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<Paper uid="A94-1042">
  <Title>Guided Sentences Composition for Disabled People</Title>
  <Section position="4" start_page="205" end_page="205" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
4 The KOMBE System
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> In the framework of the EC TIDE program, we have developped by means of ILLICO, a communication aid system for disabled people : the KOMBE system.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> KOMBE is devoted to Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients (Guenthner et al., 1992). In addition to motor weaknesses, ALS patients, mainly elderly people, suffer from diseases of the central nervous system that entail increasing speech impairment and aggravate their living conditions.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> They have not lost their cognitive capacities but are unable to speek and some of them are unable to write and communicate only by eye movements. For this kind of disabled person, the computer-assisted aids developed so far offer the user relatively slow communication, composing sentences letter by letter or selecting a pre-formulated phrase or sentence. Some systems include a dictionary permitting the user to select whole words. Guided sentences composition is a more convivial way for them to communicate. Step by step, they can select on the screen for selecting words and expression dynamically synthesized by the system. Words and expressions generated by the system always lead to the construction of a lexically, syntactically and conceptually well-formed sentence.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> The following figures show an example of a partial composition of a sentence by an ALS patient communicating with a doctor.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4">  For example, the patient can compose the sentence : J'ai beaucoup de peine d plier le genou gauche (It is difficuh for me to bend my left knee).ALS patients can compose sentences about several conceptual situations. The introduction of a new situation only needs the definition of the associated conceptual model and lexicon. The grammar and the other components of the system are domain independent.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> In order to resolve the big lexicon problem, the system proposes several &amp;quot;sub-lexicon&amp;quot; of non empty intersection. This thematic division is built on tree structure and operates on the lexicon level.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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