Postgraduate Research Symposium 2025

Towards a Generative Pictographic System for Cognitive Accessibility and Inclusive Communication

Herbert Spencer González
PhD Student in Design
See this presentation at herbertspencer.net/prs
Supervisors
Dr. Marcos Steagall
Dr. Ivana Nakarada-Kordic
Advisor
Dr. Welby Ings

My family

PICTOS SERVICE ARCHITECTURE

How can a generative pictographic system be designed to support communication for people with complex communication needs?

Core Board as used in New Zealand

Text as Image

PictoNet Generative Pipeline

From text input to adaptive pictogram output

65 semantic primes

Substantives

  • I
  • YOU
  • SOMEONE / PERSON
  • SOMETHING / THING
  • BODY
  • PEOPLE

Determiners & Quantifiers

  • THIS
  • THE SAME
  • OTHER / ELSE
  • ONE
  • TWO
  • MANY / MUCH
  • SOME / A FEW
  • ALL
  • THERE IS / EXISTS
  • HAVE (PARTS)

Actions & Events

  • DO
  • HAPPEN
  • MOVE
  • TOUCH

Mental Predicates

  • THINK
  • KNOW
  • WANT
  • FEEL
  • SEE
  • HEAR

Speech

  • SAY
  • WORD
  • TRUE

Time & Place

  • WHEN / TIME
  • NOW
  • BEFORE
  • AFTER
  • A LONG TIME
  • A SHORT TIME
  • WHERE / PLACE
  • HERE
  • ABOVE
  • BELOW
  • FAR
  • NEAR
  • SIDE
  • INSIDE

Logical Concepts

  • NOT / NO
  • MAYBE
  • CAN
  • BECAUSE
  • IF

Evaluators & Descriptors

  • GOOD
  • BAD
  • BIG
  • SMALL
  • VERY
  • LIKE / AS

Thank you! any questions or comments?

Herbert Spencer González

Please continue the conversation: herbert.spencer@aut.ac.nz

This presentation lives at herbertspencer.net/prs.
Source code at github.com/hspencer/prs

Open Source