I agree 100%, and actually emailed Maya's parents with an idea of creating an Android Tablet App, and donate a Tablet to them to test/keep. Also created a thread looking for likeminded developers here that would want to help develop such an app: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107019
If anyone is interested in hacking something cool together, send me an email: sam.granger@gmail.com
They received a few similar emails, and replied to me today. This part was regarding my idea on creating an Android App:
"App design, programming features, and all of the software-related stuff goes right over my head! I appreciate you offering your help---the best people to talk to about tech-related solutions would be the team at Speak for Yourself, who you can reach at this email address: info[@]speakforyourself.org There have been some other similar emails that have come my way, but I've just directed them all over to the SFY team. They would be the best people to ask about whether there are others to assemble."
I did send them an email, offering help, but I doubt they'd be interested since "patents" and a possible lawsuit is probably their current main concern.
To be honest, I don't think creating an app would be all that hard, and to avoid having to speak in thousands of words (which I'd consider to be the dullest part), you'd be able to generate the word sounds through Google's Text to Speech API.
At the end of the day, I hope the App gets accepted back into the store, only time will tell... In the meantime, something open source could be developed in no time.
"I did send them an email, offering help, but I doubt they'd be interested since "patents" and a possible lawsuit is probably their current main concern."
There's that, and also the "hey would you help us re-create your product so that we can give it away for free and destroy your business" angle.
You seem to think a SfY app on a different platform would not be taken down. Apple took the app down after a simple letter from the patent holder. The patent holder could have asked for relief in court, enumerating the infringing apps. IANAL, but that's a common request in patent cases, and usually granted by the court. All app stores would have to comply then, however free (or non-totalitarian), maybe even removing the already installed apps.
It could be taken off the Android market, but Google doesn't forbid alternative installation modes. It's not foolproof, but at least with Android you own the software and can install it without having to go through a corporate monolith like Google/Apple.
From a country with no software patents? IANAL either but I don't see how this could be stopped, especially in case of an app whose development had been funded via donations and which is distributed free of charge.
Say, they do distribute it this way and are found guilty of patent infringement. Would they then need to pay for each copy downloaded? I have no idea how this works, it would be really helpful if somebody with some knowledge could chime in.
I'm willing to work on an open source app - and you can do a lot with HTML5 web-based apps now and they work on any tablet since they all have browsers.
And presumably the autistic community knows about ASL, and the children who can learn it, do—it'd be greatly preferable to carrying around a multi-thousand-dollar device. I think we can assume that this child's problems leave her unable to learn ASL.
