ToneAware was designed to help facilitate social-emotional learning for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The current treatment process for those with ASD involves the use of behavior therapy, a process relying on simulated situations. Though behavior therapy can be used to help individuals with ASD develop the ability to recognize emotions, behavior therapy nevertheless has major limitations, as it can take years for effective results to show and is exorbitantly expensive.The average individual with ASD spends thousands of dollars yearly on therapy; furthermore, it is very difficult to mirror the variety of emotions and situations an individual with ASD might encounter on a daily basis in these simulations.
By identifying the primary emotion of a speaker, ToneAware is a smartphone app that functions as a real-time emotion sensor to aid in everyday conversation.
The software functions by using a “front-end” smartphone and a “back-end” server hosting voice analytics. When in use, two-second voice clips are recorded on the smartphone’s microphone and then sent to an external server with speech-emotion analysis software hosted on it. The output values of the software are stratified with our algorithm on the basis of wavelength, period amplitude, jitter and more, and the most dominant emotion is determined and subsequently displayed on the screen.
Significant responsibilities and accomplishments include:
Designed and deployed a first version of a smartphone app to facilitate social interaction for Autism Spectrum Disorder using speech-emotion analysis
Secured pro bono partnerships with Nemesysco LTD (speech-emotion analysis software company), Inapp (software solutions company), Duke Law Clinic, and independent patent lawyers
U.S. provisional patent #62/242,260 filed for design and application of portable emotion sensor to treating Autism Spectrum Disorder (shown below)
