Intel, Dell Technologies, Rolls-Royce, and the UK-based Motor Neurone Disease Association have announced the launch of I Will Always Be Me, a ‘digital storybook’ to help people diagnosed with motor neurone disease to ‘preserve their voice.’ Through this new interactive website, anyone can record their voice by reading a 1,000-word story to create a digital voice bank to help people with motor neurone disease (MND) community. The technology will essentially help people with MND to communicate with others in their own voice or use phrases recorded by others. The website also aims to highlight the complexity and challenges of living with MND “as told through the voices of people living with MND."
What is Motor Neurone Disease
Motor Neurone Disease is defined as a condition that affects brains and nerves, leading to speech impairments. At this point, there’s no cure, but there are technologies available to help people communicate. The UK-based MND Association highlights that one of every 300 people will be diagnosed with MND at some point in time.
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who passed away in 2018, is perhaps the most well-known individual credited for his work on general relativity and cosmology, despite being diagnosed with ALS.
How Does ‘I Will Always Be Me’ Help People with MND
In a blog post, Intel explains the recorded vocals are turned into a “digital voice" that individuals living with MND can use on any assistive speech device. The ‘I Will Always Be Me’ website, which is also live at this point, contains illustrations by many artists and voices provided by people living with MND.
It also notes that the recording process requires payment, but if you live in the UK, you can apply for funding from the MND Association or MND Scotland once your recording is available and ready. In the FAQ section, the I Will Always Be Me website highlights that Dell Technologies will provide laptops that could be “loaned to anyone who needs and wants to bank their voice". For regular users who want to contribute towards this digital voice project, it will cost GBP 200 (roughly Rs 20,000) to avail of the service. It appears the website is currently offering services to users in the UK.
What Roles Intel, Dell Technologies, and Rolls-Royce Are Playing in This Initiative
Intel says the company is providing expertise across multiple areas, including shaping the site’s user experience and accessibility. Intel-based servers also provide the computing power required to analyse, process and digitise a voice.
Darryl Adams, director of accessibility at Intel said in the blog post, “Together with our partners, we are bringing voice banking and digitisation technology from a niche use case to a mainstream audience while discovering innovation pathways for how technology can address more accessibility challenges."
On the other hand, Dell seemingly reached out to Intel in 2020, to help build the interactive website. As mentioned, the company is donating Intel-powered laptops to the MND Association, to allow more people to record their voices.
Roll-Royce is also offering capital to help build the interactive site. The Intel blog post notes that the project is close to Stuart Moss, head of IT innovation at Rolls-Royce, who lost his father to MND on Christmas Day eight years ago.
Alternative Projects
While the project by the three companies in partnership with MND Association is thoughtful, select tech companies are also undertaking innovations to increase the awareness regarding MND. Google had launched the ‘Look to Speak’ app in December 2020 to help people with speech impairments to communicate with their eye moments. The app’s services were extended to users in India in November 2021.
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