COMMPLEMENTS

Our Findings

Our research is based on several years of study and observation. Our methods, although by no means scientific, have resulted in similar conclusions to those found in academia.

We began our research about 13 years ago, first looking at the technology options available at the time, and then looking at the implications from the use of that technology. We found that most people who are differently abled said they didn't care about high accuracy rates in translated speech, whether live or recorded. As we described the consequences of lower accuracy rates, we were able to get our audience to agree that there must be a minimum percentage of accuracy, or user acceptance would quickly diminish.

We also focused on other facets of the solutions. Ergonomic, social and economic, even perceptual implications for the design of hardware that displayed the text. Optical and cognitive processes were also reviewed, to be sure we addressed conditions which might affect some of our audience.

And we looked at the demographics of our audience, which we find is increasing all the time. Differently abled persons include, for our purposes, individuals who are blind or have low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, individuals with Asperger's and/or with an auditory processing disorder, and certain other cognitive disorders that might affect the use, acceptance and performance of our solutions.

We found that speech recognition software was disappointing, back in the start of our business. We began R&D on our MeetHear product with Naturally Speaking version 9, and wondered if we could stay in business. Now, with version 11+, we're glad we did. Recognition rates were dismal with version 9, and now, out of the box with a lttle training (initial 10 minutes plus 10-15 minutes of "fine-tuning"), we get 97% accuracy. We found that not only does the software perform much better and faster than before, but we've also found hardware can make a big difference.

We also discovered other features of our product were important too. Like being able to project the text to a screen in front of the room, like keeping the screen neat and free from a lot of buttons and images, and like offering features for the content creators (schools, businesses, etc.) that make it easier to manage their users and the data.

Our MeetHear product is used by schools in the metro Atlanta area. It was used by an Asperger's student in one school, and he raised his grades by two letters!

We also welcome your feedback! Let us know how we're doing, or where you'd like to see COMMplements products.