Hand-Held Device Brings Speech and Learning Skills to Impaired and Disabled Individuals From: University of Virginia News - 02/20/2006 Contact: Anne Bromley - 434/924-6861 - anneb@virginia.edu University of Virginia neurolinguist Filip Loncke has the only research site in the United States using a barcode reader called the B.A. Bar(TM) that was developed in Switzerland by the Federation Suisse des Teletheses. The device has helped people learn or relearn how to speak and become more independent. The barcode reader provides auditory feedback when passed over the same kind of black-and-white strip used on grocery store products. In this application, the device is first used to program the barcodes with words or phrases; the barcodes can then be fixed to objects, pictures, or places. The user then scans the barcode with the device, and it says the word or phrase. The researchers found that after several sessions of training and practice, adults with aphasia - speech loss - were able to recover and pronounce significantly more words from listening to a bar-coded list than from a written list. Read the entire article at: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/20060220FilipLonge.html http://presszoom.com/story_114738.html http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=38117&nfid=crs Links: Hand-held Device Brings Speech to Impaired http://www.technology-blog.com/blogs/gadget-blog.html http://www.techpsych.net/archives/000109.html B.A.Bar: the speaking barcode reader http://www.closingthegap.com/home/detail.lasso AAAS Abstract: Cognitive processes and communication devices: what happens when B.A. Bar speaks? B.A. Bar is a communication device that reads barcodes as generated speech. The barcodes are on stickers that can be attached to objects or placed with pictures. When a person uses a speech-generating communication device, 'inner speech', which we rely on to sound out words mentally, may be absent. This could affect the literacy skills of people who use AAC. B.A.Bar and experimental studies of the internal speech of its users are presented.