Google released an incredible Android software two years ago that allows individuals who are paralysed or have incapacitating illnesses like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to interact in a pretty normal fashion. Look to Speak is an app that uses a phone’s front-facing camera to track a user’s eyes as they travel from left to right, selecting words and phrases from a list that the phone then speaks out using text-to-speech. During the 2022 Academy Awards on Sunday night, Google showed a poignant commercial for Look to Speak.
From the first frame of the minute-long commercial, which features repeated cinematic close-ups of people’s eyes, it stands out. It concludes with a clip showing the app being used by a lady who is unable to talk, illustrating how she communicates by directing her gaze to sentences on the screen.
Google Creative Lab produced Look to Speak, which got a big upgrade late last year to allow it to operate with languages other than English. It’ll work on Android 9 and later phones, and you can obtain it through the Play Store link below.
