Voice Unlocked: Transforming Speech Therapy for Special Children with VR and Gesture Animation
摘要
Speech therapy for children is important and with the inclusion of Virtual Reality (VR), we are able to come up with new and interesting ways of doing this therapy. Proposed system EchoVR, is entertaining and engaging as well as presents opportunities for kids to develop their communication skills through fun and play. Instead of routine and often boring sessions of therapy, EchoVR seeks to make the experience magical with 3D animations, hand gestures and feedback which makes the learning process fun. Children will now be able to learn the different sounds of letters, words and numbers in English and Tamil with the help of an avatar called Dex who features in the game. The interactive play helps kids learn lip rotations, and articulation much easier, while appreciation for gamified experience encourages them to persevere in tasks. The created EchoVR to be cost-effective, easy to use and customizable across cultures and languages, therefore, bringing speech therapy directly into the classrooms and homes even in low resource settings. With the assistance of the therapists and making therapy less frightening for children, EchoVR paves way for possibilities where young learners can express themselves confidently and happily.