AsTeRICS Grid

App for creating a flexible grid system that can be used for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), for Smart Home control and as a webradio or YouTube player.

Core features

These are the most important features of AsTeRICS Grid:

• Cross platform: runs on PC, Smartphone, Tablet, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS
• No installation needed, just open https://grid.asterics.eu/ in the browser
• Once loaded, AsTeRICS Grid runs offline without internet connection
• Optionally synchronize configuration using the cloud (data is end-to-end encrypted)
• Very flexible grid system, layouts are completely customizable
• Text-to-speech in various languages
• Internationalization: create grid sets in multiple languages
• Various input possibilities like Clicking, Tapping (on touchscreen), Hovering, Scanning, Keyboard, Buttons, and even more complex ones like Eye-Tracking, Head-Tracking or use of EMG muscle sensors (using the AsTeRICS Framework)
• Integrated search for open AAC symbols from https://www.opensymbols.org/
• Smart Home control (using the AsTeRICS Framework)
• Flexible keyboard layouts with word prediction and self-learning dictionaries
• Play webradios (over 25000) using radio-browser.info
• Search and play YouTube videos

Production environments

There are 3 versions of AsTeRICS Grid online:

• https://grid.asterics.eu/ current stable release
• https://grid.asterics.eu/latest/ current testing (beta) release, possibly unstable
• http://grid.asterics-foundation.org/ non-https version, but otherwise exactly the same app as https://grid.asterics.eu/ - may be used in cases where interaction with local resources (e.g. HTTP action) is needed and browsers are refusing it because of mixed content.

Documentation

See User documentation or AsTeRICS Grid Playlist on YouTube.

Also see Developer documentation (not finished, maybe outdated) and the Collaboration guide.

Run project locally

1. clone the project git clone git@github.com:asterics/AsTeRICS-Grid.git
2. install node.js https://nodejs.org/
3. install yarn, see https://yarnpkg.com/
4. go to the directory of the cloned project and run yarn install
5. run npm run start and open http://localhost:9095

Npm scripts

After yarn install the following commands are available:

1. npm run start —> starts a webserver serving the AsTeRICS grid on http://localhost:9095, does hot reloading if js-sources change.
2. npm run start-legacy —> same as start but js sources are transformed to ES5 using babel.
3. npm run start-no-live —> same as start but hot reloading is disabled.
4. npm run build —> builds the js-files in folder src to app/build folder.
5. npm run start-superlogin-dev —> runs superlogin locally and makes it possible to create “online users” within the locally running application. A local CouchDb instance is necessary in order to work.
6. npm run release -> releases the current version with a new tag and push it to gh-pages branch in order to be served at https://grid.asterics.eu/
7. npm run release-latest -> same as npm run release but with destination https://grid.asterics.eu/latest/
8. npm run test -> runs tests of the project using Jest.

Support us

While development is currently funded within research projects (see below), the non-profit AsTeRICS Foundation pays for the running server costs. If you want to contribute to these costs, you’re very welcome to donate:

Acknowledgements and Attribution

AsTeRICS Grid was developed within several funded projects:

• 2018-2019: project Toolbox for Rapid Design of Smart Homes and Assistive Technologies (ToRaDes) at the UAS Technikum Wien, funded by the City of Vienna, Project 18-04
• 2019-2023: project Knowledge Hub for Accessible Technologies (WBT) at the UAS Technikum Wien, funded by the City of Vienna, Project 26-02
• 2022-2025: project Inclusion International (In2) at the UAS Technikum Wien, funded by the City of Vienna, Project 33-02
• 2024-2025: netidee project funding for AsTeRICS Grid, Call 18
• 2024-2028: project Inclusion via digital augmentative and alternative communication (InDiKo) at the UAS Technikum Wien, funded by the City of Vienna, Project 38-09

Other people and organizations we want to thank:

• Thanks to ARASAAC for collaborating and providing their pictogram API
• Thanks to crowdin.com for providing a free open source license
• Thanks to browserstack.com for providing us free UI tests on their platform.
• Thanks to Alex Segler for the great Webradio API radio-browser.info which makes it possible to search and play webradios within AsTeRICS Grid
• Thanks to the makers of the API from opensymbols.org which makes it possible to search for open AAC symbols within AsTeRICS Grid
• Thanks to ResponsiveVoice for providing an free non-commercial version, ResponsiveVoice-NonCommercial licensed under
• Thanks to open-meteo.com, which provides free weather data, which can be displayed within AsTeRICS Grid
• Thanks to all the developers of these projects, which are all used by AsTeRICS Grid in production:
  • core-js
  • couch-auth
  • dom-i18n
  • file-saver
  • fontawesome
  • GridList
  • hls.js
  • html2canvas
  • jszip
  • jQuery
  • jQuery context menu
  • jQuery UI
  • loglevel
  • navigo
  • n-ary-huffman
  • Object Model
  • PouchDB
  • predictionary
  • Stanford Javascript Crypto Library (SJCL)
  • superlogin-client
  • Vue.js
  • Workbox

History

The AsTeRICS Grid evolved out of AsTeRICS Ergo, see AsTeRICS Ergo Master Plan and AsTeRICS Ergo Architecture and will eventually replace AsTeRICS Ergo.