Speech Innovation  
A hand-held device uses barcode technology to help people communicate.
From: Advance for Directors of Rehabilitation

A middle-aged woman makes plans over the telephone to get together with a
friend, even though she cannot talk after suffering a stroke. She is able to
communicate using a hand-held device that speaks for her. 

University of Virginia neurolinguist Filip Loncke, PhD, has the only research
site in the United States using the apparatus - a barcode reader called the
B.A. Bar that was developed in Switzerland by the Federation Suisse des
Teletheses and made available in that country in 2001. 

Read the entire article at:
http://rehabilitation-director.advanceweb.com/Common/editorial/editorial.aspx?CC=75212

Links:
Speech Codes
http://www.uvamagazine.org/site/c.esJNK1PIJrH/b.1611635/k.EFFD/Research__Discovery.htm

Hand-Held Device Brings Speech to Impaired, Disabled Individuals
http://www.ndss.org/content.cfm?fuseaction=NwsEvt.Article&article=1656