Technical support questions: 800.262.1984 / service@prc-saltillo.com
This guide applies to the Dialogue® AAC app.
Essence Overview
Essence is a language system for literate individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Following a stroke, traumatic brain injury or degenerative neurological disease such as ALS, adults may have difficulty communicating with their natural voice.
Essence offers individuals the ability to communicate at home, in the workplace or social situations, and achieve their highest level of independence and autonomy.
The Essence vocabulary designed for Dialogue AAC includes:
Pre-stored messages: Phrases and sentences for topics such as “About Me” and “Quick Hits.”
Word Prediction for faster communication.
Message storing: Save and edit messages onto a button.
Message banking: Import and automatically program banked messages from messagebanking.prc-saltillo.com and other compatible message banking websites such as mymessagebanking.com.
The Voice Keeper™ integration: Create your own synthetic voice.
Essence 60/84 Layouts
The Essence vocabulary has two options: 60- and 84-buttons. The layouts are basically the same.
➊ SPEECH DISPLAY BAR: All letters, words, and messages will appear in the speech display bar. You can change the appearance of the contents of the speech display bar by selecting Menu > Settings > Speech Display Bar. By default, when you select the speech display bar anything that is there will be spoken.
➋ KEYBOARD: The keyboard uses a standard QWERTY layout and the 123 & MORE button takes you to numbers and other keyboard characters.
➌ WORD PREDICTION: The yellow buttons are word prediction keys and when you type letters on the keyboard, potential words will appear. For example, if you type the letter “E” the most frequent words starting with “E” will appear; if you follow the “E” with an “s,” the top “es...” words appear, and so on. When you select a word on a Word Prediction button, the contents of the buttons will change to show the next most likely words to follow the word you have just chosen. This is called Next Word Prediction.
➍ SINGLE-HIT MESSAGES: The green buttons are used for custom single-hit messages. You can modify these to include personal, important messages that a client uses frequently. You can customize these buttons just like you would customize any other buttons.
➎ PRE-STORED MESSAGES: The blue buttons along the top of the page are used as links to pre-stored messages. Each button will change to a page that contains commonly used phrases or sentences. Some pages have other buttons that link to more messages.
➏ BANKED BUTTON: The BANKED button links to a special page that is used in conjunction with the Message Banking feature. If you have recorded messages to a message banking site, you can download them and import them to your Essence vocabulary. The recorded messages are automatically categorized into pages and accessed using the BANKED button.
Store a Message on a Button
On most of the pre-stored message pages, there are blank buttons available and a special key labeled STORE TEXT ON A BUTTON in the bottom right corner. Here’s how to use it to add new messages.
From the Essence home screen, select the CLEAR button to start with an empty speech display bar.
Type the message you want to save. For example: “Now that’s something you don’t see every day.”
Go to the page in the vocabulary where you want to add the message, such as the QUICK HITS page.
Select the green button labeled STORE TEXT ON A BUTTON.
Select Continue from the pop-up window that appears.
Select the blank button where you want your message to be saved.
The message is now saved on the page you chose. When you select the button, the message will appear in the speech display bar.
Import Banked Messages
Message Banking is the process whereby an individual records many sentences that can be used at a later stage when their voice begins to fail and can no longer be used reliably. These recorded messages can be stored on a message banking site, such as messagebanking.prc-saltillo.com and downloaded as a special file called a ZIP file. This file can be imported into the Essence vocabulary program using a few simple steps.
Select the Menu button, then select Settings.
Scroll down to the section with the heading Message Banking.
Select the Import button next to Import Message Bank ZIP File.
In the window that opens, find your way to the folder/location where your downloaded ZIP file can be found.
When you click on the file, you will see a window with “Importing Messages”...
When the window disappears, all the recorded messages have been imported into the device.
Select Done.
From the home page, select the BANKED button. You will see that all your messages have been assigned to pages based on how they were tagged at the message banking site.
Create Your Voice with The Voice Keeper
Make sure you have a Wi-Fi® connection.
Select Menu > Settings.
Scroll to the section Speech and select the English or Spanish voice.
Select Voz to list the available voices.
Select Create Your Voice Now, select The Voice Keeper, and select Create Your Voice Here.
Note: If you have already created a voice, select Connect to Your Voice instead.
Follow the instructions on the page that opens and go through the process of recorded speech.
Try out your voice on the website and when it is correct, follow the instructions on the site on how to send the voice to your device.
To use your voice, select Menu > Settings, scroll to the Speech section, select Voice, and you can now see and select your new voice.
Special Buttons
ALARM: This red button takes you to a page where selecting the large red tile sets off an alarm. The yellow tile with NO ALARM written on it stops the alarm and closes the page.
SHARE TEXT: Brings up a window from which you can choose how to share any text in the speech display bar. For example, share text via Email, Text Message, etc.
CURRENT DATE/TIME: This is on the TIME & DATE page and when selected displays, and speaks, “The current date and time are <Date> at <Time>.”
STORE TEXT ON A BUTTON: When selected, this copies all text that has been generated in the speech display bar since the last time the CLEAR button was used.
PAIN SCALE: On the BODY page there is a red button labeled PAIN SCALE that contains a 6-point scale from “No Pain” to “Worst.”
Back Up a Customized Vocabulary File
You can back up customized files using one of the following options: AirDrop®, DropBox®, Google Drive™, or Email.
In the Dialogue AAC app, select Vocab > Choose New Vocab.
Select Menu > Import/Export Vocab.
Select Export and then select Share.
Select the vocabulary file you want to export.
Select Done and select the method you want to use to share the file.
AirDrop: Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi must be active. You will see the nearby devices that have AirDrop on and can accept your file. Choose the device you want.
Dropbox: Requires a Dropbox account. Wi-Fi must be active or you must have the Dropbox app on your device.
Google Drive: Requires Google Drive set up on the device and access to Wi-Fi.
Email: Requires an email account set up on the device and access to Wi-Fi.
19486
