A Loggable Aid to Speech: A Research Proposal

Validating that non human animals can communicate with humans using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) requires extensive logging, and traditional techniques are costly in resources and time. We propose to implement 1) a configurable "communication board" application aimed at small non human animals able to use touch interfaces, which not only emits human words associated to each button, but also logs such interactions; 2) a hardware keyboard to extend the use of such an application to larger non human animals unable to use a touch screen, but able to use large keys and 3) a centralized back-end gathering the logs from various devices, facilitating their study by researchers. We propose to validate the usability of such prototype solutions with two monk parakeets parrots for the application, a dog and two cats for the keyboard (and application), and a researcher in comparative psychology for the website of the back-end.