CES 2022: GoVoBo Promises Tech Breakthrough For Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Users

GoVoBo is a significant breakthrough for the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

Developed in a partnership between Gallaudet University and AppTek, GoVoBo ismaking its debut at CES 2022, as the first universal automatic captioning and translation application designed specifically for them.

GoBoVo promises to deliver universal access to live videoconferences and other sources by combining AppTek's advanced AI-enabled automatic speech recognition and machine translation technologies. It has a user-friendly, customizable application driven by the demands and needs of deaf and hard of hearing users in the CES 2022 press release of its launch.

“As members of the deaf and hard of hearing communities with first-hand experience, we take their needs very seriously,” said Dr. Patrick Boudrealt, Gallaudet’s Manager of Knowledge Translation, in the CES press release. “Our focus is to bring innovative communication solutions for everyone under the deaf and hard of hearing lens.”

The device combines the expertise of Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program TAP and AppTek, a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for automatic speech recognition (ASR), neural machine translation (NMT), natural language understanding (NLU), and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies.

Dr. Christian Vogler, Director of Gallaudet's Technology Access Program, added, “accessible communication for all is part of Gallaudet University’s DNA.”

The combining of the two companies to create GoVoBo appears a perfect match.

Gallaudet University is a bilingual, diverse, multicultural institution of higher education that ensures the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals through American Sign Language and English.

AppTek’s solutions cover a wide array of languages, dialects, and channels and are created by scientists and research engineers.

“We are humbled to work with the team at Gallaudet and support their mission to build the gold standard of automatic captioning and translation for deaf and hard of hearing users,” said AppTek Chief Executive Officer Mudar Yaghi.

The GoVoBo application does this by:

- Providing users the freedom to use any online meeting service without the need to configure caption services for each meeting individually.

- Automatically transcribing spoken content in real time, using the latest in AI-enabled speech recognition technology embedded in a customizable easy-to-use application.

- At the end of each session, users will have an editable and exportable transcript, so they can focus on the meeting attendees and interaction.

GoVoBo can provide a global advantage as well: The live translation feature provided by AppTek's neural network machine translation allows users to instantly translate their conversation and the conversations of foreign speakers.

The user-centric GoVoBo will be unveiled at the Venetian Expo, Booth #60527, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from Jan. 5-8.