Belfast lip-reading software technology tried out in hospitals

A Northern Ireland software company has won a contract to provide technology designed to aid speech recognition to Royal Preston Hospital in England.

Born out from the Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies, start-up company Liopa has developed a lip-reading application, Speech Recognition Application for the Voice Impaired (SRAVI), that uses artificial intelligence.

Liopa was given an investment boost from the Future Fund, a UK government initiative that was launched in response to Covid-19. The company has also been supported by QUB’s commercialisation arm, QUBIS, as well as Invest NI’s Access to Finance funds, Techstart NI and Co-Fund II, which is managed by Clarendon Fund Managers.

SRAVI

SRAVI was developed as a communications aid for the voice impaired.

It provides simple, instant communication to those who cannot speak, due to having a tracheostomy, stroke, trauma or other conditions.

All the person needs is a smartphone. By lipreading, SRAVI tells their doctor, nurse or loved one what they are trying to say.

Royal Preston Hospital in England has licensed SRAVI for treating in-patients, with the demand for communications aid increasing due to the rise in patients who have undergone a tracheotomy as a result of Covid-19 complications.

Patients mouth words into their smartphone camera and the SRAVI app will read out what they are saying, improving communication between patients, families and staff.

SRAVI can also be used at home and to help with a range of speech debilitating conditions.

Liopa

The company has also recently commenced a new project to bring SRAVI into Northern Irish hospitals for testing.

The PhD project, in collaboration with Queens University Belfast, and will be brought into three sites; Belfast City Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, and Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry.

The software will be offered to up to 55 patients as a communications aid during their stay in critical care units and involve questionnaires to measure the accuracy of SRAVI and to evaluate patients’ capability in using the app. The aim is to help Liopa continue to improve SRAVI for the diversity of patient needs.