Samsung has just announced Wemogee – a free app to help people with language disorders communicate their emotions effectively. Reports suggest that there are over 3 million people living with Aphasia, a disorder that causes loss of language capabilities. It is usually caused by injuries to the parts of the brain responsible for speaking, reading, and writing, and it puts a lot of negative pressure on the patient’s relationships, and their emotions. However, studies have shown that emojis can help people with Aphasia (and similar disorders) express their emotions. Francesca Polini, a speech therapist and professor at the University of Milan explains that “Aphasic patients can understand emojis because emojis depict all aspects of emotions”.
Wemogee takes this ability of Aphasic patients to understand emojis, and tries to use it to help them communicate their feelings and emotions with Aphasic, and non-Aphasic people alike. The app contains a list of over a hundred phrases that people might need to use in their day to day lives. The app categorises the phrases into 6 different categories:
- Everyday Life
- Eating and Drinking
- Feelings
- Help
- Recreational Activities
- Anniversaries and Celebrations
The Wemogee app is designed with the final recipient in mind. So, if the user is non-Aphasic, they’ll see text messages in their chat. However, if they’re communicating with an Aphasic person, the Aphasic patient will see emojis in place of the text strings. So, it’s easy for both non-Aphasic, and Aphasic people to communicate with each other using Wemogee. Not just that, Wemogee also works as a great practice tool, helping Aphasic patients in the rehabilitation treatment of Aphasia.
The Android app is already available on the Play Store, with the iOS app coming soon. With Wemogee, Samsung is hoping to help even more people communicate with their loved ones, in a manner that they can easily access and understand.
