Grid 3's Chat History feature awarded patent

The Chat History feature in Grid 3 is now patented technology. Chat History is a powerful new feature in the Grid 3 AAC software that enables people to quickly reuse phrases they’ve created before in the same conversational context.

Here are a couple of example scenarios when Chat History helps out.

• There’s an uncle you visit regularly who gardens. So you’re likely to ask about the garden or how the morning glories are doing or if the beer traps actually worked in killing the slugs.
• You have a few favourite beverages and treats you always order at your local coffee shop. You want to have those specific requests close at hand when you are visiting that shop.

Based on where the Grid 3 user is and what they are talking about, Chat History will bring up phrases previously used in that context: no need to actually program a button/cell for that phrase.  Chat History recognizes and captures frequently used phrases and the context of their utterance.  This feature saves programming/set-up time whether you use text or symbols.  It also dramatically improves efficiency in face-to-face communication – so important for truly independent, spontaneous communication.

Chat History in Grid 3 - eggs for breakfast from Smartbox on Vimeo.

Chat History in Grid 3 working with a text user ordering eggs for breakfast.  Or or click here to see on Vimeo  https://vimeo.com/159336580)

Barney Hawes, Technical Director at Smartbox, says about the origin of Chat History:

“I had been thinking for a long time about ways to present suggestions from all of the things you’ve ever said with your communication aid so that you could repeat them quickly.  The reason this is a hard thing to do well is that we all say so much!  It requires context to narrow the suggestions: who are you talking to and what are you talking about.”

Barney Hawes, (son of company founder and Managing Director, Paul Hawes) shares his experience of creating Chat History and ideas for building on the technology, in a story posted on the Smartbox website.

The piece gives an interesting look into possible developments for contextual communication tools and the challenge of balancing this useful feature with personal privacy. Have a read and you might have some suggestions for Smartbox of where they should take this innovation in the future.