If you’ve been using text messages for any amount of time at all, chances are you’ve suffered one of the most common side effects of this thoroughly modern form of communication: misunderstandings caused by the lack of emotional context. When you’re talking to someone in person it’s easy to change your inflection or facial expressions, but when texting the words are all there is. A team of engineers at the University of Cambridge and Toshiba’s Cambridge Research Lab have created a high-tech solution to this problem, and its name is Zoe.

The program uses the face and voice of actress Zoe Lister to express messages in an actual human voice, although future versions could allow you to upload your own voice and face. Although this is what Facetime and Skype are for, the program that runs Zoe would let you send messages silently by typing, allowing for privacy in a public setting. Zoe’s face and voice can express six emotions: happy, sad, tender, angry, afraid and neutral. The message sender can adjust the tone, pitch and speed of the voice to alter the intended meaning. Thanks to the amount of expression possible with the Zoe head, the program isn’t only perfect for communication; it can also be used to help autistic kids read emotions and to help deaf kids read lips.

The post Emotion-Expressing Visage to Turn Texting on its Head first appeared on Gajitz.

When you’re reading a text message and someone sends an Emoji, do you ever make a little sound in your head to go along with the picture? The TeleSound is a cute little speaker that puts sound to over 1000 Emoji icons, letting you send a unique kind of message to your friends.

Styled after a vintage rotary phone, the small round speaker is wireless and features Bluetooth connectivity to your smartphone or tablet. People on your friends list send Emojis to you and they’re automatically played as sounds from your TeleSound. It’s kind of like a language, with every character representing its own unique sound.

If you get sick of the sounds and want to escape for a while, you can just turn the TeleSound upside down to go offline. When you get more than 30 feet (10 yards) away from the speaker you’ll go out of range, but when you get back into range you’ll be automatically re-connected.

The project is on Kickstarter to raise funds for their first round of production. You can back the project and get your own TeleSound in a variety of colors. Even if none of your friends get their own, you can use the TeleSound’s “play” mode to just mess around with all of the sounds.

The post Sounds Emotional: Little Speaker Gives Voice to 1000 Emojis first appeared on Gajitz.

Do you ever see a car that’s about to get ticketed or towed and wish you could warn the owner? Or maybe you’re just really sick of people parking like idiots and would love to get in touch with them to let them know exactly what they’re doing wrong. CurbTXT, a new service launching in San Francisco, makes it possible for drivers to communicate with each other anonymously – and we’d love to see it become available in the rest of the U.S.

Drivers have to register with the service and put a CurbTXT sticker on their car. After that, anyone passing by can send a text message to the registered car using the license plate number and the CurbTXT number. The recipient never knows who sent the message but might just avoid a ticket thanks to the helpful sender. And if someone decides to get a little obnoxious with their texts, the recipient can always block that person’s messages.

The post Poorly Parking Neighbors? Alert Them With Anonymous Texts first appeared on Gajitz.

If you’re over the age of 25 or so and engage in regular text messaging with people under the age of 25 or so, chances are you’ve spent some time with a nasty headache trying to figure out what those young folks are saying in their texts. They’ve invented a bizarre new language known as text speak that is all but incomprehensible to the uninitiated. British software developer DCML conducted a survey which concluded that 84 percent of parents have received text messages from their kids which they couldn’t decipher. That same software developer is coming to the rescue with an Android app called TextGenie.

TextGenie is a translation app that runs alongside a user’s regular texting ap. It comes with a dictionary of 1500 words and phrases pre-installed, with the ability to be added onto as users learn new acronyms and phrases. As text messages come in, TextGenie translates them into plain English so you can understand every word. Of course, if you really wanted to look cool to the younger crowd you’d have to get another app to translate your plain English texts into text speak when you send them – but that’s an app that hasn’t been invented yet. You can download TextGenie for £0.89 (about $1.40 US).

The post Android App Translates Text Speak Phrases For Unhip Adults first appeared on Gajitz.

Ever since everyone started carrying phones around and texting their friends 20 hours a day, there’s been a steep rise in sidewalk collisions (probably). It’s not easy to see that light post coming up in front of you when there’s a screen permanently installed a few inches in front of your face. That is, until you install the Type n Walk app that lets you see where you’re going while you’re texting.

The clever app uses your iPhone’s camera to give you a kind of x-ray vision while you’re walking along with your nose stuck to your screen. It makes your texting window transparent too, letting you see both the conversation and your surroundings…and maybe preventing some really painful concussions. It seems worth it for less than a dollar.

The post Heads Up! Texting and Walking: There’s an App For That first appeared on Gajitz.