed needed for the development of intelligent AAC applications reducing the associated costs and enhancing the portability of the solutions for a real user’s environment. The consolidation of natural language processing with current solutions also needs to be further explored for the amelioration of the conversational speeds. The recommendations for prospective advances in coming high-tech AAC are addressed in terms of developments to support mobile health communicative applications.

scholarly journals Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Advances: A Review of Configurations for Speech Disabled Individuals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmin Elsahar ◽  
Sijung Hu ◽  
Kaddour Bouazza-Marouf ◽  
David Kerr ◽  
Annysa Mansor
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Signal Processing ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Computer Interfaces ◽  
Ease Of Access

High-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods are on a constant rise; however, the interaction between the user and the assistive technology is still challenged for an optimal user experience centered around the desired activity. This review presents a range of signal sensing and acquisition methods utilized in conjunction with the existing high-tech AAC platforms for speech disabled individuals, including imaging methods, touch-enabled systems, mechanical and electro-mechanical access, breath-activated methods, and brain computer interfaces (BCI). The listed AAC sensing modalities are compared in terms of ease of access, affordability, complexity, portability, and typical conversational speeds. A revelation of the associated AAC signal processing, encoding, and retrieval highlights the roles of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in the development of intelligent AAC solutions. The demands and the affordability of most systems were found to hinder the scale of usage of high-tech AAC. Further research is indeed needed for the development of intelligent AAC applications reducing the associated costs and enhancing the portability of the solutions for a real user’s environment. The consolidation of natural language processing with current solutions also needs to be further explored for the amelioration of the conversational speeds. The recommendations for prospective advances in coming high-tech AAC are addressed in terms of developments to support mobile health communicative applications.

A Review and evaluation of Machine Translation methods for Lumasaaba

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Peter Nabende
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
East African ◽  
Data Set ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Translation Methods

Natural Language Processing for under-resourced languages is now a mainstream research area. However, there are limited studies on Natural Language Processing applications for many indigenous East African languages. As a contribution to covering the current gap of knowledge, this paper focuses on evaluating the application of well-established machine translation methods for one heavily under-resourced indigenous East African language called Lumasaaba. Specifically, we review the most common machine translation methods in the context of Lumasaaba including both rule-based and data-driven methods. Then we apply a state of the art data-driven machine translation method to learn models for automating translation between Lumasaaba and English using a very limited data set of parallel sentences. Automatic evaluation results show that a transformer-based Neural Machine Translation model architecture leads to consistently better BLEU scores than the recurrent neural network-based models. Moreover, the automatically generated translations can be comprehended to a reasonable extent and are usually associated with the source language input.

1243-P: Novel Use of Natural Language Processing to Identify Reasons for Insulin Discontinuation in Patients with T2DM: A Real-World Evidence Study

Diabetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1243-P
Author(s):  
JIANMIN WU ◽  
FRITHA J. MORRISON ◽  
ZHENXIANG ZHAO ◽  
XUANYAO HE ◽  
MARIA SHUBINA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Real World ◽  
Real World Evidence

WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE? COMPARING INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITY TRENDS IN ASEE AND CEEA-ACEG USING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND REVIEW OF PROCEEDINGS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Rogalski ◽  
Eric Mikulin ◽  
Deborah Tihanyi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity Theory ◽  
Original Question ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Historical Activity ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

In 2018, we overheard many CEEA-AGEC members stating that they have "found their people"; this led us to wonder what makes this evolving community unique. Using cultural historical activity theory to view the proceedings of CEEA-ACEG 2004-2018 in comparison with the geographically and intellectually adjacent ASEE, we used both machine-driven (Natural Language Processing, NLP) and human-driven (literature review of the proceedings) methods. Here, we hoped to build on surveys—most recently by Nelson and Brennan (2018)—to understand, beyond what members say about themselves, what makes the CEEA-AGEC community distinct, where it has come from, and where it is going. Engaging in the two methods of data collection quickly diverted our focus from an analysis of the data themselves to the characteristics of the data in terms of cultural historical activity theory. Our preliminary findings point to some unique characteristics of machine- and human-driven results, with the former, as might be expected, focusing on the micro-level (words and language patterns) and the latter on the macro-level (ideas and concepts). NLP generated data within the realms of "community" and "division of labour" while the review of proceedings centred on "subject" and "object"; both found "instruments," although NLP with greater granularity. With this new understanding of the relative strengths of each method, we have a revised framework for addressing our original question.  

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