Google staged some Hollywood stars to help promote its Look to Speak app with the debut of “A Look Can Say A Lot” during the 94th Academy Awards.
The cinematic spot shows the app’s ability to pronounce certain phrases simply by noting the required words from the menu options menu.
The story centers on Antionette Fenandes, an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient who has poor motor skills who has been unable to speak since 2020, the grandiose production begins with a montage showing how a look can speak a thousand words, before showing Fernandez’s interaction with the app. To talk to her friends and family.
“We have a responsibility and opportunity to support the disability community during one of the biggest nights of photography in our place,” said KR Liu, Head of Brand Accessibility at Google. “It’s not just about highlighting a Google product, it’s about our mission to help people reach their world. We continue Inspiring us from people like Antoinette and their resilience, helping drive our work to be more inclusive, compassionate, empathetic, and ultimately more accessible.”
The hands-free voice assistant, available on Android devices, builds on Google’s efforts to help communication for people with disabilities and follows its involvement in telecasts last year to show how assistive technologies like Live Captions and Google Meet can help people stay connected.
Google has developed a suite of software tools to aid communications, including Direct Typing for the deaf, a facial gesture reading activation project, and a megaphone for people with hearing impairments.
// Featured in this article
Google is an American multinational technology company that provides Internet-related services such as search, online advertising, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Find out more