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Press Release
Penfriend Ltd |
Press ReleaseEDINBURGH, 6th March 1998. Design Concept, already justly famous for its predictive typer, Penfriend, is pleased to announce a major update. Penfriend helps people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties. It 'watches' what the user types, and predicts words that it thinks they are writing, using a separate window visible while they are using their word processor. For physically disabled people it reduces the number of keystrokes required and therefore speeds up writing and reduces fatigue. For those with learning difficulties it helps spell and pronounce words and improves grammar. Penfriend now sports built-in speech. This is ideal for young children and users with a literacy or visual deficicit. It allows Penfriend tospeak each letter, as well as whole words typed, and predicted words. Penfriend can also read marked text from any word prcessor, and has numerous options for automatic, delayed and manual speaking of each of these features. The speech engine, by Jonathan Duddington, is 100% British like the rest of Penfriend. The quality of prediction has been hugely improved. In tests, Penfriend achieved a better keystroke saving than any other predictive typer. Users have confirmed that it is astonishingly good at finding the right word. Penfriend does this using a sophisticated grammar engine to provide appropriate words first. It combines this with next word prediction and other more conventional features to deliver its superlative performance. Penfriend remembers new words it does not recognise, and makes the management of its dictionary easier than any other software. It can even count the number of misspellings used. Unique amongst predictive typers, Penfriend has an on-screen keyboard. This makes it ideal for people with moderate phyisical disabilities which prevent accurate use of normal keyboards. The on-screen keyboard is a window which shows each letter (and other keys) and allows the user to click on them. The keyboard can be used with or without the predictor. Alternatively, users may prefer enlarged keyboards or the other special Access options (such as FilterKeys) which are compatible. Penfriend also boasts a degree of ease of use made possible by work in the nation's foremost human-computer interaction laboratory at York University. It has a carefully chosen set of features to provide functionality without confusion to the widest possible range of users. Penfriend is available immedaitely from Design Concept (Telephone 0131 668 2000). It costs £45 including speech or just £40 without, including upgrades (the new version is available free to existing owners). Free demonstration copies are available on the Internet at http://www.jasper.co.uk/penfriend/ Please contact Roger Spooner for more details and review copies of the software. |