13 July 2023 Association News
The positive impact of technology on people living with motor neurone disease (MND) has been showcased at a special summit attended by the MND Association's Royal Patron, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal.
The technology summit, organised by the MND Association and held at Rolls-Royce headquarters in Derby, highlighted the work of the NextGen Think Tank – a collaborative project, launched by Rolls-Royce and the Association four years ago, which has brought together some of the world’s biggest companies to create groundbreaking technology to improve quality of life for people living with MND. The focus of the event was the multi award-winning e-book I Will Always Be Me, developed by Rolls-Royce, Intel, Dell Technologies and the MND Association. When read out loud, the short e-book can electronically ‘bank’ the voice of someone living with MND, allowing them to use this synthesised voice in the future if they experience communication difficulties as their disease progresses. Previous voice banking options could take days, weeks or even months to complete.
To date, more than 1000 people have banked their voice using I Will Always Be Me.
During the event, Her Royal Highness met Think Tank members and people living with MND who had volunteered their time to trial the technology ahead of its launch in 2022.
“We are incredibly proud of the innovative technology solutions developed by the Think Tank to improve the lives of people living with MND. The award-winning e-book I Will Always Be Me is a brilliant example of the impact the Think Tank can have. By encouraging some of the biggest companies in the world to collaborate, together we have revolutionised the voice banking experience for our community. It was an honour to share this exciting work with our Royal Patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal today and thank the wonderful people living with MND who supported with this project from the very start.”
Nick Goldup, Director of Care Improvement at the MND Association
“We’re all delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, to Rolls-Royce today where this collaboration started. It’s the icing on the cake after what has been an incredible and inspiring year for the NextGen Think Tank. I can’t wait to see what we achieve next.”
Stuart Moss, Head of IT Innovation at Rolls-Royce and founder of the NextGen Think Tank
Other projects created by the Think Tank include Google’s Project Relate and Quips which both focus on improving communication for people with affected speech. The newest Think Tank innovation is set to be launched later this summer.