Evaluation of the prototype mobile phone app Pugh: a 3D cartoon character designed to help deaf children to speech read

Pugh, a 3D cartoon character, is a prototype smartphone application developed at the University of Salford. Its purpose is to provide speech-reading exercises for hard of hearing and deaf children. This paper discusses the design of the application, the test process and acknowledges that the technological limitations of the platform and the character’s non-human characteristics provide some interesting challenges. A preliminary test was conducted to evaluate speech perception and lipreading from Pugh. The findings proved that Pugh is not an accurate speaker. Further development of the lip movement and facial expressions is required in order to achieve accuracy.