"My Voice"

Order a paperback or Kindle Edition or e-book of "My Voice: A Physician's Personal Experience with Throat Cancer," the complete 282 page story of Dr. Brook's diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from throat cancer.

Order a paperback or Kindle Edition or e-book of "The Laryngectomee Guide," the 170 page practical guide for laryngectomees.

Obtain and/or view a video presentation, instructive manual and a slide presentation how to ventilate laryngectomees and neck breathers (free).


To obtain suggestions for laryngectomees how to cope with COVID-19 pandemic click the Laryngectomee Newsletter link.


Sunday, January 7, 2024

Artificial Intelligence helping laryngectomees to speak again

 The developments in artificial intelligence led to developments that can help laryngectomees use new ways by which they can speak again. Most of these methods are in the developmental stages. However, some, such as Google Duplex is available today.

Google Duplex is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that mimics a human voice and makes phone calls on a person's behalf. It enables users to perform a variety of tasks -- including make reservations, schedule appointments and perform other functions -- without having to speak to someone.

Whispp’s language independent AI technology and calling app converts whispered speech and vocal cord impaired speech into a clear and natural voice of one’s choice, without any delay. By providing recordings, one’s Whispp voice can sound like the person’s own healthy voice.

Other methods of generating speech are under development. Tank and his colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, have developed a non-invasive language decoder that can reconstruct speech from functional MRI data. This technology can one day help people who have lost their ability to speak called a semantic decoder. 

The Australian start-up Laronix is developing a bionic device that uses AI-based voice-cloning technology to restore the voices of laryngectomees.