+100m people worldwide suffer from speech disorders. And yet, at no time in history has there been a solution beyond the expensive treatment of a speech therapist.

A reality that affects millions, isolating them in the work place and in society due to the low self-confidence and ability to freely communicate caused by speech pathologies.

Brief: Samsung, as part of its Technology with Purpose program and globa mobile brand platform of ‘openness’, wanted to create an accessible solution to improve the speech of 100 million people with disorders and, in this way, touch one of the pillars of the brand: communication.

Objective: Democratize, through the use of technologies that we all have at hand, a therapy available to few. An app that takes the proven rhythm therapry method out of the specialists’ clinic and into the real world, enabling people to have an invisible speech coach on their wrists.

Impulse is a haptic speech therapy to help people with speech disorders through rhythm. An AI app for Galaxy Watch and Android mobiles and tablets, designed with an embedded algorithm -Apache Open NLP- used for Natural Language Processing, which enables intelligent decoding of syllables into beats through watch's vibrometer. An invisible and inaudible digital therapist on wrist, no matter speaking language.

This multi-function app helps users in various situations through voice assistance, AI speech coach and Rhythm and Pitch exercises, all based on a subconscious tempo that activates speech neural impulses.

The application features speech wave recognition technology that compares the exercises recorded by the user with the reference dictated by a specialist and then displays a performance report.

Developed with the most advanced technologies of a modern Android app on both mobile and smartwatch, Impulse uses the Kotlin programming language and the Jetpack Compose toolkit to its interface.

-In Spain up to 1% of the population has speech-related problems. The treatment is not covered by social security and the cost of each session is around 50€, an unaffordable cost for most of the population. Even families with resources have problems, as waiting lists in private healthcare increase by 7% per year. -Anyone with speech disorders, including Alzheimer's, stroke, dementia, ALS and stuttering patients, who want to improve their speaking fluency. -Impulse is a prelude to the technological revolution we are going to experience in the world of medicine in the coming years. An innovative therapy that, thanks to mobile devices, improves patients lives at zero cost. -Impulse continues the work done by Samsung in its Technology with Purpose campaign. For over a decade, the brand has worked on more than 30 projects (Unfear, Tallk, Blind Cap, Dytective...) with an investment of +€25M to improve people's lives through technology.

Execution

The execution of the idea had 5 phases

Phase 1:

Development of Impulse, an Artificial Intelligence application to overcome speech pathologies through a haptic metronome on the wrist that translates words into rhythmic vibrations, using only the mobile phone and Galaxy Watch.

Phase 2:

Testing of the application, designed by an international medical team (Speech Care), for +6 months on people with different speech pathologies. Impulse received a user-rating of 4.5/5.

Phase 3:

Once we had tested patients and had the check from the specialists, we started to design the app. Being a digital app that works on a screen as small as the Galaxy Watch, we had to synthesise all its functions, but at the same time make it easy to understand for everyone and in different languages. To do this, we used self-explanatory icons, beat-driven animations and vibrant colours that go hand in hand with the concept of an app, so that no matter how minimalistic it is, there is a great visual and aesthetic weight to it. In addition, the design is not only aesthetic but also functional, because it is designed to not drain the battery of the mobile and, so, give the most hours of assistance to users.

Phase 4:

Impulse received the approval of the Asociación de Logopedas de España & Sociedade Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala and was then launched on Google Play and Galaxy Store.

Phase 5:

Three testimonial videos were launched based on people affected by different pathologies who tell how there are words that, more than blocking their speech, have blocked their lives.

Phase 6:

Impulse is actively expanding to other countries, in addition to offering the app in different languages. In fact, many speech therapists are using and recommending it.

After more than 6 months of testing and development were carried out in Spain, Portugal, Ghana, USA and UAE, the results are extraordinary:

·Impulse has received the endorsement of Spanish Association of Speech Therapy & Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy.

·4.5/5 user rating proves the usefulness of the Impulse treatment, as confirmed by testimonials and evaluations from different profiles with speech disorders.

·+100 speech therapy, speech therapy and audiology professionals in Spain and Portugal are already using this digital therapy with their patients (Speechcare, Tartamudez center,... clinics).

·Since the launch of the app at the end of March on download platforms such as Google Play and Galaxy Store, the news generated national and international media coverage, both in general media and specialized marketing and advertising.

·Health professionals, associations and community members helped spread the news on social media with a very positive response from patients and therapists.