Having casual conversations with friends and family may seem like a mundane activity.
However, effectively expressing oneself is more challenging for those with neurological conditions.
This struggle is much worse for children growing up with speech and other cognitive disabilities. They grapple emotionally and physically to communicate basic needs to their parents and caretakers, and this takes a toll on parents, and everyone involved in the child’s caregiving.
Science and technology have, however, always strived to find solutions to the most pressing human problems. TCS’ AI-enabled TCS intelligent speech assistant device for speech-impaired persons is the outcome of one such endeavor.
As part of a larger social innovation initiative, a TCS Rapid Innovation Labs’ team was working on designing and developing a virtual rehabilitation tool for children affected by neurological conditions. This group at TCS has been working on improving gross and fine motor movements aimed at enhancing the quality of life of such children. As part of building the solution, the team also interacted with children suffering from cerebral palsy, who had speech and communication challenges on account of their condition and found it very difficult to communicate even on basic matters with their caregivers.
Research also showed that no affordable solutions or devices were available to help them communicate.
This led to the creation of TCS intelligent speech assistant, a technology-led enabler that helps children with neuro-muscular disabilities improve their quality of life by helping them communicate more effectively.
UNICEF says that at least 93 million children live with some form of disability.
As many as 15-20% of physically disabled children have cerebral palsy.
Statistics also reveal that one in four people with cerebral palsy face problems with communication. Marginalization and exclusion from access to education are direct outcomes of this communication barrier.
Furthermore, existing communication tools in the market are generally high priced, and rarely affordable, making them impractical for most people with neurological conditions. Apart from exorbitant pricing, 80% of affected children find these devices difficult to operate.
TCS Rapid Innovation Labs has built a low-cost, intelligent, augmentative device.
The device uses cognitive speech algorithms to convert communication by children with neurological conditions into speech and helps them communicate through simple hand or head gestures.
To empathize, engage, and empower the user was the simple ethos behind designing and developing the speech assistant. The process demanded multiple interviews and interactions with children and their parents, teachers, and trainers to understand the environment and challenges of the user and caregiver better.
TCS intelligent speech assistant has been explored and tested as a communication aid for children with cerebral palsy.
This has been done across multiple schools and non-governmental organizations in the south Indian state of Kerala.
The speech device has three key modes of communication: Alert Wave, Morse Wave, and Visual Alert, which provides multiple options for communication based on the child’s motor skills.
The Alert Wave mode provides personalized notifications tailored to specific actions, allowing caregivers to receive updates based on the child's activities. It has an option to feed custom messages based on the user needs and can configure up to eight messages on the app.
Morse Wave translates actions into Morse code. This mode of communication aligns with a request from a special school whose children are familiar with Morse code.
The Visual Alert mode addresses challenges kids with speech impairments face in instances where they use hundreds of flashcards to communicate with their caregivers. With both hardware and software accessible on the child's end, the device enables caregivers or the children to select flashcards through swiping gestures, reducing the manual effort of choosing from a large set of cards.
All of these technological features are packaged in a mobile app and a small hardware device worn on the head or wrist. Through simple gestures like nodding or moving hands, children can send messages such as the need for water, a visit to the restroom, feeling hungry, wanting to go outdoors, and other such fundamental requests. These messages are encoded in binary form, a system many kids with special needs are familiar with, like Morse code.
The device was a powerful enabler during the pandemic as it ensured continual learning rehabilitation, and communication, at home.
The device won a NASSCOM award in 2021.
This intelligent device was awarded NASSCOM Engineering ER&D Awards’ Social Impact of the Year 2021. It has brought parents the life-altering experience of being able to have their children communicate and express themselves better.
The gadget has made a difference not only to the lives of many children but also their individual caregivers in the care ecosystem—such as parents, teachers, and therapists.
Apart from the emotional satisfaction of impacting several lives across three schools for neurodivergent children in Kerala, this empowerment device has also increased children's communication and learning speed. Caregivers, therapists, and teachers now find there is more time to introduce value-adding activities because these children are able to express basic needs and desires better. The children also have a higher chance of success academically. Furthermore, the device is economical and affordable compared to similar devices in the market.
The device was a powerful enabler during the pandemic as it ensured continual learning rehabilitation, and communication, at home.
The intelligent device has helped speech impaired children become more confident and independent in their everyday lives.
Furthermore, the assistant is also designed to help patients with Parkinson’s disease, those on the autism spectrum, individuals who find it difficult to articulate on account of illness, or the elderly, who struggle to communicate on account of age.
Enterprises worldwide can benefit from this assistive technology to scale their corporate social responsibility initiatives, in line with the purpose-driven 3E—empathize, engage, and empower— business model.
TCS is collaborating with numerous schools to get feedback and input on the ground and improve the device’s functionality and usefulness. The speech assistant has been presented to many global customers through TCS’ innovation summits and has been well-received as a social innovation tool with wide community impact.