TTC #256 An App That Understands Speech Impairment

Talkitt was designed to help people who have been speech impaired after a stroke, Parkinson's, Cerebral Palsy or other diseases and afflictions that may cause speech impairment. Stephanie Anais Cohen, Strategic Advisor for Voiceitt, explains how Talkitt adapts to intelligible speech by considering it a form of language accent, evolving with the user to essentially almost think and interpret the context of what they are trying to say with voice. The vocabulary -dictionary of terms- they have created for the application and the system, learns as it goes and adapts to the user achieving higher recognition in a shorter calibration time. The technology is working to understand what you want to say and "the person does not need to practice and practice," says Stephanie. The company is working on collaborations with Apple and IBM with the goal to have the application available around the world. Voiceitt encourages anyone who is experiencing speech impairment to go to their website and join up, record their voice and contribute to the expansion of the vocabulary database they are creating. Recording is free and anyone who can, and wants to, is welcome to try and record their voice. The system requires a minimal ability to speak even in intelligible sounds.
The program is in beta testing and is expected to be launched for public use soon. Stephanie also told us Voiceitt is thinking of working on a medical device to expand on the usefulness of Talkitt. Interviewed by Venetia Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.