SLS | Devpost

Inspiration

Many people, including ourselves, speak more than one language. From past experience, learning how to read and write in another language is not that bad, but when it comes to speaking and understanding it, it is difficult. The reason behind for not being able to verbally communicate better than through literacy is because you need others to verbally practice while you can read and write by yourself.

What it does

The purpose of our project is to make people enjoy studying new languages. In order to do so, we created a speaking game that requires students to translate words by saying them. If the translation is correct, the word disappears.

How I built it

We built the programs using various python applications. We used Pygame, Pyaudio, and different speech recognition programs. To create the backgrounds of the game, we use Photoshop and InDesign.

Challenges I ran into

There were multiple different concepts we had, but we were unable to effectively use two different API's at the same time. Thus, there was a time lag after the player said the word. Because of the "time crunch," we were unable to do other languages. We wanted to master one language first and then be able to add all the other ones so that we can fix any problems that come about in the beginning.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

As a group, we were able to get the program to translate Spanish words said by the player and make the program determine whether or not it matches one of the Spanish words present on the screen.

What I learned

As a team, we were able to use each others' strengths and weakness. From the beginning, we knew that we would have many challenges as we were all in different majors: computer science, electrical computer engineering, biology, and design. The seemingly stark differences in our cultures and skills made the group more effective and allowed us to bounce different creative ideas off of each other. Learning how to listen to one another and consider different perspectives ultimately resulted in creating our language game.

What's next for SLS (See it. Learn it. Speak it)

In the future, we would like to add other languages into the program so that we can have people from around the world learn any language they desire through interactive games. In the future, we will create additional levels and environments, to motivate the player through increasing difficulty and aesthetically pleasing environments. One special characteristic we hope to add is creating a section that allows two players to compete with one another in a race track themed level. In other words, two players will make the car move through the obstacle after they translate the world. The competitive, yet fun atmosphere makes the language game interesting and exciting.