Gitex in Dubai: New platform gives hope to cancer patients about to lose their voice

People who are about to lose their voice because of an illness now have the chance to preserve their unique voices and "speak" again, thanks to a platform powered by artificial intelligence.

Online platform Larynx.ai — which has been showcased at this year's Gitex Global in Dubai — promises to "give voice to the voiceless" and change the lives of those suffering from diseases like laryngeal or thyroid cancer.

"They will not be able to talk but their voice can be heard on their smart devices,” said Shefeek Rahman, CEO of zDistanceLabs.

Using voice recordings, Larynx.ai can transform text into audio output. So, those suffering from vocal problems can simply type in some text and the AI platform will be able to read it out — in their actual voice.

In the near future, even those who have never uttered a word would be able to speak for the first time, Rahman said.

“We will be taking voice samples from their father and mother and our AI-powered platform will generate a unique voice for them, which will be their vocal identity,” he explained.

How is it possible?

An app built by Rahman’s team in Abu Dhabi facilitates the process of preserving voices.

Those who are losing their voices — because of diseases like laryngeal or thyroid cancer — will just have to read out sentences and record them through the app.

Nearly 22,000 sentences should be read to get the accuracy of their voice, said Rahman.

The captured voice will then be fed to an AI engine so it can learn and generate a neural voice modal. “In training, our engine will learn your voice nuances like style, pause, tone, etc...for different contexts,” he explained.

The portal will then generate audio based on the input by the user.

Where can it be used?

Through this platform, a user will be able to send a voice message on WhatsApp just by typing some text.

“Rather than sending a text message, the user will be able to send a voice message and maintain the communication rhythm,” said Rahman.

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