Talkitt - App/ Software That Lets People With Speech Impairment Communicate In Any Language Using Their Voice

In many cases, disabled users with speech disorders find it extremely difficult to communicate, primarily because people around them have difficulty understanding their speech. Speech disabilities can be caused by a variety of conditions including Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Brain Damage, Parkinson's and many more. It is a struggle not just for those who have speech disorders but also for their caregivers and loved ones. In the recent past, various companies have come up with text to speech apps and software that let users either type or choose words that are spoken by the app, and thus help the users communicate. However, the one aspect that these apps sideline is the fact that the users are very much capable of speech and would ideally like to use their natural mode of communication.

Talkitt, a new "speech to speech" app in the works, plans to give disabled users more freedom and expression in the most natural way possible - it helps them communicate by just using their voice. Talkitt has the ability to recognize the user's vocal patterns and translate them into words that are more understandable. As you will see in the video below, it does a very good job of translating unintelligible pronunciation into perfect sentences with utmost accuracy. This also means that Talkitt works very well with any spectrum of speech severity - from mild to extreme.The best part about this app is that it is not just limited to English - it can translate any language the user is speaking! 

The accuracy of this app will let users gain more confidence, and encourage them more to use their speech to communicate, not to mention that it will make communicating easier and convenient for their family, friends, and caregivers as well.

Very soon, Talkitt will be available on all smartphones and tablets. The next phase will see it run on computers and wearable devices, giving much more flexibility to users wherever they are. Once Talkitt is available, there will be a monthly subscription charge of $19.99 per month.

Currently, it is being tested by various partners and hospitals in Israel and Europe, and there is also a Indiegogo funding campaign going through which the team behind Talkitt is raising money to get it out to the masses quick (as soon as Q1 of 2015). Visit the Indiegogo page if you want to contribute to this campaign.

Definitely watch the video below to see the inspiration behind this app and what the team is doing to make this app a reality.

Indiegogo page
Source: Trackitt via Engadget

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VocaliD: Donating Your Voice To People With Speech Impairment

We never give too much attention to our voice - it is one of the things we take for granted. However, there are millions of people around the world who were either born with a speech impairment or lost their voice because of a stroke, or some serious disease like Parkinson's or Cerebral Palsy. Learning new ways to communicate either using sign language or any other accessible device with limited/generic synthetic voices may not be a weapon of choice for many, especially the ones who lose their perfect voice later in their lives because of a disease.

That is where VocaliD comes into the picture. VocaliD is a company that is trying to bridge all sorts of gaps and helping people with speech impairments communicate using natural voices. 

But what does that exactly mean?

VocaliD consists of a team led by Dr. Patel who listens to the limited sounds of patients with speech impairments. These sounds help the team understand what this person's voice may sound like if it were high pitched, raspy, etc. Once they have the patient's sounds, they look for a surrogate - a person of the same age and sex who has no speech impairment. This surrogate is made to record thousands of sample sentences (from books like White Fang, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Velveteen Rabbit). The two voices of the patient and surrogate are then blended and broken down into tiny units of sound that can then be used to construct words! The hybrid of the two voices makes the final voice very natural and personalized,  and not so synthetic.

(To read more technical details on how this is done, go here.)

This is a big improvement in communication because the listener gets more information from how a person speaks than just the content of what they say. 

Currently, the process requires that the surrogate come to a studio to record their voice but VocaliD plans to release a phone or web app so that anyone could record their voice from locations most convenient to them (their home, for example). This makes more sense because recording thousands of sentences takes many hours, and surrogates who volunteer to donate their voices would ideally like to do it in 15 - 20 minute sessions over a period of days. The team is also planning on creating a game to encourage children to record their voices.

VocaliD is looking for volunteers from around the world to donate their voices, and if you are interested, head to their website to sign up.

If you are interested in receiving a personalized voice, you can sign up for that here.

Website: vocalid.org

Source: NewScientist 

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Sprint Speech-to-Speech: Service For People With Speech Disabilities

Sprint has started a new service for people with speech disabilities who may not be comfortable directly talking to other people due to their speech impairment/ unclear speech. The service is called Sprint Speech-to-Speech.

People with speech impairment have to deal quite many hurdles while talking on the phone - they can be easily misunderstood because of unclear speech. Of course, there's always the "What? I can't understand you" aspect of the process they have to face too. Last, but not the least, they have to depend on family and friends to make phone calls for them.

Now these folks can simply call 877 787 2660 (or *787) in the United States to connect to the Sprint Speech-to-Speech service that has specially trained operators. The caller can communicate their message to these operators and ask them to either repeat every word or just the important ones to the party for whom the call is intended. 


Sometimes these calls can get very long and tiring, and for that very reason Sprint has also introduced My Email Set Up. This service allows the users to send an email to the operator with the name and number of the person to be called, subject and message of the call, and any other instructions that would make the call easier for the operator.


These services are available 24/7 at no extra cost for Sprint customers.


Hit the source link to read more about these services.


Source: Sprint via Engadget

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