Currently, synthetic voices for people who cannot speak come in generic voices that seem robotic and , at times, monotonous.However,a new project is gathering speed, aiming to build a custom voice for each person who requires it. To do that, they need donations.. of voices, specifically a recording of voices.

VocalID is the brainchild of two speech scientists who are transforming their research into a large worldwide project to improve lives.The voice is intensely personal, synonymous to a prosthetic limb, and is customised to each person. It doesn’t mean that the person will have the same voice as the donor, here’s how it works:

After recording two hours of clear crisp audio accompanied by a transcript, VocalID takes your recording and breaks it up into basic units of speech which can be recombined into words and sentences. Along with this, characteristics of the patient’s voice based on previous recordings of the patient and what limited sounds they can make are blended in to the donor’s voice to create a whole new voice.

Currently, VocalID is an idea in its infancy looking to expand and influence the lives of many people. It is looking for help from voice donors, speech therapists and people with expertise in similar areas as well as financial support and programmers.

There are several reasons as to why you should consider helping this project and improve lives:

-Simply,you can give someone a voice- that’s pretty powerful

-It can be an educational and reflective process- many of us don’t tend to think about our voices

– What if you lose your voice at some point in your life? A project like VocalID can help you get a voice back, but if you donate now, you could even get your own voice back

Right now, anyone can help the project, simply by donating 1 or 2 hours of time to donate your voice..

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