Improve Your Public Speaking Skills with These Top Apps

How to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking: Rhema, The Smart Glass App

Public speaking can be a daunting task, and for many of us, the thought of it is worse than death itself. But don't worry, you're not alone. Fortunately, there is a solution to help ease your nerves.

Introducing Rhema, a smart glass app developed by researchers at the University of Rochester's Human-Computer Interaction Group. This innovative app provides real-time feedback on volume modulation and speaking rate by uploading speakers' audio. Rhema is named after the Greek word for "utterance" and is designed to help those who are not naturally gifted at speaking in public.

The app's goal is to provide feedback to speakers without causing any visible unnatural behaviors such as stuttering or awkward pausing. With Rhema, you can conquer your fear of public speaking and become a confident and effective speaker.

To determine the best method for this, the researchers had 30 subjects test out different indicators -- from a traffic light blinker to words and graphs. The most helpful, they determined, was a system that every 20 seconds flashes advice ("louder," "slower," or nothing if speaker is en pointe.)

Overall, participants reported that the app helped them improve their delivery.

The app's usefulness could extend beyond public speaking, the authors theorize, by potentially helping individuals with social difficulties, such as autism, as well as the efficacy of people working in sales or customer service.

Rhema is available for download here, although keep in mind it only runs on Google Glass.