Finalist Summary for Dasher Communicator

Envisioned Product

The Dasher Communicator is a portable, digital voice box for people with speech impairments. As long as the user has minimal control of their fingers, they can rapidly enter text to be read aloud by the Dasher Communicator, allowing them to communicate their wants and needs, even hold conversations, all with a device the size of a hand held PDA.

Addressed Pain

Over five thousand persons per million suffer from a severe speech impairment, whether from deafness, disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury or other causes, causing them to choose text-based communication out of convenience or necessity: these people have no other way to communicate, and many can no longer or have never been able to speak. The Dasher Communicator generates audible speech output from written input, granting the power of conversation to this otherwise unheard market.

Differentiating Advantages

The text input system is faster and easier to use than competing methods, with a top speed of around forty words per minute (versus six to twelve) and fewer errors (two percent versus twenty percent), along with featuring the ability to write in any language and have it spoken in that language (not translated, but, for example, instead of having to write Japanese phonetically in English to have it read in Japanese, you can write in Hiragana to have it read in Japanese). Additionally, the software can be customized, offering better predictions through the use of written samples (e.g. transcribed letters) and replicating the user's voice and speech patterns through audio samples (e.g. home movies and recordings).

Cost Advantages

The Dasher Communicator uses entirely COTS (commercial, off-the-shelf) hardware and software (while still allowing IP protection) to keep the device cost low, allowing greater financial freedom for the personalized support services, such as house calls for demonstration and training, rapid maintenance, etc., that drive adoption in this market.

First Customers

The initial targets are the care workers and patients of the HCIA- Sachs Top 100 Stroke Care Hospitals, the seventeen Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems and the sixteen Spinal Cord Injury Model Care Systems. Some thirty-five thousand stroke, TBI and SCI patients receive the best and most technically advanced care and rehabilitation at these institutions, as well as significant outpatient research and support. A successful introduction to the speech-impaired population in these top- tier hospitals will help ensure adoption by the general disabled population in not only these injuries, but in general.

Initial and Potential Market

Our first customers have some of the highest medical and assistive device expenses of any disability market. TBI, SCI and first-time stroke victims can spend between $400,000 and $4M over their lifetime on hospitalization, rehabilitation and assistive technology, with nearly 50% of their assistive technology costs being paid personally or with the help of their immediate family. Additionally, the general market is persons with severe speech impairments, numbering some 1.4M in the US, with $4.5Bn in discretionary income.

Barriers to Entry

The assistive device market is a niche market, which traditionally means difficult penetration, low sales volume and high prices. Research on viability in niche markets shows that additional focus would have to be made on device reliability and on “personal attention,” such as house calls for demonstration and training, making devices available for testing, training caregivers, rapid maintenance and warranty service, etc. Additionally, competing devices and companies are already in the market, although the closest competitor is research-oriented, and does not provide any added value to the customer beyond the device itself.

Window of Opportunity

No competing product, even in related markets such as symbol-based communication devices for the mentally challenged, offers such easy, powerful and comprehensive text input and speech output. The unique predictive text input software has recently become generally available, and is considered ready for general use and commercial exploitation. Existing players have focused on doing their own research and development, increasing their time to market and materials and production costs. The hardware and software platform is such that the device can be continuously enhanced (e.g. to serve as general purpose keyboard replacements, or to add on external control, such as joysticks or eye-tracking systems), promising long- term potential for the business.

Underlying Technology

The technology of the Dasher Communicator is predominantly COTS for both hardware and software, but the application in this market and in this form factor are unique. The underlying operating system is available without licensing fees or royalties, and has been proven reliable in this form factor over the last several years in several commercially available hand held computers, as well as in traditional embedded computer systems. The unique text input and general purpose speech synthesis systems, developed as university research projects, are also available without licensing fees or royalties, and also are established, proven technologies. The proposed hardware platform is a commercial device repurposed for the Dasher Communicator, and is generally available and supported by the manufacturer.

Intellectual Property

COTS hardware and software is more economical, but also means less unique IP. Unique, copyrightable items include the integration software, software to update the device electronically, the user interface and the software implementation as a whole. Initially patentable items include the device implementation as a whole, as a computer-based predictive text input device with generated speech output. Research into existing patents in the area may reveal other unique variations that are patentable.

Current Stage

Desktop prototypes of the complete text-to-speech system are complete now. The hardware is available, documented and supported. The text input and speech synthesis systems are functioning independently on the hardware, and are ready to be integrated into a unit.

Prototype Timeline

Expected time and cost for a complete, working prototype is one man-month or less for one or two experienced software developers. The immediate goals are to produce a dedicated operating system version for the hardware, and to integrate the speech synthesis system into the text entry system. An additional two to three man-months for two software developers following that would be needed for usability refinements. Goals at this step would be to better optimize the interface for using one's finger on the screen (e.g. using larger, unobscured letters), as well as a method for easily upgrading the software on the device, and offering basic external input support (e.g. for a joystick instead of one's finger). Live user testing could begin at this stage, with productization soon after.

Execution Likeliness

Mr. Miliano has proven his ability to successfully and independently develop unique and mission-critical applications, as well as manage disparate and distributed teams to achieve results. In the four years prior to his enrollment at UT Austin last Fall, his software development achievements included Unrealty, a real-time 3D architectural visualization application used across the world, from NASA to Malaysia; a conference attendee tracking system for IBM Lotus' Super.Human.Software Tour 1999; and the first third-party mobile web application for Palm, Inc.'s Palm VII wireless handheld. After developing the initial version of the Unrealty application himself, he funded production of a virtual office park headquarters for demonstration purposes, then funded and led team of six developers and artists to produce the entire application. After release, he managed up to thirty-two international artists and programmers to produce 3D content for clients. Mr. Miliano is interested in additional development, management and financing partners.

Incubator Consideration

The Dasher Communicator project seems ideal for incubator business, and would like to be considered.