A software application for teaching literacy through customized stories with gamification elements. Existing or new stories are created and customized for particular audiences and include text, animations, images, and sounds to produce an interactive multimedia story for presentation on a computing device with a display and audio output. Reading comprehension questions and games are provided to accompany the stories and the reader of the stories can earn rewards based on performance. The reader's performance is analyzed and reported to track progress.

Techniques for an interactive turn-based reading experience are described. A system may take turns reading content, such as a book, with a user. The system may process audio data representing a user reading a portion of the content, determine reading evaluation data, and determine how to proceed for the next turn based on the reading evaluation data. For example, based on the reading evaluation data, the system may read a portion of the content by outputting synthesized speech representing the content, may ask the user re-read a portion of the content, or may ask the user to read a different, smaller portion of the content.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining pronunciations for particular terms. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of obtaining audio samples of speech corresponding to a particular term and obtaining candidate pronunciations for the particular term. Further actions include generating, for each candidate pronunciation for the particular term and audio sample of speech corresponding to the particular term, a score reflecting a level of similarity between of the candidate pronunciation and the audio sample, wherein the said score for the particular term is obtained by using a minimum of individual scores of phonemes comprising the term. Additional actions include aggregating the scores for each candidate pronunciation and adding one or more candidate pronunciations for the particular term to a pronunciation lexicon based on the aggregated scores for the candidate pronunciations.

The present invention discloses a system and method for recognizing objects placed together using capacitance sensors in conjunction with the RFID technology. A structure that is made with a material of high dielectric constant and a RFID tag that comprises a unique identification code (UID) of an object is embedded with the object. With the objects recognized, the spatial structure or the spatial distribution formed by them is derived and corresponding sensory feedbacks are provided by the system.

An augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system and methods therefore are provided for assisting in learning to read. The system stores book data capturing the sequence of a book and dictionary which is used by a display controller for displaying symbols on an AAC reading user interface. This enables set of symbols to be displayed for each word which include a symbols having a contextually appropriate meaning for the current word being read within a displayed group of symbols. A reader conveys their understanding of the word by selecting the correct symbol. Selecting a symbol triggers audio output of the word associated with the symbol.

A phonics learning system, comprising a letter identification board and letter manipulatives that may be placed on the letter identification board by a child, and a computing device connected to the letter identification board that identifies the letters placed on the board, generates a phonetic pronunciation for the combination of letters, and identifies any words or misspelled words.

A method of enriching text includes receiving a text file and parsing the received text file into logical phrases each having a phrase type. The logical phrases are processed based on their respective phrase types. A first processing step determines whether to process each logical phrase as a whole or in parts, and further identifies, splits or combines phrases according to pre-defined logic to determine a contextual meaning for each logical phrase. Additional processing steps determine a contextual part of speech for each word in the logical phrases and identify enrichment content pertaining to each of the words and the logical phrases. The words and logical phrases are associated and stored with the enrichment content respectively pertaining thereto such that the enrichment content is renderable on a user computing device when the word or logical phrase associated therewith is selected by a user on the user computing device.

A method includes displaying a first set of text content characterized by a first difficulty level. The method includes obtaining speech data associated with the first set of text content. The method includes determining linguistic feature(s) within the speech data. The method includes in response to completion of the speech data, determining a reading proficiency value associated with the first set of text content and based on the linguistic feature(s). The method includes in accordance with determining the reading proficiency value satisfies change criteria, changing a difficulty level for a second set of text content. After changing the difficulty level, the second set of text content corresponds to a second difficulty level different from the first difficulty level. The method includes in accordance with determining the reading proficiency value does not satisfy the change criteria, maintaining the second set of text content at the first difficulty level.

A machine causes a touch-sensitive screen to present a graphical user interface that depicts a slider control aligned with a word that includes a first alphabetic letter and a second alphabetic letter. A first zone of the slider control corresponds to the first alphabetic letter, and a second zone of the slider control corresponds to the second alphabetic letter. The machine detects a touch-and-drag input that begins within the first zone and enters the second zone. In response to the touch-and-drag input beginning within the first zone, the machine presents a first phoneme that corresponds to the first alphabetic letter, and the presenting of the first phoneme may include audio playback of the first phoneme. In response to the touch-and-drag input entering the second zone, the machine presents a second phoneme that corresponds to the second alphabetic letter, which may include audio playback of the second phoneme.

A system and method for generating an interactive story is disclosed. The system receives an audible input from a user on an electronic device comprising voice of the user reading a story. The system accesses a plurality of pre-determined triggers associated with the story read by the user, wherein the electronic device is configured to cause one or more special effects upon matching the audible input via a voice recognition algorithm and commands one or more special effect to output associated with the story. Interactive sound effects, visual effects integrated with the story book, bring the story to life by adding music, sounds and character voices.