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An upcoming Cerebral Palsy Alliance research project has taken home two awards from the 2023 Good Design Awards, Australia’s most prestigious showcase of innovative and creative design. My Voice Library was awarded two coveted Good Design trophies, in the ‘social impact’ and ‘digital – apps and software’ categories.
Pioneered by Dr Petra Karlsson, CPA Research Institute’s technology program lead, My Voice Library is a world-first platform that uses gamification to collect voice and orofacial data from children with cerebral palsy.
More than 50% of people with CP have difficulty speaking and being understood verbally, known as dysarthria. The lack of quality data on the voices of children with CP is a major barrier in the development of assistive technology solutions to enable communication for this group – that’s where My Voice Library comes in.
By gamifying the data collection of dysarthric voice data, My Voice Library aims to make it easier and quicker to assemble a significant, open-source library that biomedical engineers, speech pathologists and researchers can use to develop the next generation of assistive technology.
Developed in collaboration with Kablamo, the project was celebrated for its user-friendly and engaging design. It was designed to provide an accessible and enjoyable experience for children, enabling them to explore themed worlds, level up, and actively participate in expanding the voice library.
“My Voice Library is unique – it’s the first time we’ve been able to collect voice samples of children who have a dysarthric speech condition. The gamified modules make it easier for children to go through the tasks – in order for engineers and researchers to develop and test new technology, they need a lot of repetitions of sounds and words, and My Voice Library will enable this,” said Dr Karlsson.
It is the second year in a row that CPA has received recognition at the Good Design Awards, following the 2022 wins for two alumni from the Remarkable startup accelerator, ResusRight and PolySpine.
Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming launch of My Voice Library to the cerebral palsy community!
Want to be the first to hear more? Send us an email to myvoicelibrary@cerebralpalsy.org.au and we’ll be in touch.
