Samsung launches Wemogee app to help people with speech disorders

For many mobile phone users, emoji is a fun trick that gives a yellow ball face to expressions and also saves time consumed in typing. This feature, interestingly, could also unlock a new method of online conversation for people who suffer from aphasia, a neurological disorder that prevents them from producing and understanding speech.

In a bid to help aphasia patients communicate over chat better, Samsung Italia has launched Wemogee app, that translates emojis into speech for a non-aphasia user to understand.

The app will be available for Android users from April 28, with an iOS version slated for future release.

"The aphasic patients understand emojis because they represent all aspects of the emotions," said Francesca Polini, a speech therapist and professor at the University of Milan, who also joined Samsung to create this app. "At the end of the communication, it's useful to have a clearly defined list of phrases related to immediate needs, in order to avoid having to think too much."

Wemogee replaces text phrases with emoji combinations and can be used as a messaging app or in face-to-face interactions. Users with aphasia can choose what they want to say from a list of visual options, and the app translates them into text for recipients without aphasia.

Wemogee has a list of 140 pre-set phrases made with emojis that are used in normal day-to-day life for a conversation. For example, the phrase "Would you like to go to the beach with me?" is transformed into a single text message containing four emoji, and if you respond with an enthusiastic "Ok!," the sender will get a single "ok" hand sign emoji.

Samsung performed beta testing of the Wemogge app in Italy, where more than 200,000 people suffer from aphasia, usually as a result of a traumatic brain injury. According to the National Aphasia Association, about two million Americans have the disorder and 180,000 more develop it each year.