A new, special and exciting development that gives independence to ALS patients, was born in the annual hackathon of Microsoft Israel Research and Development, after a request from the well-known and veteran photographer Ronen Ackerman.
Ackerman, one of Israel's leading photographers, taught 17 years ago Adi Diamant, director of Microsoft Israel's Innovation Lab Research and Development, which specializes in artificial intelligence and cognition, and his wife, fashion photography at his studio in Neve Tzedek as part of a photography course they took for fun.
Unfortunately, however, Ackerman has had ALS for the past two years, and by the time he contacted Adi, he had difficulty typing on his keyboard and replying to people by e-mail or social media.
"I had an article in Guy Pines and there were a lot of reactions, but I already have a hard time typing on the keyboard for a whole day. My hands do not work, so I often missed contact with people," Ackerman explained in an interview with Israel Today.
Diamant discovered that Ackerman, who operates his camera using special equipment, had already had difficulty operating his computer: he had great difficulty typing on a computer, WhatsApp, social networks, or editing in Photoshop.
In this respect, it was necessary to develop for Ronen, and for many people who for various reasons have difficulty typing like IDF disabled people with amputated limbs, a new system that would reliably translate his voice into understandable instructions.
Adi, who is in charge of innovation projects at Microsoft Israel R&D together with other engineers, decided to help Ackerman and as part of the annual hackathon, his team came to Ackerman's studio in Jaffa and began monitoring his difficulties and needs. Performing operations that he was unable to do before, as well as accelerating actions he performed slowly. The team worked on as accurate a technology as possible, and no less important - convenient, simple and easy to operate. Finally, it was decided to combine a voice solution Allows you to move a mouse with one finger).
After finding the solution, the team contacted the encoder for 48 hours around the clock, drove to Ronen in Jaffa and installed the system.
The team asked Ronen to experiment with the system, and for hours anything that did not work was fixed, even at the code level.
He was so excited about the solution that it was important for him to come to Microsoft and demonstrate the system himself at the end of the hackathon.
"It's a whole different world. With the new system I just have to approve or not approve the content. The system recognizes everything and turns everything into written content including commas and periods, abbreviations and acronyms. It has greatly improved my quality of life," Ackerman said excitedly.
Adi Diamant said that "since we developed the system that is suitable for a lot of people with limb difficulties, we are inundated with requests for the system. This opportunity to do good is exciting."
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