Researchers at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) developed an application to access emergency services for the deaf community. It is an application that will allow the user to describe the emergency through the selection of icons and that can be adapted to groups of citizens with similar needs.
SOSPhone is a mobile application that allows you to contact emergency services without using a voice call, through an iconographic interface.
The user describes the emergency, in great detail, through the selection of icons that appear along the service flow.
At the end, an automatic sms is generated and sent with the details of the occurrence, the location coordinates and the identification of the person placing the order.
“This is an innovative application on a global scale. There are no solutions that follow the same non-verbal communication paradigm.”, says Benjamim Fonseca, from the Engineering Department at UTAD and responsible for the project.
“SOSPhone provides speed, universality, exact location, does not allow anonymous requests, provides high detail and simplicity, allows autonomy in the request for help from deaf citizens, but also to any user”, he stresses.
Proximity to the deaf community was fundamental for the project's success, which allowed “the informal identification of various areas of intervention, regarding services, normally inaccessible due to the communication barriers they present”, adds the responsible.
Initially academic, this UTAD project gave rise to a technology transfer process that led to the creation of the company 4ALL Software, a spin-off incubated at UTAD, which will continue the project and transfer the results achieved to society, as well as the identification of new areas of action, through studies with associations of the deaf and representative groups of citizens with similar communication needs .
This project was recently awarded by the Foundation for Science and Technology. Of the 60 applications received for the Digital Inclusion and Literacy Award, 18 were awarded, including the SOSPhone project, with the value of 38.000 euros.
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