A group of Industrial Engineering students from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain) has created VOPA ( Voice Paint or Painting with the voice), a computer software that allows people with partial or total motor disabilities to draw with their own voice.
This software tool is based on an interface composed of a dynamic menu of commands (which include colors and directions to paint, such as raising, lowering or zooming out) and previously designed images (a cartoon character, a ghost, etc.) that, thanks to the voice or keyboard recognition, allow the user to draw what they want.
The operation of the program is very simple: it recognizes the voice of the user through the microphone and performs what he says on the screen through a pointer . "Until now there were only mice that moved with their tongues for disabled people, so we decided to focus on developing a tool that works with voice recognition," explains Cecilio Delgado, co-author of the work.
The next step in the VOPA project is to make this software work on any electronic device (smartphones, tablets …) as well as on specific social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, so that anyone, whether or not they have a disability. , you can use the tool as something everyday. ”For example, if you are cooking and you stain your hands, with your voice you can instruct the tablet to turn the recipe page,” explains Jorge Pérez, co-author of the software.
