Israeli startup BarVox develops an app for people with speech impairments
Israeli startup BarVox is developing an app that converts the vocal signals of people with speech impairments into personalized and understandable speech. The solution is intended primarily for semi-verbal people, including people with autism spectrum disorders, for whom traditional alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) tools involving eye tracking or typing may not be suitable.
As The Jerusalem Post reports, the company was founded by its CEO Dror Levy. He decided to create such a tool after many years of communicating with his 27-year-old son Bar, who has autism and is semi-verbal. According to Levy, due to pronunciation difficulties, his son's speech is often understood only by family and friends.
A personal sound dictionary
The BarVox app is available on smartphones, mobile phones, and tablets. After the listening button is pressed, it continues to operate in the background, according to the description in the company's demonstration video. If the system does not recognize a particular sound, it adds it to a queue for inclusion in the user's personal dictionary.
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BarVox Chief Marketing and Financial Officer Gil Epstein said the app is meant to preserve the authenticity of a person's expression. When converting individual syllables or parts of words into complete sentences, the program does not correct errors in the user's speech, he said. The voice used to reproduce the translated message can be customized.
Pilot projects and research
BarVox is already evaluating the system's performance in two schools and one adult center and aims to launch a pilot at a day center for teenagers. The company also hopes to conduct an investment round to add features needed to enter production and launch three pilot projects with major organizations. Potential partners include ALUT, an Israeli organization that promotes the well-being of people with autism.
In addition, the startup has begun research together with the University of Haifa. The university is assessing the app's impact on the social and emotional well-being of users with speech impairments. Levy noted that there are currently no systematized statistics on the program's effectiveness, but the company is receiving user feedback and requests for additional features.
