Teen Invents “TALK” to Aid Non-Speakers

What are you doing with your spare time?

16-year-old Arsh Shah Dilbagi from Panipat, India, has spent his spare time developing a cheap and portable communication device called TALK that aids people who have difficulty speaking.

Dilbagi 3Dilgabi, a high schooler who prefers to be called “Robo” and enjoys activities likes photography, web design, and swimming, decided to create something that would truly help the world in 2014’s Google Science Fair. He developed TALK because he learned that about 1.4 percent of the world’s population has limited or no speech due to various issues such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), locked-in syndrome (LIS), Encephalopathy (SEM), Parkinson’s disease, and paralysis.

Dilbagi’s incredible invention aids those affected by the above diseases by translating the user’s breath into electric signals with a MEMS Microphone. What makes TALK work  is a pressure-sensitive diaphragm that is imprinted into a silicon chip, which then amplifies the user’s breath. This allows the user to puff breaths into morse code, which the device then translates into letters, words, and phrases in English. A second microprocessor vocalizes those translations, and can even make it sound like nine different voices of all different ages and genders. That final voice is then projected through an amplifying box, allowing people to hear it.

TALK allows people to communicate up to three times faster than the current Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices (AAC), and at less than $100 a unit,  it is significantly more affordable than the average communication device. It’s also portable and energy efficient.

Dilbagi first tested the final design on himself,  his friends, and his family. He then met with the head of neurology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, where his invention was tested on a person with SEM and Parkinson’s Disease.

“The person was able to give two distinguishable signals using his breath and the device worked perfectly,” said Dilbagi.

TALK was created as part of Google’s Global Science Fair, a competition that is open to 13 to 18-year-olds from around the world. Dilbagi is the only finalist left from Asia. Check out his final project, research, and bio here.

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