Meet Team Colt Erin TibbettsRyan Schnepper

Team Colt Client  Sarah can only hear out of one ear.  Speakers are available in the classroom.  She is possibly dyslexic.  Easily frustrated by homework, especially with spelling words.  Statement of need: Sarah needs to learn her spelling words independently.

Requirements and Constraints  Safe product  Finished in given time  Less than $150  Looks appealing  Uncomplicated  She needs to be able to hear it easily.  Efficient power source  Transportable  Durability  Usable for easy and complex spelling words.  Product should be fun and stress free for our client.

Market  Existing technology than could be used: word processors, reading systems, phonetic spelling, and speech recognition. All of the above technologies have been modified to help people with dyslexia.  Our client also stated that the speakers available at school were very expensive.

Puzzle Piece Spelling  My idea for puzzle piece spelling would be a fun way to help our client learn her spelling words. Her mother could record the spelling words at the beginning of the week. Then her daughter would first have to arrange the puzzle pieces in alphabetic order and then the recording would start. The first word would play and she would have to spell the word by pushing the corresponding letters on the board. Once she had gotten it right, the next word would play and she would have to spell that to continue.The board would be colorful and have lights when buttons were pushed. This would hopefully make her a little more independent and the colors and lights would reduce stress.

Pros and Cons ABCDEF HIJKL WV UT M G N OPQRS ZYX Pro: Design will make homework fun and Sarah will be less stressed. Con: Since there is only two of us making this project would be very time consuming. Pro: Encourages Sarah to learn her spelling words. Con: Lots of buttons means a lot of inputs. Pro: Sarah can depend less on her mother to learn the spelling words.

Keyboard Spelling  This project would use and existing keyboard that is modified with buttons that represent spelling words.The client's mother would record the weekly words so her daughter could listen to the recording to do her homework. upon hearing the words in the recording, our client would then type or spell out the word onto the keyboard. There will also be Leds on the keyboard to show if the word typed was right or wrong. The way this plan would work is to modify a keyboard so it will understand when the right keys are pressed. There will be a way to hook up the keyboard and recorder together so when our client hears the word being spelled out, and when she hits the keys, she will know if shes hitting the keys in the right order. What also could be considered is somehow make each word correspond with a key on the keyboard so when the key is pressed, the board will know what order the keys should be pressed.

Pros and Cons Pro: Less time building. Pro: Our client will be able to learn be hearing and typing. Pro: Simplistic design for easy use, Con: Very plain. Con: Client’s mother needs to be involved. Con: Connecting the recorder and the keyboard to react with button pushing will be hard.

Final Project Idea Our final decision was that we could combine the two ideas. In order to save time, we will utilize an existing keyboard. Then we will use a chip with 36 inputs to modify the keyboard. Spelling words will be added from the computer. The words will play back and she will need to press the corresponding buttons on the keyboard. This is the type of keyboard that we would like to use. Since it only has letters there are less inputs and the arrow could be used to advance to the next word.