VoiceKeep

Inspiration: In his letter, Alex wrote, “I am still me.” That stuck with our whole team. ALS takes away muscles, but it shouldn't take away the persons voice. We wanted to build something that lets that person keep being heard, in their own voice, no matter their case

What it does: ALS doesn’t begin the same way for everyone. Some people keep a clear voice early on, some start slurring first, and others lose movement in their body first. VoiceKeep is built to handle all three, with four ways to speak:

Phrase bank: while their voice is still clear, the person records the words and sentences they use most. Slurred-sound builder: when speech starts to slur, VoiceKeep matches their slurred words to their own clear recordings and builds them into sentences. Gestures: a camera picks up nods, blinks, head turns, and simple hand signs, each linked to a phrase. Eye-tracking keyboard: for later stages, since ALS usually spares eye movement.

How we built it:

We started by researching ALS and working from a case study patient. Because the disease affects everyone differently, we designed VoiceKeep to adapt to whatever ability the patient still has. Early on, the patient records their own phrases. Later, they can trigger those phrases with slurred speech, a nod, a blink, eye movement, a gesture or a switch. The device shows its best match and two backup choices, the patient nods to confirm, and the phrase plays in their own voice. Help and Cancel are always on screen.

We built the 3D model entirely in Python, using NumPy for the shapes and Pillow for the screen design. The model includes the hub, screen, camera, microphones, speaker, a flexible arm and a rail clamp, and it’s scaled to fit the 256 mm size limit. The script exports a 3D model, a printable STL file and an interactive browser viewer.

Challenges we ran into:

Accomplishments that we're proud of

VoiceKeep to us is a opportunity for individuals to gain back indivudality. It allows the retention of what belongs to them, being their voice, even after losing everything they are entitled to as a human being. Learning about people with ASL, the struggles they face, how it forms all contributed to allowing us to understand and be able to effectivley produce a product much better. We are all proud of the skills and knowledge that we came to learn and use during this years BioHack, and even if we are not winners, we are coming back from this with the knowledge and skills to someday contribute to this world in a meaningful way.