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Lightwriter SL40 - Not just a smooth talker |
STI components are being used in an innovative communication aid for people with impaired speech.
Founded in 1973 Toby Churchill Ltd, based in Cambridge, is the fourth largest manufacturer of communication aids in the world.
Toby Churchill himself became disabled and lost his speech in the late 1960s. Dissatisfied with the communication aids then available, he started to design communication tools for his personal use, and after meeting other people with similar needs, started a manufacturing business to make the products more widely available.
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The new Lightwriter SL40 is an exciting text-to-speech aid, which helps the user to communicate widely and to control their environment.
STI was selected to manufacture the advanced embedded Linux processor boards. The Balloon 3, its latest product, was designed in collaboration with the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) and has been used by Cambridge University Engineering Department in undergraduate teaching plus in several external data monitoring projects run by CUED.
The board will form the processing core of the new SL40 providing a valuable demonstration of the effectiveness of the Balloon board “in product”. The system is formed around the PXA270 processor coupled with configurable logic and high density IO connectors. The design is highly configurable and can be adapted to different requirements by using alternative fit options on the same PCB.
By having a common PCB, component stock and Linux environment for all the different configurations, both product development and end product can be delivered on exactly the same hardware, thus reducing both development and transition time to final product.
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