CoeFont Provides Free Service for TC Scan, a Communication Device for Severely Disabled Individuals by Cleact, to Improve the Quality of Life for Patients with ALS and Other Serious Illnesses
CoeFont, a leading AI voice platform provider, announced today that it is partnering with Cleact, a company that provides communication devices for severely disabled individuals, to offer free AI voice services for users of Cleact’s TC Scan.
Through this collaboration, patients using Cleact’s TC Scan will be able to create their own personalized AI voices at no cost. Additionally, AI voices of popular voice actors such as Toshiyuki Morikawa and Yumiko Goto, as well as entrepreneur Hiroyuki Nishimura, will be made available for free. By providing these options, CoeFont aims to enrich the lives of individuals with limited communication abilities by offering them more fulfilling communication and entertainment experiences.
Background and Overview of the Project
This collaboration was initiated by Cleact’s request and CoeFont’s commitment to ESG initiatives aimed at improving the well-being of individuals who may lose their ability to speak.
Patients using Cleact’s TC Scan will be able to use the following CoeFont features free of charge:
- AI voice creation
- AI voice usage
- Patients’ own AI voices
- AI voices of CoeFont’s original characters
- AI voices of voice actors and celebrities
- Toshiyuki Morikawa (President of Axel One, voice actor)
- Yumiko Goto (Voice actor affiliated with Axel One)
- Hiroyuki Nishimura (Entrepreneur)
Comments from Naoko Shimorifuji, Representative Director of Cleact
“Cleact has been providing communication tools, such as Tobii’s eye-tracking device, that enable people with quadriplegia and speech difficulties to easily access conversations, internet searches, and social media through switches and scanning. These tools include a function that reads aloud words selected by the user instead of the user speaking. We received requests from our users who wanted to use their own voices or the voices of their favorite people, and we are delighted to have CoeFont’s cooperation in this endeavor.”
CoeFont’s ESG Activities
Since September 2021, CoeFont has been providing free AI voice creation and usage services to individuals who may lose their ability to speak. As of August 2023, more than 500 individuals have benefited from these services, and we have received positive feedback such as “I have regained hope for the future,” “My family’s heart has been healed,” and “I hope this initiative reaches more people.”
CoeFont will continue to collaborate with welfare and rehabilitation equipment manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions, and support organizations to leverage cutting-edge AI voice technology and improve the well-being of individuals who may lose their ability to speak and their families.
Overview of Cleact’s TC Scan
TC Scan is a communication device for severely disabled individuals, such as those with ALS, that enables them to engage in conversations, emails, SNS, and environmental control using switches and scanning. Even while creating a diary or other documents, users can easily switch to the conversation page to write and have the text read aloud. A major feature of TC Scan is that users can easily switch to eye tracking with a single button, allowing for combined use of switches and eye tracking, expanding the accessibility options for users.
About CoeFont AI Voice Platform
The CoeFont AI voice platform (https://CoeFont.cloud) is an AI voice service that enables anyone to easily create and use AI voices by converting “voice” into expressive “fonts” using the latest AI technology.
CoeFont provides features such as Text to Speech (text-to-speech), which allows users to access approximately 10,000 AI voices, Voice Changer, which allows real-time voice conversion, and Cross-Lingual TTS, which allows users to convert AI voices recorded and created in their native language, such as Japanese, into multilingual AI voices, including English and Chinese, while maintaining the same voice quality.
About CoeFont
CoeFont is a company that develops and provides AI-based services. Founded in 2020, CoeFont is registered as a Tokyo Institute of Technology venture company. We are currently conducting research on AI voices and providing the AI voice platform “CoeFont” (https://CoeFont.cloud) to all countries and regions.
