The use of syntax in a predictive communication aid for the physically handicapped

Abstract

PAL is a portable communication aid and keyboard emulator which offers the user complete word predictions based on previous input. With a dictionary capacity of approximately 1000 words, keystroke (or character selection) savings in the area of 50% have been obtained for text from various sources. In order to improve this further we have investigated the inclusion of syntax into the predictive system. A probability matrix for grammatical class pairs has been produced and this has been used to modify the word frequencies in the dictionary according to the syntax class of the preceeding word. In this way the predictions more accurately reflect the words which the user might require.