Google's Look to Speak app lets you select phrases with your eyes

Google has launched a new smartphone app that aims to make communicating easier for people with speech and motor difficulties. Look to Speak uses people’s eyes to select phrases from their phone and speak it out loud.

Look to Speak has been developed on the Experiments with Google platform. It’s a collaboration between Speech and Language Therapist Richard Cave Look and a team at Google who had been working on this similar project.

“It all started with an idea that could be impactful for one person and their community. Throughout the design process, we reached out to a small group of people who might benefit from a communication tool like this,” Cave said in a blog post.

Look to Speak app requires people to hold the phone steady and position their eyes to look left, right or up to select from a list of pre-written phrases. The phrases are for basic communication and include words such as hello, thank you, great and ok. It also has questions so people can ask the other person’s name, how they are, and what’s going on.

The chosen phrases will be read aloud on the app. Users also have the option to add their authentic voice notes on the app. This way the phrases will sound more personalised. The phrases can also be edited on both the left and right sides. This would however require assistance as the phrases have to be manually edited. There’s also an option to snooze the app. Look to Speak also lets users adjust the eye gaze sensitivity.

Look to Speak is available to users on devices running Android 9.0 and above. It is also available on all Android One devices.