Vocal-friend: internet of social-things framework to aid verbal communication

Abstract

Purpose

Deficits in social verbal communication in individuals with Social Communication Disorder (SCD) is of concern and SCD in the human community is prevalent in large population throughout the globe. Deficits in verbal social communication are prevalent in a large population. This paper aimed to propose internet connected multi-system architecture which is capable to support verbal communication in a social environment for individuals with social communication deficits.

Material and methods

Implementation methodology was included with corpus collection for specific communication, deep learning based machine training for intelligent communication, and implementation of the trained algorithm on internet connected electronic multiple social communication devices. The implemented system is smart enough to initiate and maintain two types of communication; the first type includes communication between multiple individuals on the remote location and the second type includes communication with the individual present in the physical listening range.

Results

The system was investigated in terms of its algorithmic parameters and found 97% to 100% in terms of training and testing accuracy with negligible mean squared error. Vocal-Friend analysed results based on audio-bot simulative conditions provide more than 91% accuracy, interaction rate and fallback rate. On the basis of the satisfaction analysis, above average results were noticed.

Conclusion

In terms of technical implementations and satisfaction analysis, results found acceptable with above average score.

IMPLICATION FOR REHABILITATION

• Proposed framework is easy to use by caregivers with even having little knowledge.

• Support individual with deficit to learn social verbal communication skill to survive in society.

• Aiding parents, caregivers and professionals to understand the communication needs of individuals with communication deficits.

• Since technology is also grooming in the domain of rehabilitation, so this system could be used in various future applications such as social robots, social virtual assistants etc.

Keywords:

• Social communication disorder
• assistive technologies
• verbal communication skills
• intelligent systems
• deep neural networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).