Students of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) joining the “LexiPal – Kinect-based Dyslexia Therapy” team have earned the Gold Medal for Best Technology in International ICT Innovative Service Contest (InnoServe Contest) 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan. This is the 17th round of the InnoServe Contest, a competition arena for ICT (Information and Communication Technology) applications held in Taiwan for undergraduate and graduate students. "The contest is a collaboration between the government of Taiwan and Taiwan Academic Association that has the aim to accommodate student’s aspirations to present their ICT work as well as to promote collaborations between academics, industry and government,” said Muhamad Risqi Utama Saputra on the Campus of UGM, Tuesday (20/11).
Muhamad Risqi explained that the LexiPal team formerly consisted of Muhamad Risqi Utama Saputra (Fasttrack JTETI UGM), Vremita Desectia Amretasari (French Literature UGM), Kuntoro Adi Nugroho (Fasttrack JTETI UGM), and Vina Sectiana Amretadewi (JTETI UGM), with their mentor, Dr. Ridi Ferdiana, S.T., M.T. (lecturer of JTETI UGM). The team was established by the end of 2011 for the Software Design – Imagine Cup 2012 competition. After the Imagine Cup 2012, development has been done by three persons, Risqi, Vremita, and Vina.
Muhamad Risqi said that LexiPal is an application to run Dyslexia therapy effectively and enjoyably using Microsoft Kinect. Dyslexia is a condition of learning disabilities that cause difficulties in reading.
"Dyslexia is difficult to treat medically, but the effect can be minimised through therapy or treatment. The problem is that the Dyslexia therapy is often very monotonous, using paper or board which makes children with Dyslexia bored while they have to do it for months or even years depending on their condition,” Muh Risqi said.
Muh Risqi added that often children with Dyslexia are frustrated, stressed or refused to go to school or even commit suicide or commit crimes. Therefore, the LexiPal team created an enjoyable therapy for Dyslexia through gamification using Microsoft Kinect. One of the features is Spelling/Pronouncing Game, a game to encourage children to pronounce a difficult alphabet/word. “The chid with Dyslexia is requested to utter the proper alphabet/word and the application will analyse it through speech recognition in Kinect. Everytime the child is able to utter the word correctly, a monkey in the application will climb up to get the banana and the application will reward a point for their success in the therapy,” he said.
Before the success in the InnoServe Contest on 9 November 2012, LexiPal team had earned some awards, namely second winner in the Software Design Imagine Cup Indonesia 2012 and first winner in the Indonesia ICT Award (INAICTA) 2012 for higher learning – Application category. Later in December, LexiPal will join the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA) 2012 in Brunei Darussalam. "We hope the LexiPal team will keep making UGM and Indonesia famous and the technology can be applied for society,” he concluded.