Karen Beljan, BS '05, Environmental Engineering
Beljan, of Eden, New York, evaluated remediation alternatives to improve the water quality of Onondaga Lake, ultimately helping to develop a method to aerate the lake that would improve the water and ecosystem.
(Photo: KC Kratt, MFA '84)
The UB Talker is an artificial speaking device that uses commercial grade technology - a touch-screen (Tablet) laptop computer - and a menu-driven means of selecting words and phrases, to aid the speech-impaired to communicate. Menus, words, and phrases can be pre-programmed, or entered in an on-screen keyboard during conversation. The device uses context-awareness, phrase completion, and an evolving intelligence that prepares responses in anticipation of choice. Statistics are derived using frequency of use, most-recently used, time of day, day of week, and time of year to present most-likely phrases to users. Over time, it adapts to a user’s habits and patterns. Users become conversational in only a few hours.
For the severely impaired and for children not yet ready to read, the U.B. Talker can "autoscan", in which selectable items are highlighted in-turn and the user activates a single head switch (or other appropriate switch).
Date Open: Jan 21, 2008 to Jan 1, 2009
Professor(s): Mike Buckley (mikeb@cse.buffalo.edu)
Department: Computer Science and Engineering