An international project that brings together people starts from Italy Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, NeMO Clinical Centers, Nemo Lab, Translated and Dream On. Together to allow people with vocal disabilities to use an expressive voice. The initiative was presented in the presence of the Minister of Health and the Directorate General for Health of the European Commission, under the aegis of the Italian Association of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Rome, 6 February 2023 - The first "digital voice ecosystem" is born in Italy to give people affected by ALS the possibility of communicating with an artificial voice with human expressiveness. This is innovative “VOICE FOR PURPOSE”, la platform, of digital technology that sees the involvement of Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, NeMO Clinical Centers, Nemo Lab, Translated, Dream On and AISLA.
With the video message from the President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia MELONS, the project was presented in the Roman headquarters of the European Parliament with greetings from the MEP Nicola PROCACCINI and the interventions of the Minister of Health Orazio SHALL US andSandra GALLINA – Director General Directorate General of Health and Food Safety (SANTE) - and the video message from the WHO Director General, TEDROS Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Born from an intuition of Pino Insegno, actor and voice actor who put the voice at the center of his life, “VOICE FOR PURPOSE” it is a real "library of voices" with a dual value. While on the one hand it will allow people who have lost their speech to choose an expressive one from all those that will be donated by people from all over the world; on the other hand it will allow you to "save" your voice by recording it. A possibility, the latter, which will be accessible to all those who still have the ability to speak, so that in the future no one will be forced to speak with a metallic voice when the disease comes to affect it.
“When you dream intensely about something and you meet people like you who are capable of being amazed by new things - has explained Pino I teach, actor and voice actor from whose intuition the platform was born - it means that the dream can become reality, that your vision can materialize. This is the experience we are having with "Voice with Purpose": I have met highly sensitive scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs along the way with whom we are transforming my intuition into tools that through the voice can give new well-being to those who suffer and a new relationship perspective".
"The project presented today represents an extraordinary example of excellence in improving the quality of life of those suffering from ALS – said the MEP Procaccini - I am very pleased that the initiative was presented in the space of the European Parliament in Rome. An important moment to raise awareness among people to donate their voice to give the word to those who are less fortunate".
“VOICE FOR PURPOSE” is the first stage of an innovative journey which will develop in the coming years and which already today allows the most advanced speech synthesis technologies to be applied to return to communicating more easily.
“Those who experience a neuromuscular pathology must deal with physical limits every day and in this sense technology represents a fundamental tool at the service of everyone's need for autonomy. - ofchiara Stefano Regondi, general director of NeMO Clinical Centers and Nemo Lab, which continues – This is the mission of our technological hub which was born in the wake of fifteen years of experience, research and care of the NeMO Centers with which we have taken care of around 20 thousand patients in recent years. With this awareness and responsibility, it is a privilege for us to share this research path with partners of high scientific excellence." Operational from 2021, Nemo Lab, in fact, with its ten laboratories, is the first Italian technological hub exclusively dedicated to neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases.
“It's amazing to see how the AI voices we develop help people communicate with each other - Said Fabio Minazzi, Director of Audiovisual at Translated - Making this project work requires the ability to scale on artificial voices, to meet the needs of people in different conditions. Every day we learn something new and improve the project through collaboration with patients. Overall, we are proud to offer our knowledge and computing power to this initiative that contributes to people's quality of life."
A result strongly desired by those who work with the voice every day and work for the well-being of people with the aim of development easy-to-use interfaces, capable of returning a flexible and capable voice express moods, emotions and concerns more and more realistically.
“The alliance between technologies, research and clinics that starts from the “Voice For Purpose” platform and aims at the “Digital Ecosystem of the Voice” - stressed Eugenio Guglielmelli, rector ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and scientific director of the Don Foundation Carlo Gnocchi - represents an important opportunity to accelerate the development of more effective and efficient tools to give people who can no longer speak a speed and expressive coherence that is increasingly similar to their real intention. With our research units we will work on the development of advanced intelligent systems which, also through the data provided by some monitorable physiological parameters, make it possible to make the patient's intention and state perceivable to give him a greater capacity for communication and social interaction to support of the quality of his independent life".
“VOICE FOR PURPOSE” presents itself as an important piece of a broad initiative which in the coming years will build a real “Digital voice ecosystem”, the first which will bring together the neuroscience with digital technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced sensors and robotics, restoring the voice with all its expressive capabilities.
“The loss of the ability to speak with one's own voice is one of the causes of greatest suffering for people with ALS and their families. - Ofchiara Fulvia Massimelli, president of AISLA Italian Association of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which continues - We strongly believe in this project because it gives us the opportunity not only to have a human voice again but, above all, to restore soul and identity to our relationships. Days like today demonstrate how the enlightened alliance between institutions and the scientific community is capable of concretely placing itself at the service of the Common Good starting from listening to needs. Pino Insegno's commitment goes beyond the limits of illness, allowing us to share our desire for life."
And this value was transferred in all its strength by Paul zanini, National Councilor of AISLA, user of a communicator with eye pointer for nine years. His video message with the vocal synthesis of Pino Insegno's voice was the true testimony of what it means to invest in a technology that responds to everyone's desire for life.