Talk Up! - How it works

How pictograms book work?

TalkUp! It is an alternative tool (Tablets or Smartphones) with the functionality of a book augmentative communication.

Characteristics required for a notebook effective communications:

  1. Ease of use: Any function required by the user should not take more than two steps

  2. Simplicity of management: The management of content (images, sounds) must be independent of the application.

  3. Multilanguage: The application can run in any language without being personalized.

  4. Sounds: Sounds associated with pictograms should be easy to play and manage.

The application consists of reproducing the operation of an augmentative communication book, for which there are sheets with pictograms grouped by subject. The pictograms are selected and incorporated into the phrase strip to compile the request, and the user can reproduce the sounds of the phrase strip.

Like traditional communication notebooks, the application consists of 2 sections:

  • Sentence strip: Fixed lower section where the pictograms are inserted to prepare the request.

  • Pictogram Sheets: Thematic groupings of pictograms.

Pictogram sheets

They consist of several sheets (up to 20 depending on the version) to contain groups of pictograms by theme, each sheet has a different background color to distinguish it. A sheet can contain up to 32 pictograms in (the lower part of which the associated text is shown) that can be in PNG or JPG format and are read directly from the device directory, for which they are grouped into subdirectories. These glyphs are uploaded to the App at startup and she identifies the glyph sheet with each subdirectory.

From the above it is concluded that the location, order and position of the pictograms are linked to a directory structure and is not a function of the App, which simplifies the administration of the contents.

It allows horizontal movements between the pictogram sheets by laterally dragging the current sheet to the right - left, with the phrase strip always in a fixed position.

Behavior:

  • Pressing a pictogram creates a copy of it in the sentence strip.

  • The phrase strip can be powered by pictograms on different sheets.

  • It is not allowed to select the same pictogram 2 times in the same request.

  • The pictograms marked as not available will have a particular treatment (see below).

Sentence strip:

It consists of a lower section where the selected pictograms from the pictogram sheets are inserted.

Behavior:

  • Pressing the pictogram with Click reproduces its sound (eg Yogurt).

  • The whole phrase can be played by pressing the Play icon (>).

  • Delete the pictograms one by one from the sentence strip by pressing the X

  • Clear the entire sentence strip by holding down the X for 3 seconds

Communications Book configuration options

There are three application configuration options:

  1. Phrase strip default pictograms: The text of the default pictogram that will always appear in the phrase strip is added when opening the application.

  2. Pictograms not available: The text of the pictogram (s) not available in the communication notebook is added, showing them with a red X. and no longer allows you to select this pictogram to the phrase strip.

  3. Change image and text size: It is possible to modify the sizes of images and texts in order to give more relevance to each other depending on the learning phase.

How do I manage the communicator pictograms?

It is a prior task of the administrator to upload the pictograms to a directory in the formats indicated.

Description:

  • The pictograms will be organized on the Android device in subdirectories.

  • Each subdirectory corresponds to a sheet of pictograms in the App

  • The administrator only has to create the thematic subdirectories and load the corresponding pictograms.

  • All administration work is done at the directory level and no action is required on the App.

  • The sound corresponding to each pictogram is synthesized from the device from the file name.

1. After installing Talk Up! connect your device to the computer and access the Android \ CommunicationBook folder. In it you can see default numbered folders. Each folder corresponds to a sheet of pictograms.

2. Each folder can contain up to 32 pictograms which are arranged alphabetically. The texts to be displayed in the application correspond to the file name. The files can be in PNG or JPG format.

3. To add or modify pictograms, download them first to your PC, connect it to your mobile by cable and copy the pictograms to the mobile device in the \ Android \ communication_book folder, in folders 01, 02, 03, 04 ... where they are already the pictograms.

Pictograms book FAQ?

What pictograms can I use?

You can use any pictogram you have as long as they are in PNG or JPG formats, which are the most common on the market.

How does the device know the sound to reproduce for each pictogram?

The device's voice synthesizer reads the name of the pictogram file, so it is important that the file name is spelled correctly.

How do I make the same pictogram available on all sheets e.g. I want?

For this pictogram to be available on several sheets, simply repeat the file associated with the pictogram in the desired thematic subdirectories.

How do I get a pictogram to be the first to be shown on a sheet e.g. I want?

The pictograms are shown in ascending alphabetical order, so if we add the symbol "_" to the name of the pictogram in the corresponding directory, we will get it to be displayed first than the others (_I want.png)

Download more pictograms

Talk Up! It allows working with a variety of pictograms, including those that each user can create. We recommend using the ARASAAC pictograms that can be found at http://www.arasaac.org/index.php