The development of ICU-Talk: a communication aid for patients in intensive care units

ICU-Talk is a three year collaborative research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), to develop and evaluate a communication aid for patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) who are temporarily unable to speak due to intubation. The project is staffed by a software engineer, an ICU nurse, a speech and language therapist and a PhD student. The paper outlines the development of ICU-Talk and the results from the first nine months of the project.