Liopa - revolutionising the speech recognition market
by Startacus Admin
Liopa - The AI startup that's innovating visual speech recognition
Anyone who uses speech recognition technology, such as Siri or Alexa, for example, knows that it can be difficult to get the thing to understand what you are saying sometimes. Particularly if you are in a noisy environment. If other people around you are also talking, it may have a hard time identifying what is you and what isn’t. When it’s another human, they will watch your lips while you talk and use a degree of lip reading to both help isolate the noise that is your words and also fill in any gaps where they didn’t hear what you said. So if people can do that without any lip reading training, shouldn’t an AI be able to?
Belfast-based startup Liopa thinks so.
The Queen’s University Belfast and The Centre for Security Technologies spin-out has created a platform that works alongside any speech recognition engine, such as Siri or Alexa, and combines its lip reading analysis with the speech recognition to provide a far more accurate transcript.
As noise levels increase, speech recognition accuracy degrades exponentially, but when combined with lip reading, accuracy levels stay high - and more importantly, they stay over the threshold required for usable accuracy. All the device in use needs is a camera.
This technology isn’t only good for asking Siri what the weather’s like while you sit in a café. It can be used in a situation such as a meeting to help any automatic transcription not only identify what is being said better, but to also identify who is speaking. It can work alongside transcription software to watch a video and support the transcription with its lip reading.
It can also be used for those without a voice to be able to communicate with people who don’t understand sign language, can’t read lips, etc. Liopa’s own app, SRAVI, allows those without a voice, permanently or temporarily, to communicate through the same lip reading technology, which converts what it reads into speech. SRAVI is currently being trialed in a pilot study with the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust amid an increased need due to the rise in tracheostomy patients as a result of COVID-19 complications.
Liopa recently placed #3 in Northern Ireland’s Tech 50 list, and in August, the startup announced that it has received significant investment as one of Northern Ireland’s first Future Fund support recipients.
This comes just days after receiving funding from Innovate UK in its “Funding Competition for Business-led Innovation in Response to Global Disruption”, which they were awarded for R&D of SRAVI. In April, this app won them the Most Promising Pilot category of the Leading Healthcare Awards 2020.
Read our lips, keep watching this space.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
BT reveals new cohort of innovative startups aiming to help solve sustainability challenges in the manufacturing sector.
London-based startup Ribbon is on a mission to help other businesses better understand their users and build better product experiences.
London-based SaaS startup OutThink has developed an innovative approach to help companies to visualise risk, target interventions and prevent data breaches.
Participants in Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme offered opportunity to avail of a £10,000 proof of concept grant from Techstart to help validate their business idea.
Atoa announces pre-seed funding for its solution to empower and improve cash flow for independent, small and mid-sized UK retail merchants.
 Tong Gu, Reem Mobassaleh Wyndham and Monik Pham.jpg)
Pact launches its first £30M fund to back early-stage European tech startups using technology for economic inclusion, well-being and climate solutions.
Paris-based startup Immortal Game uses blockchain technology to add a new dimension to the most played board game in the world.
Co-Founders seeking people with innovative ideas and desire to create startups that could change the world for its 2023 programme.
Marketers - want to turn shoppers into customers this Black Friday? Marietta Chatzidiakou, Senior Content Consultant at Digital Ethos shares some tips on how to do just that.
Data from more than 500 companies reveals the core health of SaaS startups and assesses how European companies have performed relative to American counterparts.
Published on: 16th August 2020
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- BT pushes ahead with new sustainable digital solutions through its Green Tech Innovation Platform 1st Dec 2022 BT reveals new cohort of innovative startups aiming to help solve sustainability challenges in the manufacturing sector.
- Catalyst and Techstart offering startup co-founders the chance to win £10k proof of concept grants 30th Nov 2022 Participants in Catalyst’s Co-Founders programme offered opportunity to avail of a £10,000 proof of concept grant from Techstart to help validate their business idea.
- UK fintech Atoa secures $2.2M pre-seed round as it kills Visa and Mastercard fees for businesses 24th Nov 2022 Atoa announces pre-seed funding for its solution to empower and improve cash flow for independent, small and mid-sized UK retail merchants.
- Female-led Pact Launches £30m Seed Fund 24th Nov 2022 Pact launches its first £30M fund to back early-stage European tech startups using technology for economic inclusion, well-being and climate solutions.
