The nonprofit organization ‘Les Invincibles-All United’ signed a partnership agreement with Acapela Group and SOLSTEO to enable individuals living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) to speak with a digital copy of their voice.
‘Les Invincibles’ is the story of 3 men – John Scala, Olivier Goy et Ludovic Besombes –all three affected by ALS. Driven by a strong desire to live and to share, they created this association to fund research and to build a collective around the disease. A formidable momentum, supported by an increasing number of ambassadors, united in the fight against the disease and aiding those living with it.
The partnership between ‘les Invincibles’ and Acapela is subsidizing since January 1st, 2024, with the generous support of SOLSTEO, the acquisition of a license of ‘my-own-voice’ for individuals diagnosed with ALS, living in France.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an incurable neurodegenerative condition that rapidly atrophies muscles. Patients gradually become paralyzed, losing, among other things, the ability to speak.
‘My-own-voice’ is an online service that allows to easily create a digital copy of the original voice to keep communicating with this essential part of our identity.
With a few minutes of recordings, ‘my-own-voice’ captures the essence of the voice characteristics. The digital version created can then be used on a tablet (tactile or eye tracking-enabled). Users express themselves with a synthetic voice that resembles them and reflects this unique part of their personality.
The digital voices used by Olivier Goy and John Scala to communicate were created using ‘my-own-voice’, based on existing recordings.
Acapela Group is active in the accessibility world since decades, enabling everyone to communicate. In 2014, we launched ‘my-own-voice.’ Over 10,000 users have already created their voices to continue expressing themselves with this essential part of their identity. Deep Neural Network allows us to progress rapidly to offer an increasingly easy creation process and the generation of very lifelike voices, with just 10 minutes of recordings. We are very proud of this partnership and thank ‘les Invincibles’, who act with incredible energy, for their trust,” comments Nicolas Mazars, Inclusive Market Owner at Acapela Group.
“No one ever warned me at the Pitié Hospital about the need to ‘save’ my voice… Today, it is too late for me, and I fully realize the importance of keeping one’s voice, if only for loved ones. The voice not only reflects our personality but also serves as a reference for the people around us. Today, I have even forgotten the sound of my own voice… This ‘save voices’ operation has a particular symbolism for The Invincibles. The copy of a voice costs 1,000 euros, and we offer 75 thanks to the complete financing of the operation by our sponsor SOLSTEO knowing that Acapela Group has made a significant effort on its part to make this partnership possible,” explains Ludovic Besombes, President of ‘Les Invincibles’.
Watch videos featuring John Scala and Olivier Goy using their digital voices created with ‘my-own-voice:
More information on https://www.les-invincibles.com/ and www.acapela-group.com
