AI voice for the mute

Dresden, 22 June 2023: Innovative sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to give mute people a voice again in the future. To this end, the Dresden-based company „Altavo“ and TU Dresden have joined forces within the „Semeco“network and are now receiving 3.1 million euros in EU funding. This was announced today in Dresden by the Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Radar sensors recognise soundless speech movements

The aim is to help „voiceless people regain their own, natural-sounding voice“, according to the ministerial brief description. Specifically, the Altavo founders had developed special radar sensors during their time at the TU Dresden that are attached to the patient's neck or cheek and can recognise soundless speech movements. The engineers are now coupling the embedded sensors with an AI. Their neural networks are designed to convert the signals directly into audible speech.

The focus is on people who have had their larynx removed due to cancer surgery and are no longer able to speak clearly after such a „laryngectomy“. However, the ten-strong Altavo team also sees possible application scenarios in voice rehabilitation and non-medical applications.

The 2.4 million euro funding decision for the company will be handed over by Economics Minister Martin Dulig (SPD) at the end of June. He will also visit the new company headquarters of „Altavo“ on Bamberger Straß, find out about the progress made in the future cluster „Semeco“ and its sub-project „B3 Music“. The TU Dresden will receive the remaining 700,000 euros. The money comes from the „European Regional Development Fund“ (Efre) and its supplementary programme „Just Transition Fund“ (JTF) – a kind of extra pot for regions which, in their opinion „are most affected by the transition to climate neutrality“. In practice, these are areas in eastern Germany, for example, which are already gradually slipping out of EU regional funding and do not like this at all.

AI should take medical technology as a whole to a new level

The „Future Cluster Secure Medical Microsystems and Communications“ (Semeco) aims to use AI to take today's medical technology to a new evolutionary level and also accelerate the associated approval processes. The coordinator is Dresden-based mobile communications guru Gerhard Fettweis from TU Dresden, who is also one of the heads of the „Barkhausen Institute“.

News from the "Oiger Archive" dated 22 June 2023