Google’s experimental app, Look to Speak, helps people with speech and motor impairments communicate by using their eyes to select pre-written phrases and have them spoken aloud by their smartphones. After positioning the phone slightly below eye level, a user looks left, right or up to choose from a list of phrases, which the device then speaks aloud. Users can personalize words and phrases, so that they can share their authentic voice. The app is one of Google’s ‘Start with One, Invent for Many projects that all begin with one person trying to make something impactful for their community. “Now conversations can more easily happen where before there might have been silence,” says Richard Cave, speech and language therapist at Google.
Look to Speak is a ‘Start with One’ project on the “Experiments with Google” platform. It all started with an idea that could be impactful for one person and their community. Throughout the design process, we reached out to a small group of people who might benefit from a communication tool like this. What was amazing to see was how Look To Speak could work where other communication devices couldn’t easily go—for example, in outdoors, in transit, in the shower and in urgent situations. Now conversations can more easily happen where before there might have been silence, and I’m excited to hear some of them.
Picture Credit : Google