Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Motor Neurone Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Within a couple of years of diagnosis, most patients end up paralysed in a wheelchair and forced to communicate via text-to-speech devices, typically with a default ‘computer’ voice. Since voices are so deeply personal this stage of the disease is particularly difficult for patients and caregivers.

Ever since the Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $115 million dollars for the ALS Association, the ALS/MND community has been eager to see breakthroughs that can improve their quality of life. Our goal was to change the way people live with ALS by giving sufferers the full use of their own authentic voices.

Most people living with Motor Neurone Disease (ALS) end up paralyzed and unable to communicate with anything but an artificial 'computer' voice, pre-recorded messages or words mechanically stitched together. All of which sound unnatural. Powered by breakthrough voice cloning technology we created Project Revoice, a program to digitally re-create the unique essence of any voice and give people with ALS the ability to speak freely and naturally in their own voice.

To launch this life-changing program we re-created the voice of Pat Quinn, co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Using only audio from old Ice Bucket Interviews we created a databank for the technology to clone Pat’s voice. We then captured the incredible moment when he finally spoke again. Project Revoice is now launching an online platform where patients across the world can easily re-create their own voices, forever changing the way people live with ALS.

To make this technology available to the wider ALS community, Project Revoice has built an online voice bank where ALS sufferers can easily record the voice material necessary for their own voice clones. By the end of 2018 these recordings will be used to create more ‘Revoices’, which users can access and ‘speak’ with via their own Assisted/Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices.

Since launch Project Revoice has inspired new hope for thousands of ALS sufferers. While the technology is currently limited to English-speaking patients only, the ultimate goal of the program is to prevent anyone diagnosed with ALS from losing their voice.