What's New? Version 3.0.128 Has Launched!

Long time, no blog...  Perhaps you thought we'd dropped off the face of the earth.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  We've been busy for a number of months working on the recent release of Video Voice Version 3.0.128.  Just when we were about ready to release it last fall, Microsoft threw us a bit of a curve ball with their own release of the new Windows 8 operating system.  If you have tried it, you know that it's very different from earlier versions of Windows!  Rather than release the new version with unknown compatibility, we spent the next several months making sure Video Voice will operate correctly on this new platform.

Now, FINALLY, we're happy to announce the release Version 3.0.128.  In addition to Windows 8 compatibility and all its previous, fabulous features and capabilities, Video Voice 3.0 now includes:

• Fundamental frequency measurement to complement other Assessment capabilities.
• Customization of on-screen reward text and other prompts to correspond with user-modified audios to personalize the therapy experience
• Enhanced trace operation in the Multi-Frequency Formant Spectral Display to make it easier to capture sounds for practice, opening up potential for work on minimal pairs, in addition to high frequency sounds and more
• Goal scoring in the Formant Multi-Frequency Gobble game to make display more effective for therapy use
• F2/F1 and Multi-Frequency (F3/F2) Gobble display access directly from Formant Menu to make reaching this powerful feedback mode easier.
• Simultaneous display of pitch and volume in P-A-R Connected Speech, with volume shown as peaks and pitch in spectrum colors
• New Streaming Speech P-A-R display, provides live, "marching" display of pitch, volume, or both volume and pitch (as color) 
• New Fun & Games 12-Pack, a lower price option for those with limited budgets or interest only in game practice options
• Price reduction on all other software packages
• Revised internal documentation (Help) with more internal links to relevant pages
• Improved Windows 7 operation

There are numerous benefits to purchasing the Video Voice Speech Training System.  The most important one is the change the displays and games bring to the therapy process - helping individuals feel more in charge of their speech skills.  Another significant benefit is that software updates are FREE.  As we add new features and capabilities, you may download and install a new copy at no additional cost.

Already an Authorized User?  Please visit www.videovoice.com/vv_curel.htm to download Version 3.0.128 and update your Video Voice software.    

Haven't yet made the investment in this valuable tool for your speech therapy activities?  What are you waiting for?  Download Video Voice 3.0 and try it for 30 days, with absolutely no charge, at www.videovoice.com/vv_demo.htm.

We'll be back soon to tell you more about some of these new capabilities and offer more thoughts on how visual feedback can accelerate the therapy process.  Meanwhile, have questions?  Need assistance with using Video Voice with your caseload?  Want to restart a free trial you previously used to evaluate Video Voice's potential for your therapy needs?  Just pick up the phone and give us a call, or send an email.  We'd love to hear from you!

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team

1-800-537-2182

mv@videovoice.com

Have It Your Way

Video Voice is a very flexible speech tool, with options for nearly any kind of speech problem. Although the games and displays all have default settings, operation of most areas is up to you, and can easily be modified to fit your needs. To start with, there are no speech targets preprogrammed. It's up to you to define the content appropriate for the individuals in your caseload, and creating models is an easy process.

In addition, for almost any area of the program, there are ways to customize it to meet the needs of each and every individual in your caseload. Don't like some aspect of operation? Look around, there's probably a way to change it. Almost every control is adjustable!

So, how do you know when something can be modified?  Well, Video Voice offers various visual cues.

1. Any control that can be adjusted generally appears in cyan color.  
2. The mouse pointer offers hints, changing from an arrow to a hand when it passes over an adjustable control.  
3. If you briefly dwell the mouse cursor over a button or cyan control, a small “tool tip” will appear that briefly describes its operation. 

Here are just some of the things you have control over:

Speech Representation:  With the Formant Displays, which are helpful for articulation, you can choose to represent sounds in a matrix or cross-time (temporal) form. Matrix generally illustrates sound differences more effectively than temporal displays, but does not show durational differences as well. 

With the P-A-R (Pitch-Amplitude-Rhythm) displays, you can view the pitch or volume characteristic of any sound production. With both Formant and P-A-R models, you can switch between the two styles with a single mouse click.

Formant Matrix Vowel Chart: By default, vowel symbols will appear on the screen in the F2/F1 matrix display, identifying the general locations on the screen where different vowels generally appear. Dont want to see them at all? Click the Vowels button to turn the whole chart off and on. The default vowel symbols are IPA style; if you prefer standard "dictionary" symbols in the chart, make that change with the Formant Adjust button. 

Want to change the position of a vowel in the chart? Differences in speakers' production of vowel sounds can affect where they map on the screen. To change the position of any symbol, just click and drag it to the desired screen location. Don't want all the symbols to appear? Just click any symbol, drag it off the edge of the screen, and it will disappear. The new locations will be stored either in your therapist folder or in the individual's folder if one has been activated. This lets you customize the vowel chart to your own voice, or those of people in your caseload.

In the F2/F1 Gobble game, you can specify whether the vowels are "permanent," automatically refreshing when the Gobbler eats parts of them, or "erasable" and can be ''eaten up in the vocalizing process. This can be helpful if you're working on production of specific vowel sounds, and want the reward to be erasure of the symbols themselves. (Of course, the Gobbler's movement back to the corner of the voice space can cause parts of symbols to be erased without production of that sound, so use this cautiously!)

Performance Goal: Typically set to 80 by default, this control exists in most displays and determines the score needed to achieve an “Excellent” message and see a reward animation. You can raise or lower it at any time to make the display or game more or less demanding. If you change the performance goal in one display, that change automatically carries over to the other displays, too.

Reward Animations: There are two types of reward graphics. One is an animated cartoon that appears on the right side of the screen in pattern-match displays. The other is a box in the middle of the screen that contains a congratulatory message along with a colorful pattern; these rewards appear in many of the games. You can preview and select among the animated cartoons with the Adjust button in the Formant and P-A-R displays.

The game rewards are controlled through the Game Preferences button on the Fun & Games menu. (There you can also choose from among the many reward sounds, too.)
You can control whether rewards appear automatically when a production's score exceeds your performance goal, override Video Voice if you disagree with its assessment, or award all cartoon animations yourself. Use the Formant and P-A-R Adjust buttons, or the Game Preferences button on the Fun & Games menu, to access these settings.

Game Controls:  The Fun & Games options have a variety of adjustable controls. Some are common, shared across games, such as the Fade Speed (how fast a graphic disappears from the screen when the desired task isn't met) and Stop Sensitivity (how quickly Video Voice reacts to pauses in vocalization ). If you make a change to one of those common controls, it will apply to all games that have that adjustable option, too.  

Mostly, however, controls are specific to the individual games. Examples:

Pitch Painting, which provides a colorful display of pitch, has adjustable brush shapes and sizes that let you add visual variety to the feedback.  You can simply show varying pitch levels in speech, or choose only to reward vocalization with pitch above or below certain levels.

In Speech Ball, you can control how many balls will be in play in the game, the Speed at which they move, and the Hot Zone (area of the screen in which voicing will be detected).

With the Chat-N-U-Go Choo-Choo game, you can choose the game icon (antique or modern train, cars of different colors, or horse) and select from speech goals including more or less volume, vocal onset, or production of target sounds or individual words. Within any of the game goals, you have control over the performance required, speed of the game icon, and number or duration of vocalizations or trips required to complete the game, so you can make it easier or more demanding.

Likewise, Jumping Jack offers track events for work on volume control, duration, onsets and speaking rate. Each event has its own set of controls, such as running speed, vocalization time required, and amount of volume necessary for success.

The Bulls Eye! game lets you control which games appear in the menu. Although the little boys enjoy the bomb-dropping games and their explosions, some therapists prefer only the peaceable Care Packages and Flower Power games. With the Game Selection option, you can make the Battleships and Tanks A Lot games invisible and inaccessible. (This capability was added in response to a school district's non-violence requirement - we listen to our users!) You set the onset targets in all the Bulls Eye! games, and also can control the game speed.

The Voice-A-Sketch game has 78 built-in, high-quality pictures to choose from, but you can also use your own images if you wish. This makes it possible to tailor the graphic feedback to each individual's interests. Voice-A-Sketch also has multiple speech goal options, from simple continuous phonation or vocal onsets to volume control, duration, and word or sound articulation.

Personalized Audio and Display Text: Newly added to Video Voice is the ability to personalize the prompts for voicing and reward audios and messages that appear. The generic "Say" or "Very Good" messages can be replaced by "Mary, say..." or "Very good, Johnny!"  Modified audios and text can be stored in each individual's case folder, customizing the feedback for each person you work with. In the International/Simplified Operating mode, the prompts can even appear in other, non-Latin keyboard languages such as Arabic.

These are just some of Video Voice's displays and games, and controls that let you "Have it your way." Look around and explore the software to determine what works for best for you and is most motivating and effective with members of your caseload!  (If you don't already have Video Voice, download the program at www.videovoice.com and try it free for 30 days.  If you're already using it, you can make sure you're using the most up-to-date version, and download a no-charge update there.)

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team
mv@videovoice.com
1-800-537-2182
www.videovoice.com

Where R You?

Got any kids with 'R' problems in your caseload? Yeah, I thought so. From what we hear from speech-language pathologists, most everyone has at least one with that pesky and tough-to-correct speech issue. Video Voice has a number of games and displays that can help, and the one I'm currently excited about is the Formant Multi-Frequency Spectral Display included in the last release (V3.0.127). This new display uses live feedback to help speakers learn about production of 'R' (and other sounds, too). With it they can quickly learn how changes in articulator position make all the difference in what sound they're producing.

Off hand, I can't think of a single, commonly-used word that more simply defines the problem of 'R' and its oft-confused 'OO' than “were.” It's a pure combination of those two sounds, and producing it correctly requires subtle and largely invisible change in tongue position, or “bunching,” to move smoothly between them. The immediate feedback in the Spectral display can be powerful in illustrating when this is, or is not, happening, and it provides a facility for practicing and learning the differences in production of the two.

Let's take a closer look. Now, I'm going to assume that you have either purchased Video Voice or have downloaded the Free Trial (at www.videovoice.com) to explore what it offers for therapy, and do a little follow-along to give you some basis on how this display works. (And if you haven’t downloaded the trial, why not? There’s absolutely no charge or ongoing obligation!)

Start by accessing the Spectral Display from the Formant Menu (Multi-Frequency-Spectral).

First, lets do some practice voicing. Click Start to activate the display, then vocalize. Say “were,” slowly, focusing on the F2 area in particular. You'll see very little blue when you're saying the 'woo' part of the word, but a great deal more when you hit (and sustain) the 'er'.

Also notice that as you speak, you see movement in all three Formant frequency ranges, and also a “trace” line above them. This is Video Voice averaging and smoothing the speech data into a single line as you speak, and it will be important as we go through this exercise.

The feedback is instantaneous! And, like speech, it's also fleeting. When you stop  vocalizing, the visual disappears. So we need a way to freeze a target so the feedback becomes more concrete.

Say “were” slowly again, sustaining the 'r'. As you see the blue F2 region and associated trace line expand upward with that sound, click the Use button. Video Voice will draw and hold a light trace line showing what the frequencies in the F1, F2 and F3 regions were at the point where you captured the sound with Use.  Now you have a “model” of the desired sound.

Now, try saying “were” again with the model trace on the screen. Say it slowly so you can see how the 'woo' and 'r' look, as well as the transition between the sounds. When you reach the 'r' part of the word, the blue F2 area should move up and touch the trace line.

The 'oo' in "were"

The 'r' in "were"

Pretty darned cool, isn't it?  It's a great way to practice sounds that are similar, but differ in important ways.

By the way, there's no scoring in this display, but you can always click the Reward button to activate a graphic animation when the speaker has reached the goal of producing that 'R' sound consistently.

And, if you find having all three frequencies shown at once confusing for this or any other sound, you can restrict the display and show only the most relevant one(s) by clicking the “ON” label(s) below the F1, F2 or F3 ranges. It will change to OFF, and you’ll no longer see that area of the display.

The live nature of this display makes it most useful for sounds that can be sustained, of course. In addition to 'R' and 'OO,' you'll also see big differences between sounds like ‘S’ and ‘SH,’ particularly in the F2 and F3 ranges. Give it a try!

We hope you have fun experimenting with this and other Video Voice displays and games to see how they can assist with your 'R' cases, as well as other speech problems in your caseload.

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team
mv@videovoice.com
1-800-537-2182
www.videovoice.com

Personalizing Feedback

The latest release of Video Voice, Version 3.0.127, has a new feature sure to be popular among therapists and their caseloads. You now have the ability to personalize operation by recording your own audio prompts for voicing and congratulatory messages specific to those you work with.

Video Voice has two basic prompts for vocalization: "Say" (generally followed by the desired target) and "Speak now."  There are also a number of reward and informational messages, such as "Excellent," "Good job," "Selected model is," "You said").  Pleasant, pre-recorded audios are included, but if you’d rather have your own voice providing these instructions and other feedback, you can easily customize them.

Click for a closer look

The audio adjustment options are located in the Configuration Menu, with the Auditory Feedback button. From that sub-menu choose Record My Audios.  However, to make it even easier to access that function, when you sign in with your Therapist ID, Video Voice checks to see if you've already customized any audios. If you haven't, it offers you the opportunity to do so. You can choose to do the recording immediately, asked to be prompted again later, or tell it to leave you alone and you'll do it when you're good and ready. 

Click for a closer look

When you go to Record My Audios, you'll see the available pre-recorded audios. Click on one to select it, and Video Voice will play the audio for you. You can then record your own version for any or all, and save them for future use.  After you make and save a recording the text turns blue to let you know it's been modified.  (If you change your mind later, you can always revert to the defaults for the audios, or record new ones.)

Click for a closer look

Video Voice will automatically save any recordings you make in your Therapist folder, unless one of your caseload data files is active.  In that case, it asks where you want to the recording:  in your own folder or the individual's. This opens up the personalization options even further. Although the audio recording may be called "Speak now," the actual recording can be whatever you like. You could, for example, ask for a child's attention by using his name, e.g., "Jimmy, talk now!" Likewise, you can customize the reward audios with their names - "Wonderful work, Bobby!"  You can have a different set of audios for each person - it's all up to you!

Therapists tell us that the kids they work enjoy about seeing their names on the screen in rewards, so having the computer talk directly to them as well adds even more excitement to the activities.  (Note:  If multiple therapists share Video Voice on a single computer, each one can have her own personalized sets of audios.)

There's also no reason the recordings have to be in English. Although the text for the prompts and rewards cannot currently be changed, the audio recording can be in any language. Video Voice doesn't know what language is being spoken, nor does it care.  So, if you're using the program with speakers of other languages, you can modify the auditory feedback accordingly.  (And watch for the ability to change text messages, too, in an upcoming release!)

By the way, this customizing option is available in the 30-Day Free Trial as well as the full Authorized User and International/Simplified operating modes. Give it a try for yourself by downloading at www.videovoice.com. Existing Version 3.0 users, you are entitled to the new and improved Video Voice via download, at no additional charge. To check which version you currently have installed, click on the telephone icon at the bottom of the Startup or Main Menu. If your version is lower than 3.0.127a, it's time to update!

Personalizing audios is just one of the ways you can customize Video Voice to satisfy your individual preferences. There are lots more, and we'll be talking about them in another post soon - stay tuned. Meanwhile, have fun making your own audio recordings and watching the smiles from your caseload when the computer calls them by name!


Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team
mv@videovoice.com
1-800-537-2182
www.videovoice.com

More New Features, New Lower Price!

We haven’t posted recently. The reason is that we’ve been busy getting a new release of Video Voice out the door, and we’re pleased to report that Version 3.0.126 is now available for download at www.videovoice.com/vv_curel.htm.

This new version of the software has some great new features and capabilities, as well as numerous improvements to existing ones. And, Video Voice is now available at an even lower price!  Here are some of the noteworthy changes and additions.

Formant Spectral Display

Live F1/F2/F3 Spectral Display

The Formant Multi-Frequency Spectral display provides live feedback on the F1, F2 and F3 frequencies in speech. Previously released in preliminary form, it has now been completely revamped. In addition to smoother display of data, you can now capture "traces" to use as models for sound practice.

The immediate feedback in this display can be very helpful for work on ‘R’ vs ‘OO’ and discrimination of high frequency sounds like ‘S’ and ‘SH’. Give this one a try! (Formant Menu - F3/F2/F1 Multi-Frequency-Spectral) We’ll be back to talk more about using the Spectral display in an upcoming  post, but for now we just wanted to let you know there have been some big changes in that display.

Customized Audio
Version 3.0.126 lets you personalize operation with your own audio recordings of voice prompts, congratulatory messages, and other vocal feedback. Your voice can be the one in prompts for voice production ("Say [target]") and reward messages, and they can be in whatever language you use or prefer. Explore this new capability through the Configuration Menu-Auditory-Feedback options.

New Voice Prompt
Video Voice now indicates readiness for voice input in many games and displays with the prompt "Speak now."  This audio help the speaker know when Video Voice starts "listening," and it's time to turn his voice on.  "Speak now" is one of the prompts that you can customize to your voice.

Localization and Keyboard Language Support
Video Voice has always been "language-independent," even though the user interface is in English. The displays and audio recording don’t know what language is being spoken, just that sound is present. Sound is sound, and all languages of have frequencies that can be visually interpreted. (Okay, maybe not "San," the clicking language used by some African tribes, but they’re not likely to be much interested in using computers for speech practice...)  But speech work with Video Voice in other than English is certainly possible, and in fact the games and displays are being successfully used for speech development and remediation in many countries around the globe.

To support non-English use further, a few months back we introduced the International/Simplified operating mode. This streamlined mode will accept and display characters in all keyboard languages. (Authorized User and Free Trial support Latin-based keyboards only.) Want to show model names in prompts in Arabic, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew? No problem! However your keyboard is defined in Windows, Video Voice’s International/Simplified mode will handle it. This gives you the ability to display on-screen text such as user and model names, in the orthographics of your language. In this operating mode, however, data cannot be stored for reuse.

The International/Simplified mode also offers translations of buttons and controls on the therapy and game screens for Spanish and French languages.

The Authorized User and Free Trial modes do support non-English, Latin-based keyboards such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, etc. This means your model and user names can contain special, accented characters used in those languages.

Fluency Guide
For those people who work with fluency cases, there’s a new "Solutions" pdf document that offers suggestions on how to use the games and displays to reduce stuttering. (Find it on the Main Menu-Solutions-Fluency pdf)

Big Bad Bug Fix
Some users had reported a lock-up bug in some articulation games, particularly those that do model-matching. It was ugly, causing Video Voice to become unresponsive and require a restart. We’d seen the problem too, but just couldn’t reproduce it reliably. If you can’t make a failure happen in identifiable ways, it’s darned hard to fix. Kind of like when you take your car to the shop and report a strange noise, but of course it doesn’t make that noise so the mechanic can hear it! Anyway, we knew the problem was real, and battled it for several months, but believe we finally have it fixed. (I’m sure you’ll let us know if we haven’t, though!) We’ve made a number of other improvements in the articulation games, too.

New Lower Price!
In these hard economic times, things are tough all over, so we’re doing our part to make Video Voice even more affordable. We’ve reduced the price on all package configurations. To learn more, go to the Pricing page on our web site: www.videovoice.com/vv_price.htm

Why Download the Current Version?
If you’re already a Video Voice user, but haven’t downloaded a new copy of the software in a while, it’s really time to do that now, since there are many additions and major improvements! There’s no charge for software updates, so what are you waiting for?

If you’ve looked at Video Voice in the past, but didn’t make the decision to add this powerful tool to your speech therapy arsenal, it’s time to take another look! With the new games, displays and features to help you streamline your therapy results, it’s a shame not to give it another try. You may be able to start another Free Trial automatically, but if you need assistance with that, we’ll be happy to offer it.

We’ll be back soon with more details on some of these new features and some interesting stories, but for now, please check out this new version of Video Voice. Think you’ll like what you see!

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team
1-800-537-2182
mv@videovoice.com
www.videovoice.com

Help!!

What do you do when you need help communicating information about speech with those in your caseload and getting them to understand how to make changes in their voices? The little boy who just can't seem to find the right tongue position for his 'R's. The girl whose slushy 'S' is driving you crazy. The youngster who just won't do purposeful voicing.

There are, of course, a plethora of speech therapy techniques and a number of tools available to streamline the process. One of those tools is the visual feedback on voice production Video Voice provides. We obviously believe its displays and games offer great benefits for communicating about most any aspect of speech development and remediation, and so do the many speech-language pathologists who have added it to their tool kits.

But what do you do when you need help with Video Voice? Used to be, you’d pull out the big user manual and pore through the index for answers. The problem with printed documentation, however, is that it can all too quickly become out of date, especially if the software changes. Since we’re always working on adding to and improving Video Voice, changes are a common and frequent occurrence. We therefore decided not to provide a printed manual, but instead make it an internal, integral part of the software operation. As the program changes, so does its reference material.

On virtually every Video Voice screen, you’ll find a Help button. Clicking it opens the built-in manual to the page appropriate to the area you're using. This internal documentation is not the anemic, sketchy variety many software programs have, the kind that can raise more questions than they answer. Video Voice's Help file contains more than 150 "pages" of information, chock-full of details on what the controls do for you, and how they function. The pages have an on-line "feel" to them, and are loaded with links that easily transport you to other related parts of the manual.

There are other built-in tools, too, like the Help Me Choose interactive guide and the Solutions and Support materials, all of which have buttons/links on the Main Menu. The "tool tips" for controls that appear when you dwell your cursor over them also briefly describe function to let you know if a control is what you need to use.

But sometimes you just really need to talk to somebody! We're proud to offer friendly, responsive support to both existing Video Voice users and those who are evaluating to see how it can meet their needs. You can ask your questions or get suggestions for appropriate use with different speech problems either by phone or email. Most of the time when you call, you'll hear a real person's voice on the other end of the line. If you do happen to get a recorded voice, just leave your name and number, and we'll call you back as soon as we can.

Just the other day a speech-language pathologist who's considering Video Voice called for guidance on what things would be most helpful with children she works with. Her caseload runs the gamut of the autism spectrum, from low-functioning, preschool-aged children who need vocal awareness encouragement to older, fluent ones who need to work on expressive function, particularly increasing pitch range and intonation skills. I was able to make a variety of suggestions for both cases. For the little ones who need to develop understanding that something happens when they use their voices, games like Chat-N-U-Go Choo-Choo and Pitch Painting can communicate that cause and effect. For the older boy who speaks in a monotone, P-A-R Pitch displays can illustrate desired voicing, pitch and fluent intonation in a sentence like "How ARE you?" vs. how it looks and sounds differently when he uses a flat pitch with distinct pauses between words. There are lots of other options, too, but we only talked about those few in our brief conversation.

We all need a little help sometimes, and that includes us. We do our very best to make Video Voice a flexible, easy-to-use tool, but hearing from speech-language pathologists (or others) about how they're using the displays helps us understand what we can do to make it even more effective. Of course we like to hear about things you like, but just as important are the things you don't like. If you have problems, they’re our problems, too, but we can’t fix them if we don’t know they exist. We welcome all feedback, so please give us yours!

In closing, here’s a little musical entertainment that fits the bill, and might just put a smile on your face: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=606ZcMKXlUg. 

And remember, when you need someone, we're here to help!

Video Voice Support Team
mv@videovoice.com
1-800-537-2182
www.videovoice.com