iAutism

Note: This post reviews Verbally 1.1.1, but there is a newer post reviewing Verbally Premium 2.1.2, which is the paid and most complete version of Verbally (still available for free).

Last February, Bloomberg Businessweek team asked the readers to help them find the best initiatives of social enterprises in the United States. Then, the team selected the top 25 and now, until next July 12, readers can vote for any of them in order to determine the top five. (See the link).

All this is relevant because Intuary is one of 25 social enterprises thanks to the development of Verbally for iPad, the app that I’m reviewing here.

TTS category

Among the applications for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication), there is a large group whose main function is to translate text to speech (TTS). They are useful for people with autism who know the written language but are not verbal. Also, of course, they are useful for many other people with all types of disorders or who have suffered any health problems that prevent them from talking. In the list of applications, in section 3, Text to Speech / AAC, I include precisely these applications (except the simplest ones).

Among TTS apps, we can distinguish also between those that only include a keyboard on which to write words that are then converted to voice and those more advanced that include the most common words or phrases, word prediction and other advanced features. Verbally belongs to this second type.

Another key aspect of these applications is the speech generation “engine”. This engine can be relatively simple and based largely on a series of phonetic rules or can include a vast internal dictionary of words and their correct pronunciation. And all this for one voice or for more than one (for example, male and female). Verbally includes both genders, but rather corresponds to the first group in regard to their quality.

Intuary, the company that has developed Verbally, plans to launch a paid version soon, including what is often called “natural voice” (man, woman and child), of much higher quality and some other improvements. Meanwhile, Verbally has the great advantage of being a fairly complete functional application and, at the same time, completely free.

One screen

Verbally includes a single screen, which brings simplicity and speed, although at the cost of a quite complex screen.

The top displays 60 essential words. In the middle, on the left, we found the area where the text we are writing appears. To its right there are buttons to delete the entire area or only the last word and, to its right, up to four word suggestions based on what you are writing. The image above shows “juice” and other words because I’ve written “I want jui”.

At the bottom, you’ll find a full keyboard with its own design (not the standard iPad keyboard) that includes four special keys: “Speak,” so that Verbally converts text to speech; “Repeat”, to repeat the last sentence; a bell, to make a chime sound that draws attention; and “Speak each word,” which activates a mode in which Verbally “reads” each word as you enter rather than waiting for the user to press the “Speak” button.

Alternatively to show the 60 most common words, the tab “Phrases” displays 16 common phrases. Thus, combining the prediction of words and common words and phrases Verbally intends to reduce as far as possible the number of keystrokes necessary for the desired phrase, gaining speed. You cannot modify the list of words or phrases, although again this will be available in the future paid version of Verbally, along with the option of creating multiple categories of favorite phrases and seeing the history of previously written phrases.

Verbally is always learning, so if you use words that are not in its dictionary (eg names), in the end it will add them in the integrated word prediction system. To speed up this functionality, Verbally also allows you to import into its dictionary all the names, cities and companies included in the address book of the iPad.

Two voices and four keyboards

As I said, the voice generated is not “natural” and has a metallic touch, although it is certainly understandable. When reading, Verbally takes into account the commas (pauses) but does not change the pitch when there is question, something very common in these applications. You can choose between a male or female voice.

Regarding keyboards, Verbally allows you to choose between three keyboard layouts, depending on whether you want the keyboard down, left or right.

Where is the fourth keyboard? Verbally also supports Bluetooth keyboards, using the return key as the “Speak” button.

Little more remains to be told. The application itself allows you to send an email to Intuary and the help button shows what each button is for in a very visual way.

Rating

When I look for TTS applications in iTunes, I look for how much they take in space. Assistive Chat, reviewed in this blog, occupies 171 MB and has natural voices. Verbally offers a similar design, with some more gadgets, and some less, but occupies 27 MB, which means voices are not natural. Instead, Verbally is free. And at that price, I doubt there is something better than Verbally in the market.

I will vote for Intuary.

-Francesc Sistach

This post is also available in: Spanish