Aphasia is a problem with communicating through language. It impairs people’s ability to produce or understand speech, read or write. There are more than 3 million people with aphasia in the world – some as a result of stroke, others from head trauma, brain injury or infections.
Up to 30% of people who have had a stroke develop some form of aphasia. The problems aphasia causes range from life-threatening danger to relentless emotional frustration.
Leo Burnett Italy and Samsung Electronics Italy have collaborated with Elio Clemente Agostoni, director of the neuroscience department of the Niguarda Hospital in Milan, to develop an emoji-based chat app, Weemogee, that allows people with a language problem to communicate with their phones.
The new app will be available from the April 28 2017 on Google Play Store for all the Android devices (smartphones and tablets), the AppStore for iOS devices and on Galaxy Apps by Samsung.
Agostoni noted, “In the traditional treatment of language disorders, images and gestures play a key role because they go beyond the verbal barrier. In this regard, Samsung Wemogee is a truly new communication code. The inclusion of suggested answers, linked to certain questions, is a simple interaction model, which facilitates the use by the aphasic patient, limiting his choice and therefore the possibility of making errors.”
Samsung Wemogee’s simple and intuitive system works as a sort of translator from text into emojis and vice versa. The app vocabulary, developed in collaboration with Francesca Polini, speech therapist and professor at the Università degli Studi in Milan, includes a library of more than 140 sentences related to the user’s primary needs.
There are also sentences related to emotions, predictably more useful for aphasic patients. These sentences have been translated into logical sequences of emojis and divided into 6 macro categories (daily life; eating and drinking; feelings; help; recreational activities, anniversaries and celebrations).
Aphasic users will be able to choose what they want to communicate from a panel of visual options, sending the sequence of selected emojis to a non-aphasic user. The non-aphasic user will receive the message in text form and will be able to answer with written words. At the same time, the aphasic patient will receive the message translated into emojis.
“The aphasic patients understand emojis because they represent all aspects of the emotions. Through drawings and gestures we can preserve the comprehension and the production of a sentence. To get this result it is useful to have a definite set of sentences, that refer to the most important needs, making it easier for the patient to use and for the app to facilitate conversation and avoid the patient becoming frustrated,” Polini added.
Doctor Giuseppe J. Sciarrone, neurosurgeon consultant at the Humanitas Gavazzeni hospital in Milan was a consultant contributing to the development of Samsung Wemogee. “The aphasic patient is deprived of a whole range of tools that not only affect their ability to express everyday needs but also their emotions. This naturally causes a feeling of frustration and helplessness in people who are around him, which makes the patient retreat into himself more and more. Samsung Wemogee is an extremely innovative app because, through a simple and intuitive interface, it allows the aphasic patient not to excessively stimulate the ideative connections of his brain, at the same time giving the aphasic user the possibility of interacting easily with the people around him,” he stated.
Samsung Wemogee is not only an instant messaging app. It can also be used to help aphasic people with their rehabilitation because it can show a sentence in both text and emoji at the same time and on the same device.
Credits:
Agency: Leo Burnett Italy
Executive creative directors: Francesco Bozza & Alessandro Antonini
Creative director: Nicoletta Zanterino
Innovation director & head of art: Mattia Montanari
Art director & creative technologist: Stefano Knoll
Copywriter: Nicoletta Zanterino
UX designers: Mattia Montanari & Stefano Knoll
Project manager: Andrea Castiglioni
Brand leader: Bruno Borsetto
Account director: Carlotta Piccaluga
Account executive: Francesca Ajelli
Producer: Alessandra Caldi
Developers: 3×1010
Production company: Basement HeadQuarter
Executive producer: Francesco Crespi
Director: Vittorio Bonaffini
Original soundtrack: Fabio Gargiulo for Bkm Production
