SpeakUnique, The Voicebank Research Project
Creating personalised digital voices for communication aids, simply and efficiently.
Condition(s)
- All neurodegenerative conditions & carers
- Motor neuron disease
About the project
Sadly, motor neurone disease and other neurological conditions can sometimes leave people unable to speak. This leads to isolation, difficulty communicating, and loss of control, dignity and personal identity.
Some people in this situation choose to use a communication aid or app that can convert text, entered on a keyboard or by eye movements, into a computerised voice. These devices are valuable, but the pre-installed generic or “off the shelf” voices provide a very limited solution.
SpeakUnique, our Voicebank Research Project, was developed to help people sound like themselves again, by providing ‘their own’ voice for use in a communication aid. A spin-out company was launched from the research company in June 2020.
Our Origins - SpeakUnique from SpeakUnique on Vimeo.
SpeakUnique was multidisciplinary project between the Anne Rowling Clinic, Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research and the Centre for Speech Technology Research at the University of Edinburgh.
To find out more please visit the SpeakUnique website at www.speakunique.co.uk
Related links
Speak:Unique case study page on the Euan MacDonald Centre website
Funder(s)
Publication(s)
N/A
