Stephen Hawking’s speech system is now powered by SwiftKey

SwiftKey’s got an amazing text-prediction system which keeps getting better as you use it. However, I’d never imagined it was so good that Stephen Hawking would use their system. The renowned scientist’s speech system is now powered by SwiftKey, which in itself is a great honour for all those involved in developing the engine.

Together with Intel and Hawking’s inputs, SwiftKey’s integrated its prediction engine with Hawking’s current speech system, allowing him to complete words faster than ever before. Prior to this, the professor had to write letters via a sensor, activated by a muscle in his cheek (he suffers from Motor Neuron disease, unfortunately).

It’s so cool to see this happen. SwiftKey learns really fast, really well already, so this partnership seems all the more natural.This has helped Hawking to double his speech rate. For someone suffering from motor neuron disease, this probably means a lot more than any other person can imagine.

via SwiftKey