Evaluation of the prototype mobile phone app Pugh: a 3D cartoon character designed to help deaf children to speech read

Shaw, D M; Patera, M; Paparidou, E; Wolff, R

Abstract

Pugh, a 3D cartoon character, is a prototype smartphone application developed at the University of Salford. Its purpose is to provide speech-reading exercises for hard of hearing and deaf children. This paper discusses the design of the application, the test process and acknowledges that the technological limitations of the platform and the character's non-human characteristics provide some interesting challenges. A preliminary test was conducted to evaluate speech perception and lipreading from Pugh. The findings proved that Pugh is not an accurate speaker. Further development of the lip movement and facial expressions is required in order to achieve accuracy.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 9th Intl Conf. Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies
• Start Date: Sep 10, 2012
• End Date: Sep 12, 2012
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Sep 10, 2012
• Publication Date: Sep 10, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jun 20, 2025
• Print ISSN: 0008-8994
• Electronic ISSN: 1600-0498
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Proc. 9th Intl Conf. Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies
• ISBN: 978-0-7049-1545-9