Case Study
The ALS Association: Project Revoice
Nakatomi and The Power Of Speaking In Your Own Voice
ALS — also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — robs those who suffer from it their voice. Alongside loss of motor function and cognitive changes, ALS patients are left literally silent, unable to call out to their friends and families, and forced to find new ways to communicate.
That’s why Nakatomi, in collaboration with the technology firm Lyrebird and our friends at BWMDentsu, developed Project Revoice.
Using a deep learning algorithm to analyse the DNA of a person’s voice in order to create a complete digital vocal clone, the system allows those with text-to-speech devices to speak freely and naturally in their own voice, even after they physically can’t.
Using a deep learning algorithm to analyse the DNA of a person’s voice in order to create a complete digital vocal clone, the system allows those with text-to-speech devices to speak freely and naturally in their own voice, even after they physically can’t.
Rather than the alien, smooth textures of the text-to-speech devices’ natural setting, Project Revoice allows ALS sufferers to speak in their own natural cadence, and tone.
Those involved in the project record, or “bank”, their voice before they lose it, providing the samples that are then transformed by the software into the technologically-augmented speech.
One of the most high-profile beneficiaries of the Project Revoice initiative was Pat Quinn. Well-known for his advocacy work – he is one of the masterminds behind the ice bucket challenge — as well as his highly-publicised battle with ALS, Quinn had not banked his voice before the illness robbed him of it.
However, using old interviews and speeches in place of the usual process of banking, the team at Nakatomi were able to recreate his voice — giving Pat, a man who had been a voice for so many, his own voice back.
Watch the video here.