Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Motor Neurone Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Within a couple of years of diagnosis, most patients end up paralyzed in a wheelchair and forced to communicate via text-to-speech devices, typically with a default ‘computer’ voice, pre-recorded sentences or words mechanically stitched together. Our goal was to change the way people live with ALS by giving sufferers the full use of their own authentic voices.

 

Project Revoice uses a unique deep learning algorithm to analyze the DNA of a person’s voice and create a complete digital voice clone, from just 2-3 hours of recorded audio. When integrated with text-to-speech devices, this gives people with ALS the ability to speak freely and naturally in their own voice, even after they lose it.

 

We launched the program by recreating the voice of Pat Quinn, ALS sufferer and co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge, using old interviews and speeches found online. After sourcing over 100 individual files of varying quality, we manually analyzed, cleaned up and transcribed every usable section to create a small but unified data bank for the algorithm to work with. We then integrated Pat’s Revoice with his eye-tracking computer and captured the moment when he finally spoke again.

 

Since launch, Project Revoice has had an earned reach of more than 900 million, with 41 million people joining the conversation on social media. Most importantly, over 500 patients joined the program in the first month alone. Going forward, this program will change how people live with ALS worldwide.