Skip to main content

Samsung's innovative emoji app could be a real boon for its target audience

Samsung Wemogee
While some may consider emojis a frivolous absurdity that serve to undermine more traditional forms of communication, others see them simply as a fun way to spice up chat messages or as an effective way to clarify a point.

Researchers at Samsung Italia, however, are adamant that the colorful pictograms offer an amazing opportunity to help those with a particular type of brain condition to communicate in a more meaningful and rewarding way.

The team focused on aphasia, a complex neurological disorder that affects the ability to understand and formulate language. According to Samsung, more than 3 million people worldwide have the condition, which is most often caused by an injury to the brain. For example, 30 percent of those who suffer a stroke experience a form of aphasia as a result.

Working with a group of speech therapists, Samsung Italia set about developing a new emoji-based app to give those with aphasia an opportunity to communicate more effectively with others.

It’s called Wemogee, and it includes a library of more than 140 phrases related to basic needs and emotional expressions.

“The predefined phrases are translated into logical sequences of emojis and are divided into six main categories including: Everyday life, eating and drinking, feelings, help, recreational activities, and anniversaries and celebrations,” Samsung explained in a release.

To use Wemogee, an aphasic patient first selects what it is they’d like to communicate by choosing from a list of visual options. Once they select the relevant emoji sequence, they can send it off to the nonaphasic recipient, who will see the message in text form. To reply, the procedure is reversed, with the recipient selecting from preset text phrases that are then converted into emojis for the aphasic patient. You can see Wemogee in action in the video above (it starts at the 2:24 mark).

“Aphasic patients understand emojis because they depict all aspects of emotions,” Francesca Polini, a speech therapist and professor at the University of Milan who helped develop Wemogee, said in the release. “The use of gestures, images and facial expressions is a function perfectly preserved in understanding and often also in the production of language.”

Samsung suggests Wemogee can function as a home practicing tool to complement other rehabilitation techniques for aphasia. In other words, the app can be used not only for long-distance communication as a messaging app, but also as a support for face-to-face interactions.

Wemogee is available for free on Android, while an iOS version is listed as “coming soon.”

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Galaxy S22 release date rumored for January; Samsung misses 2021 sales targets
Person holding the Samsung Galaxy s21 in purple lighting.

Samsung might be releasing the Galaxy S22 in January as opposed to March, when Mobile World Congress takes place. The company initially shifted its launch of the Galaxy S21 to January earlier this year, and now a new report from The Elec hints that this change might not be temporary.

The report claims that Samsung is already planning to ship the S22 in January, with a mass production ramp-up in November. Rumors around the S22 have already begun to trickle out, indicating a refined S21 more than a generational leap. The biggest change is reported to be Samsung fitting what is essentially the S21 Ultra's zoom camera on all the S22 variants, a change that would give the entire S22-series one of the best Android camera phones on the market, rather than just the Ultra.

Read more
Samsung targets the Sonos Arc with its $900 HW-Q800A Dolby Atmos soundbar
Samsung HW-Q700A soundbar

We're still waiting for pricing on Samsung's MicroLED TV and its full 2021 TV and soundbar lineup, but the company has announced pre-order pricing and availability on three of its new soundbars, including the HW-Q800A -- the model that edges in right under the HW-Q950A flagship. Earlier this month Samsung opened pre-orders for its Neo QLED TV models, in both 4K and 8K versions.  There are still plenty of models and sizes missing from Samsung's full 2021 TV list, but here's what we know so far (we'll update this list as more pricing info gets announced).

We'll cover TV models first, with the 2021 soundbars below.
2021 Samsung 8K Neo QLED TV

Read more
Is the Galaxy Note 21 canceled? Samsung suggests it’s possible
Common Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra problems and how to fix them.

Samsung might be skipping the Galaxy Note line for this year, forgoing a Galaxy Note 21, the company admitted at a shareholder meeting.

In comments shared by the Verge, Samsung co-CEO DJ Koh said: “[The] Note series is positioned as a high-end model in our business portfolio. It could be a burden to unveil two flagship models in a year, so it might be difficult to release [a] Note model in 2H. The timing of [the] Note model launch can be changed, but we seek to release a Note model next year.”

Read more