Voiceitt, a leader in commercial speech recognition for atypical speech, recently announced that people with speech impairments will be able to use the Voiceitt mobile app to access and interact with Amazon’s Alexa.
What is Voiceitt?
Voiceitt’s mission is to increase independence and quality of life for people with speech and motor disabilities. Its proprietary automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology enables people with speech impairments to access voice-activated smart assistants and to communicate and be understood by voice.
Voiceitt was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company developed the app with the mission to apply its machine learning and speech recognition technologies to help people with speech disabilities relating to stroke, degenerative disease, or developmental disorders communicate and be understood.
Leveraging the growing popularity of voice services and smart speakers, Voiceitt recognized the opportunity to expand its technology offering to facilitate not only in-person communication but also interaction with voice activated and controlled devices.
“We’re excited to work with Amazon to bring the benefits of voice technologies to a broad segment of customers who, until now, may not have been able to enjoy these products,” said Danny Weissberg, CEO and co-founder of Voiceitt. “Voice technologies are increasingly mainstream, and this Alexa integration is testament to the growing awareness among major technology players of the importance of ensuring these technologies address the diverse needs and preferences of their customers, including people whose voices deviate from standard speech. Integration of Voiceitt’s speech recognition with a powerful service like Alexa further demonstrates Voiceitt’s value proposition in a rapidly expanding industry, and of our vision to make speech recognition accessible to everyone.”
How successful was the pilot program?
The announcement follows a successful pilot with Inglis House, a long-term care wheelchair community for people with physical disabilities. In the pilot, Voiceitt worked closely with Inglis’ Assistive Technology Team to help participants with cerebral palsy and atypical speech use Voiceitt and Alexa to perform daily tasks, such as controlling channels on their TVs or playing music, independently. For people with disabilities impacting motor control, the ability to navigate their environment and control smart devices by voice, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, can decrease reliance on human caregiver support, helping to maintain social distancing practices while also opening up possibilities for more independent living.
Voice services, like Alexa, and smart home devices have increasingly demonstrated their ability to help people with disabilities rely less on the people around them. “However, commercially available solutions do not always work well for people with speech impairments, who may need them the most. Through Alexa and Voiceitt, Inglis residents and many others will be able to access these innovative technologies, for the first time.
Voiceitt’s first commercial product was a mobile app that facilitates in-person communication for people with severe speech impairments. It has been validated in several languages and with a wide variety of underlying conditions affecting speech. When the Voiceitt app is downloaded on a mobile device, Voiceitt offers an intuitive and highly personalized onboarding experience designed to accommodate the unique needs of consumers with dexterity or mobility impairments. Its network of international partners includes healthcare providers, speech and occupational therapists, researchers, and disability organizations in the United States, Israel, and throughout Europe, who participated in Voiceitt’s testing programs to help their clients communicate more easily with their families, caregivers and health professionals.
Voiceitt participated in the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, in Seattle in 2018 and is an Amazon Alexa Fund portfolio company. Additional investors include the AMIT Technion, AARP, Microsoft’s M12, Viking Maccabee Ventures, and Quake Capital. Voiceitt collaborated with AARP Innovation Labs to demonstrate and validate its products with aging adults.
When will Voiceitt be available?
Voiceitt is providing its product to a limited number of organizations and individuals through its Community Release, a program it launched in preparation for its commercial product launch in Q1 2021. To learn more about Voiceitt’s Community Release and to pre-order, visit www.voiceitt.com.
SOURCE Voiceitt
