Intel releases Stephen Hawking’s speech software

Stephen Hawking’s speech system is now available to the public for free as open source code – but there’s one downside – it’s for the PC only.

The Cambridge professor uses a platform called ACAT (assistive context-aware toolkit), which tracks movements of his check muscles, and translates them into speech. ACAT now uses an infrared sensor or camera, which detects facial movements, while the computer interface uses these movements to select letters and a predictive software helps complete full words.

The software program used to assist talk with the world has been made obtainable by free of charge on-line within the hopes it may possibly assist different individuals with comparable disabilities. The development of the software was detailed in an exclusive WIRED report in December 2014.

The platform is expected to be of great help to researchers who are working on new user interfaces, new sensing modalities, and word prediction.

Hawking himself “was instrumental to the design process and was a key contributor to the project design and validation”, according to 01.org.

“We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with technology, without it I would not be able to speak to you today”, Hawking said when the software was first unveiled in December 2014. Developers can now explore its potential for more custom inputs.

Hawking got an upgrade from the computing giant last year, increasing the efficiency of his system.

As it stands ACAT is only available for Windows machines so developers using Macs are out of luck. Intel engineers have been trying different sensors with other patients to expand the capabilities of the system.