Wake Forest University educators launch firm to sell Verbal Victor app

The Wake Forest University professor who spearheaded the development of a smartphone and iPad app to help his speech-disabled son and others like him has started a company to commercialize the program.

Paúl Pauca, an associate professor of computer science, co-founded Apps for the Greater Good to commercialize the Verbal Victor app and develop new products. Pauca is working with graduate student Scott Graber, who is president of the new firm.

Pauca came up with the idea for Verbal Victor through frustration at the cost and complexity of other tools available to help children like his own son Victor, who suffers from the genetic disease Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, which delayed his ability to communicate through speech.

Verbal Victor allows parents or teachers to associate recordings of their own voices to pictures of common items, which the child can select by pushing an on-screen button. Read more.