Mobile marketing and communications company Txtlocal are
working with Time Is Ltd. (TIL) on their product JayBee, to help
individuals with a wide variety of illnesses and varying degrees of
disability to communicate both audibly and instantly with the
outside world.
JayBee is a system which
allows those who do not have the power of speech to communicate
fully, fluently and quickly. Developed by satellite control systems
company Time Is Ltd, and text-to-speech solutions CereProc,
JayBee uses various ‘triggers’ such as hand movements,
touch screen, head movements and even a simple blink of an eye, to
transform predictive text phrases into very realistic British
voices which add character to the audible communication. Designed
initially for people with Motor Neurone Disease, JayBee allows
users to say exactly what they want to say. It learns their
communication patterns using technology initially used by TIL in
the Space Industry
SMS as a voice in action
Simon Greenway of simonface.org has been testing the product on
behalf of people with Motor Neurone Disease. “The
seamless integration of Txtlocal mobile media services
into JayBee has produced a most powerful product which will be of
immense help to those who lose the ability to speak. It only
takes a few keystrokes or face gestures by the user to send instant
messages to carers, family and friends. JayBee with SMS really empowers
those with the disease to achieve a higher quality of life through
communication.”
Managing Director of Time Is Ltd, Ian Schofield wanted to extend
the system to allow those indoor-bound to communicate with the
outside world. Ian selected Txtlocal from many competitors, and in
a matter of weeks the Txtlocal platform became a vital extension to
the JayBee system allowing users not only to send text
messages instantly to mobile phones, but to receive the
responses back into JayBee.
It works by allowing any of the phrases the user would normally
speak, or so called instant phrases such as ‘Come quickly I
need help now” to be sent through Txtlocal’s SMS Gateway and
the response from the recipient is retrieved from the same Gateway
and displayed in JayBee.
Ian said “Our partnership with Txtlocal is truly
revolutionary for JayBee users. It means that for the first time,
people can now call for help, text for an ambulance or simply have
a general chat with a friend. It’s amazing that those unable
to speak through conventional methods, can now send a text, simply
by moving a part of their body.”
The Txtlocal and JayBee systems work in harmony with each other
so that SMS replies can be sent back to the user and a text
conversation can take place, giving freedom and power to the user
to be in touch with the world.
Managing Director of Txtlocal said “We are extremely proud
that our robust platform has been implemented into such a
sophisticated system like JayBee. It is testament to both of our
technological expertise that people who don’t have the
ability to speak, can still communicate effectively and instantly.
This really is the power of mobile in action, helping people to
stay in touch.”
JayBee is a new competitively priced Alternative Augmentative
Communication (AAC) system, and is integrated with CereProc’s
advanced text to speech system CereVoice. CereProc voices are
renowned for their quality and the emotional and characterful
capabilities see http://www.cereproc.com/.
-Ends-
For more information and interviews contact Rebecca
McCormick at Txtlocal on
rebecca.mccormick@txtlocal.com or
01244 573 244.
Notes to editors:
We were listed in the top 20 fastest growing digital media
companies in Europe 2011.
Find out more.
We were voted the best telecommunication company in this
year’s Internet Business Awards. Here’s what the judges
wrote:
“The judges decided to separate mobile telecoms from landline
and broadband services, as the sector is burgeoning. The
beneficiary of this decision is Txtlocal, the Chester-based, mobile
marketing services company. Their big, bold website gives business
customers instant access to Txtlocal’s full range of
services, all supported by pithy bullet points and phrases. Unlike
its competitors, Txtlocal can enable any size of business to use
B2B text message marketing, quickly, easily and at low
cost.”
