Artificial intelligence helps reduce 'communication gap' for nonverbal people

Researchers have used artificial intelligence to reduce the'communication gap' for nonverbal people with motor disabilities who rely on computers to converse with others. The team, from the University of Cambridge and the University of Dundee, developed a new context-aware method that reduces this communication gap by eliminating between 50% and 96% of the keystrokes the person has to type to communicate. The system is specifically tailed for nonverbal people and uses a range of context'clues' - such as the user's location, the time of day or the identity of the user's speaking partner - to assist in suggesting sentences that are the most relevant for the user. Nonverbal people with motor disabilities often use a computer with speech output to communicate with others. However, even without a physical disability that affects the typing process, these communication aids are too slow and error prone for meaningful conversation: typical typing rates are between five and 20 words per minute, while a typical speaking rate is in the range of 100 to 140 words per minute.