We love using pictures. The example in the story about my son and the picture of his Grandmother is interesting because what we really found was even using a picture of “Grandma” wasn’t enough! Jon needed to see a picture not of a person, but of the place he wanted to go – in this case “Grandma’s” house. We believe it is far easier to bend the machine to the needs of the person rather than the other way around.

Of course, if you already know symbols, all you have to do is transfer them onto the standard SD card, and they immediately become photo resources Cyrano can use.

We’ve made Cyrano a fully “open” system. What I mean by that is you can use Cyrano to connect to other programs you can use on a pocket pc, for instance, Jon likes to use his Cyrano to watch his favorite movies. In fact, this has become a problem for Jon, who thinks using Cyrano for anything else is just a waste of time! Jon’s been on Cyrano movie “detox” for a couple of months now…

We try to use the full power of the machine in our application. Since Cyrano has bluetooth technology, we can use wireless keyboards and mice, and we even have a wireless set of headphones.

You are right about attaching text and voices. In picture mode, each picture block can have the picture, a text message, a label and a recording. If you don’t record a message, one of our 4 sythesized voices will speak the text message. Our four voices include 2 men and 2 women, one of each with a British accent! We LOVE these voices. They are very expressive – they can even laugh and cry.

In terms of our plans for the future, our goal is to adopt new hardware frequently to take advantage of new technology.

Here’s the big news – in November, we’ll announce our newest version of Cyrano. Based on a new machine, it will have the same screen and camera as our old unit, but it will feature a 30% increase in speed, and nearly 3 times the memory! You will be able to use this machine to text message, and it will even have a built in GPS unit!

We’re also going to add some new features to take advantage of the new operating system – here are just two:

Time Sensitive Starts: You will be able to set your schedule up in the machine, and then choose a page to start during that time. For instance, if you always go to lunch Monday through Friday at 12:00-12:30, you’ll be able to program Cyrano to start at your lunch page. You’ll be able to set as many of these events as you wish, saving keystrokes throughout the day.

Visual Fading: You’ll be able to set the pictures on your screen to fade out over time – even months from now! Once you set the fader, the pictures will slowly fade out, leaving only the sight words for communication. In this way Cyrano will be able to transition from a picture based system to a word based system, specifically tailored to the needs of the user.

Most of our improvements come directly from the recommendations of our users – and they have some great ideas!

We decided to put a lot of resources into our loan library. In part, we thought it would give us the best possible scenario for letting people see if Cyrano was a good fit, but also because the system to approve funding for a device is so complicated that we wanted our customers to be sure about Cyrano before jumping through all of those hoops.

Our program is simple. If you are a professional who wants to try Cyrano with a client, simply write us a letter on your agency letterhead requesting a 30-day loan. We would like to know a little about your client (nothing to break confidentiality, just enough so we can know how the machine is being used). We send out the devices within a few days (depending on demand and availability). Your only cost is the return freight if you decide Cyrano isn’t a good fit.

Families can borrow Cyrano too! We secure our family loans with a credit card, but of course we don’t charge the card until the family is ready.

Our only request is that if you are making progress with Cyrano, and all we have to do is work out a funding plan, we ask that you call us before you return the device because we would prefer to keep the device in your hands and keep the progress going while we wait for funding.

I know with my son, the progress we see one day may not be replicated tomorrow. You can view more information about our loan program on the web, or you can call us at 800-268-6070.

Thanks for the support! We do have some trouble getting our word out in part because we don’t currently use distributors in order to keep our price down. As an alternative, we’ve relied very heavily on our loan program and the web to introduce Cyrano.

We like the camera too – there is just something so concrete about a picture. Using pictures reduced the learning curve for my own son, who understood most of pictures immediately.

This device provides an Affordable and Innovative solution. Individuals without verbal communication abilities, families, and professionals have all commented on the ease of programming pages, the picture region pages, typing novel messages, and insert digital pictures immediately using the built in camera.

TASC will be adding this handy device to our lending library when we receive grant funding so that families can try using this device.