ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rupal Patel - Speech scientist
People relying on synthetic speech use the voice they’re given, not their own. Rupal Patel created the vocaliD project to change that.

Why you should listen

Northeastern University computer science professor Rupal Patel looks for ways to give voice to the voiceless. As founder and director of the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab), she developed a technology that combines real human voices with the characteristics of individual speech patterns. The result is VocaliD, an innovation that gives people who can't speak the ability to communicate in a voice all their own.

"There's nothing better than seeing the person who's actually going to use it, seeing their reaction, seeing their smile," says Patel.

More profile about the speaker
Rupal Patel | Speaker | TED.com
TEDWomen 2013

Rupal Patel: Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprints

Rupal Patel: Zerat e sintetizuar, unike si shenjat e gishterinjve

Filmed:
944,754 views

Shumica e personave me veshtiresi te medha ne te folur perdorin pajisje te kompjuterizuara per te folur. Megjithate ata zgjedhin mes shume pak zerave. Ja pse Stephen Hawking ka theks amerikan, dhe pse shume njerez zgjedhin te njejtin ze, i cili nuk ju pershtatet aspak. Rupal Patel, shkencetare e zerit, donte te bente dicka, dhe ne kete fjalim te mrekullueshem ajo ndan punen qe ka bere per t'u dhene zera unike personave qe nuk mund te flasin.
- Speech scientist
People relying on synthetic speech use the voice they’re given, not their own. Rupal Patel created the vocaliD project to change that. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I'd like to talk today
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Sot dua t'ju flas
00:14
about a powerful and fundamental aspect
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per nje aspekt shume te rendesishem
00:17
of who we are: our voice.
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te identitetit tone: zerin.
00:20
Each one of us has a unique voiceprint
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Cdonjeri prej nesh ka nje ze unik
00:23
that reflects our age, our size,
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qe pasqyron moshen tone, dimensionet tona,
00:25
even our lifestyle and personality.
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madje edhe stilin e jetes apo personalitetin.
00:29
In the words of the poet Longfellow,
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Madje sipas poetit Longfellow,
00:31
"the human voice is the organ of the soul."
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"zeri i njeriut eshte organ i shpirtit te tij".
00:35
As a speech scientist, I'm fascinated
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Si shkencetare e zerit, mu me mahnit
00:37
by how the voice is produced,
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menyra se si prodhohet zeri,
00:39
and I have an idea for how it can be engineered.
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madje kam nje ide se si mund realizoj ate.
00:43
That's what I'd like to share with you.
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Kjo eshte ajo qe dua te ndaj me ju.
00:45
I'm going to start by playing you a sample
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Do filloj duke ju dhene te degjoni
00:47
of a voice that you may recognize.
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nje ze qe ndoshta ju do t'a njihni.
00:49
(Recording) Stephen Hawking: "I would have thought
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(regjistrim) Stephen Hawking: "Mendoja se
00:50
it was fairly obvious what I meant."
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ajo qe doja te thoja ishte mjaft e qarte."
00:53
Rupal Patel: That was the voice
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Rupal Patel: Ky ishte zeri i
00:54
of Professor Stephen Hawking.
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profesor Stephen Hawking.
00:56
What you may not know is that same voice
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Ajo qe ndoshta nuk dini eshte se po i njejti ze
01:00
may also be used by this little girl
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mund t'i jepet kesaj vajze te vogel
01:02
who is unable to speak
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e cila e ka te pamundur te flase
01:04
because of a neurological condition.
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per shkak te nje problemi neurologjik.
01:07
In fact, all of these individuals
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Ne te vertete, secili prej ketyre individeve
01:09
may be using the same voice,
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mund te perdore te njejtin ze,
01:11
and that's because there's
only a few options available.
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dhe kjo ndodh sepse alternativat jane te pakta.
01:14
In the U.S. alone, there are 2.5 million Americans
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Vetem ne SHBA ka 2.5 milione amerikane
01:19
who are unable to speak,
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qe nuk mund te flasin,
01:20
and many of whom use computerized devices
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shumica prej te cileve perdorin pajisje
te kompjuterizuara
01:23
to communicate.
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per te komunikuar.
01:24
Now that's millions of people worldwide
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Ne bote ka miliona njerez
01:28
who are using generic voices,
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qe perdorin zerat e zakonshem,
01:30
including Professor Hawking,
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duke perfshire ketu profesor Hawking,
01:31
who uses an American-accented voice.
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i cili perdor nje ze me theks amerikan.
01:36
This lack of individuation of the synthetic voice
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Mungesa e personalizimit te zerave sintetike
01:39
really hit home
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me zgjoi interes
01:41
when I was at an assistive technology conference
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kur mora pjese ne nje konference
mbi teknologjite ndihmuese
01:43
a few years ago,
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disa vite me pare,
01:45
and I recall walking into an exhibit hall
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dhe mbaj mend se duke ecur ne holl
01:48
and seeing a little girl and a grown man
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pashe nje vajze te vogel dhe nje burre
01:52
having a conversation using their devices,
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te cilet po bisedonin duke perdorur pajisjet e tyre,
01:54
different devices, but the same voice.
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dy pajisje te ndryshme qe leshonin te njejtin ze.
01:59
And I looked around and I saw this happening
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Pashe perreth dhe kuptova se kjo po ndodhte
02:01
all around me, literally hundreds of individuals
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kudo, qindra individe
02:05
using a handful of voices,
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qe perdornin nje numer te vogel zerash,
02:08
voices that didn't fit their bodies
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zera qe nuk i pershtateshin trupave
02:11
or their personalities.
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apo personaliteteve te tyre.
02:13
We wouldn't dream of fitting a little girl
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Ne nuk do te donim ti jepnim nje vajze te vogel
02:15
with the prosthetic limb of a grown man.
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krahun proteze te nje burri te rritur.
02:19
So why then the same prosthetic voice?
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Atehere pse duhet te kene ata te njejtin ze sintetik?
02:22
It really struck me,
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Kjo gje me goditi fort,
02:23
and I wanted to do something about this.
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dhe doja te beja dicka ne lidhje me kete.
02:27
I'm going to play you now a sample
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Tani do t'ju tregoj nje rregjistrim
02:29
of someone who has, two people actually,
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te nje personi, ne fakt jane dy persona,
02:32
who have severe speech disorders.
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me crregullime te renda ne te folur.
02:34
I want you to take a listen to how they sound.
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Dua qe te degjoni tingullin e zerit te tyre.
02:37
They're saying the same utterance.
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Ata thone te njejten gje.
02:39
(First voice)
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(zeri i pare)
02:42
(Second voice)
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(zeri i dyte)
02:45
You probably didn't understand what they said,
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Ndoshta nuk arritet te kuptonit se c'thone,
02:48
but I hope that you heard
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por shpresoj te keni dalluar
02:50
their unique vocal identities.
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identitetin unik te zerit te tyre.
02:54
So what I wanted to do next is,
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Keshtu, ajo qe vendosa te beja
02:57
I wanted to find out how we could harness
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ishte te kuptoja se si mund t'i perdorja
02:59
these residual vocal abilities
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keto mbetje te zerit
03:01
and build a technology
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per te krijuar nje teknologji
03:03
that could be customized for them,
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qe mund te personalizohej per ta,
03:05
voices that could be customized for them.
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zera qe mund te personalizoheshin per ta.
03:07
So I reached out to my collaborator, Tim Bunnell.
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Ja pse iu drejtova bashkepunetorit tim, Tim Bunnell.
03:10
Dr. Bunnell is an expert in speech synthesis,
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Dr. Bunnell eshte ekspert ne sintetizimin e zerit,
03:13
and what he'd been doing is building
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dhe ai ka punuar per te krijuar
03:15
personalized voices for people
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zera te personalizuar
03:17
by putting together
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duke punuar mbi
03:19
pre-recorded samples of their voice
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rregjistrime te meparshme te zerit te tyre
03:21
and reconstructing a voice for them.
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dhe duke ndertuar per ta nje ze te ri.
03:24
These are people who had lost their voice
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Keta jane njerez qe e kane humbur zerin
03:26
later in life.
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me vone ne jeten e tyre.
03:28
We didn't have the luxury
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Por ne nuk e kishim luksin
03:29
of pre-recorded samples of speech
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e rregjistrimeve ekzistuese
03:31
for those born with speech disorder.
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per ata qe kishin lindur me probleme ne te follur.
03:33
But I thought, there had to be a way
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Por une mendova se duhet te gjendej nje menyre
03:36
to reverse engineer a voice
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per te rindertuar nje ze
03:38
from whatever little is left over.
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nga ato pak tinguj qe mbeteshin prej tij.
03:40
So we decided to do exactly that.
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Keshtu, ne vendosem te benim pikerisht kete.
03:43
We set out with a little bit of funding
from the National Science Foundation,
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Me shume pak fonde nga
Fondacioni Kombetar i Shkences,
03:46
to create custom-crafted voices that captured
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ne filluam te krijonim zera te vecante qe percillnin
03:50
their unique vocal identities.
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identitetin vokal unik te tyre.
03:51
We call this project VocaliD, or vocal I.D.,
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E kemi quajtur kete projekt VocaliD, ose vocal ID,
03:54
for vocal identity.
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qe do te thote identitet vokal.
03:56
Now before I get into the details of how
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Para se te hyj ne detajet mbi
03:59
the voice is made and let you listen to it,
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menyren se si eshte i ndertuar zeri
dhe para se tjua tregoj ate,
04:01
I need to give you a real quick
speech science lesson. Okay?
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Me duhet t'ju jap nje mesim
shume te shkurter shkencor mbi zerin. Mire?
04:05
So first, we know that the voice is changing
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Se pari, ne e dime se zeri ndryshon
04:08
dramatically over the course of development.
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jashtezakonisht shume gjate rritjes.
04:11
Children sound different from teens
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Femijet kane ze tjeter nga adoleshentet,
04:13
who sound different from adults.
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te cilet tingellojne ndryshe nga te rriturit.
04:14
We've all experienced this.
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Kete e kemi vene re qe te gjithe.
04:17
Fact number two is that speech
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E dhena numer dy eshte se e folura
04:20
is a combination of the source,
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vjen si kombinim i burimit,
04:23
which is the vibrations generated by your voice box,
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pra vibrimeve qe gjenerohen nga kutia juaj e zerit,
04:26
which are then pushed through
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te cilat me pas shtyhen drejt
04:28
the rest of the vocal tract.
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pjeses se mbetur te traktit zanor.
04:31
These are the chambers of your head and neck
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Ato qe dridhen jane dhomat e kokes
04:33
that vibrate,
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dhe qafes tuaj,
04:34
and they actually filter that source sound
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dhe ato e filtrojne ate tingull fillestar
04:36
to produce consonants and vowels.
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per te krijuar bashtingellore dhe zanore.
04:39
So the combination of source and filter
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Pra eshte fale kombinimit te burimit dhe filtrave
04:43
is how we produce speech.
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qe prodhohet zeri.
04:45
And that happens in one individual.
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Kjo ndodh brenda nje individi te vetem.
04:48
Now I told you earlier that I'd spent
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Ju thashe me pare se une kam kaluar
04:51
a good part of my career
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pjesen me te madhe te karrieres
04:53
understanding and studying
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duke kuptuar dhe studiuar
04:56
the source characteristics of people
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karakteristikat e burimit tek njerez
04:57
with severe speech disorder,
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me crregullime te medha ne te folur,
05:00
and what I've found
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dhe ajo qe zbulova ishte se,
05:01
is that even though their filters were impaired,
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edhe pse filtrat e tyre ishin difektoze,
05:05
they were able to modulate their source:
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ata ishin ne gjendje te modifikonin burimin:
05:08
the pitch, the loudness, the tempo of their voice.
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lartesine, fortesine,
dhe ritmin e zerit te tyre.
05:11
These are called prosody, and
I've been documenting for years
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Keto quhen prozodi, dhe prej
vitesh une kam dokumentuar
05:14
that the prosodic abilities of these individuals
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se si aftesite prozodike te ketyre njerezve
05:16
are preserved.
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ruhen gjate kohes.
05:18
So when I realized that those same cues
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Kur kuptova se po te njejtat elemente
05:22
are also important for speaker identity,
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jane te rendesishme per identitetin zanor,
05:25
I had this idea.
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me erdhi nje ide.
05:27
Why don't we take the source
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Pse nuk marrim burimin
05:29
from the person we want the voice to sound like,
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nga personi te cilin duam t'i ngjaje zeri,
05:32
because it's preserved,
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duke qene se nuk ka demtime,
05:33
and borrow the filter
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dhe marrim hua filtrin
05:35
from someone about the same age and size,
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e nje personi me te njejten moshe dhe peshe,
05:39
because they can articulate speech,
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duke qene se mund te artikulojne,
05:41
and then mix them?
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dhe pastaj t'i perziejme ato?
05:43
Because when we mix them,
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Sepse kur i perziejme ato,
05:44
we can get a voice that's as clear
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na jepet nje ze po aq i qarte
05:46
as our surrogate talker --
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sa ai i folesit surrogat --
05:48
that's the person we borrowed the filter from—
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ky eshte personi te cilit i morrem filtrat hua --
05:51
and is similar in identity to our target talker.
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dhe i ngjan identitetit te folesit tone te synuar.
05:55
It's that simple.
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Kaq e thjeshte.
05:57
That's the science behind what we're doing.
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Kjo eshte shkenca qe fshihet
pas asaj qe po bejme.
06:00
So once you have that in mind,
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Duke pasur parasysh kete,
06:03
how do you go about building this voice?
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si ndertohet zeri?
06:05
Well, you have to find someone
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Epo, si fillim duhet te gjesh dike
06:07
who is willing to be a surrogate.
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qe eshte i gatshem te behet surrogato.
06:09
It's not such an ominous thing.
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Nuk eshte aq veprim i mbrapshte.
06:11
Being a surrogate donor
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Te behesh dhurues surrogato
06:13
only requires you to say a few hundred
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do te thote thjesht te thuash nga disa qindra
06:16
to a few thousand utterances.
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ne disa mijera fjale.
06:18
The process goes something like this.
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Procesi zhvillohet pak a shume keshtu.
06:20
(Video) Voice: Things happen in pairs.
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(video) Zeri: Gjerat behen ne cift.
06:22
I love to sleep.
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Mua me pelqen te fle.
06:24
The sky is blue without clouds.
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Qielli eshte blu dhe pa re.
06:28
RP: Now she's going to go on like this
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RP: Ajo do te vazhdoje me kete ritem
06:30
for about three to four hours,
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per tre apo kater ore,
06:32
and the idea is not for her to say everything
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dhe ideja nuk eshte qe ajo te thote gjithcka
06:35
that the target is going to want to say,
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qe personi do doje te thoje,
06:37
but the idea is to cover all the different combinations
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por qe te mbuloje te gjitha kombinimet e mundshme
06:40
of the sounds that occur in the language.
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te tingullit qe vihen re ne nje gjuhe.
06:44
The more speech you have,
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Sa me i gjate te jete ky rregjistrim,
06:45
the better sounding voice you're going to have.
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aq me mire do te tingelloje zeri i personit marres.
06:48
Once you have those recordings,
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Pasi marrim keto rregjistrime,
06:49
what we need to do
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ajo qe ne bejme
06:51
is we have to parse these recordings
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eshte te ndajme keto rregjistrime
06:53
into little snippets of speech,
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ne fragmente te shkurtra,
06:56
one- or two-sound combinations,
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ne kombinime me nje apo dy tinguj,
06:58
sometimes even whole words
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ndonjehere edhe fjale te plota
07:00
that start populating a dataset or a database.
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me te cilat nisim popullimin e nje baze te dhenash.
07:05
We're going to call this database a voice bank.
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Kete baze te dhenash do t'a quajme banka e zerave.
07:08
Now the power of the voice bank
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Fuqia e bankes se zerave
07:10
is that from this voice bank,
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eshte se nga kjo banke zerash,
07:12
we can now say any new utterance,
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ne mund te themi fjali te reja,
07:14
like, "I love chocolate" --
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si per shembull "Mua me pelqejne cokollatat"...
07:16
everyone needs to be able to say that—
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te gjithe duhet t'a kene mundesine per t'a thene kete--
07:18
fish through that database
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ne peshkojme ne bazen e te dhenave
07:19
and find all the segments necessary
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dhe gjejme segmentet e nevojshme per
07:21
to say that utterance.
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te krijuar ate fjali.
07:23
(Video) Voice: I love chocolate.
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(Video) Zeri: Mua me pelqejne cokollatat.
07:25
RP: So that's speech synthesis.
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RP: Pra keshte sintetizohet e folura.
07:26
It's called concatenative synthesis,
and that's what we're using.
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Quhet sintetizim konkatenativ,
dhe eshte ai qe ne perdorim.
07:29
That's not the novel part.
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Por nuk eshte kjo risia.
07:31
What's novel is how we make it sound
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Risia gjendet ne tingullin qe ne i japim
07:33
like this young woman.
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si ne rastin e kesaj vajze te re.
07:34
This is Samantha.
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Quhet Samanta.
07:36
I met her when she was nine,
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Une e kam takuar ku ishte nente vjec,
07:38
and since then, my team and I
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dhe qe atehere, skuadra ime dhe une
07:40
have been trying to build her a personalized voice.
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kemi punuar per t'i ndertuar nje ze te personalizuar.
07:43
We first had to find a surrogate donor,
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Ne fillim na u desh te gjenim nje dhurues surrogato,
07:46
and then we had to have Samantha
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dhe pastaj duhet t'i kerkonim Samantes
07:48
produce some utterances.
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te na jepte disa tinguj.
07:50
What she can produce are mostly vowel-like sounds,
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Ajo mund te prodhoje vetem tinguj qe permbajne zanore,
07:52
but that's enough for us to extract
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por kjo ishte e mjaftueshme qe ne te identifikonim
07:54
her source characteristics.
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karakteristikat e burimit te saj.
07:57
What happens next is best described
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Ajo qe ndodhi pas kesaj mund te pershkruhet
08:00
by my daughter's analogy. She's six.
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me ane te analogjise se vajzes sime.
Ajo eshte gjashte vjec.
08:03
She calls it mixing colors to paint voices.
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Ajo kete e quan perzierje ngjyrash per te krijuar zera.
08:08
It's beautiful. It's exactly that.
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Eshte e mrekullueshme. Ndodh pikerisht keshtu.
08:11
Samantha's voice is like a concentrated sample
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Zeri i Samantes eshte si nje ekstrakt i perqendruar
08:14
of red food dye which we can infuse
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i bojes ushqimore te kuqe qe e perziejme
08:16
into the recordings of her surrogate
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me rregjistrimet e surrogatos se saj
08:19
to get a pink voice just like this.
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per te arritur tek nje ze i tille.
08:23
(Video) Samantha: Aaaaaah.
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(video) Samanta: Aaaaaaaa
08:28
RP: So now, Samantha can say this.
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RP: Tani ajo mund te thoje kete.
08:30
(Video) Samantha: This voice is only for me.
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(video) Samanta: Ky ze eshte vetem imi.
08:34
I can't wait to use my new voice with my friends.
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Me zor pres t'a perdor zerin tim te ri me miqte.
08:40
RP: Thank you. (Applause)
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RP: Faleminderit (duartrokitje)
08:46
I'll never forget the gentle smile
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Nuk do t'a harroj kurre buzeqeshjen e embel
08:49
that spread across her face
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qe celi ne fytyren e saj
08:50
when she heard that voice for the first time.
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kur degjoi kete ze per here te pare.
08:54
Now there's millions of people
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Ne bote ka miliona njerez
08:56
around the world like Samantha, millions,
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si Samanta, miliona,
08:59
and we've only begun to scratch the surface.
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dhe ne sapo kemi filluar te perballemi me problemin.
09:02
What we've done so far is we have
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Deri tani neve kemi arritur te kemi
09:04
a few surrogate talkers from around the U.S.
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disa foles surrogato ne SHBA
09:08
who have donated their voices,
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te cilet kane dhuruar zerat e tyre,
09:09
and we have been using those
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dhe ne filluam me to
09:11
to build our first few personalized voices.
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dhe ndertuam vetem disa zera te personalizuar.
09:16
But there's so much more work to be done.
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Por ka ende shume pune per te bere.
09:17
For Samantha, her surrogate
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Ne rastin e Samantes surrogati
09:20
came from somewhere in the Midwest, a stranger
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vinte nga Midwest, nje e huaj
09:23
who gave her the gift of voice.
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e cila i dhuroi asaj zerin.
09:27
And as a scientist, I'm so excited
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Si shkencetare, une jam shume e lumtur
09:29
to take this work out of the laboratory
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qe t'a nxjerr kete pune jashte laboratorit,
09:31
and finally into the real world
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me ne fund ne boten reale,
09:32
so it can have real-world impact.
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ne menyre qe te kete nje impakt global.
09:36
What I want to share with you next
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Dua te ndaj tani me ju
09:37
is how I envision taking this work
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visionin tim per hapin e ardhshem
09:39
to that next level.
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te kesaj pune.
09:42
I imagine a whole world of surrogate donors
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Imagjinoj nje bote te mbushur me dhurues surrogato
09:46
from all walks of life, different sizes, different ages,
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nga te gjitha fushat e jetes, me
pesha dhe mosha te ndryshme,
09:49
coming together in this voice drive
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te cilet bashkohen
09:52
to give people voices
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per t'u dhuruar njerezve zera
09:55
that are as colorful as their personalities.
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qe jane plot ngjyra si edhe personalitetet e tyre.
09:58
To do that as a first step,
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Per t'a bere kete, hapi i pare
10:01
we've put together this website, VocaliD.org,
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ishte krijimi i nje siti web VocaliD.org,
10:04
as a way to bring together those
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si nje menyre per te mbledhur bashke
10:06
who want to join us as voice donors,
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te gjithe ata qe duan te na bashkohen si dhurues zeri,
10:08
as expertise donors,
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dhurues ekspertize,
10:10
in whatever way to make this vision a reality.
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apo ne menyra te tjera qe do t'a shnderrojne
kete vizion ne realitet.
10:15
They say that giving blood can save lives.
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Thone se duke dhuruar gjak shpeton jete.
10:19
Well, giving your voice can change lives.
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E pra, duke dhuruar zerin ndryshon jete.
10:24
All we need is a few hours of speech
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Na duhen thjeshte disa ore fjalimi
10:27
from our surrogate talker,
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nga folesi surrogato,
10:29
and as little as a vowel from our target talker,
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dhe vetem nje zanore nga folesi i synuar,
10:34
to create a unique vocal identity.
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ne menyre qe te krijojme nje identitet zanor unik.
10:37
So that's the science behind what we're doing.
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Kjo pra eshte shkenca e fshehur
pas asaj qe po bejme.
10:40
I want to end by circling back to the human side
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Dua t'a mbyll duke u kthyer tek aspekti njerezor,
10:45
that is really the inspiration for this work.
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i cili eshte frymezimi i vertete per kete pune.
10:49
About five years ago, we built our very first voice
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Rreth pese vite me pare ne ndertuam zerin e pare
10:52
for a little boy named William.
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per nje djale te quajtur William.
10:55
When his mom first heard this voice,
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Kur nena e tij e degjoi zerin per here te pare,
10:57
she said, "This is what William
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ajo tha, "Ky do te ishte zeri
11:00
would have sounded like
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i Williamit nese ai
11:01
had he been able to speak."
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do te mund te fliste."
11:04
And then I saw William typing a message
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Pastaj pashe se Williami po shkruante nje mesazh
11:06
on his device.
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ne aparatin e tij.
11:07
I wondered, what was he thinking?
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Thashe, c'te jete duke menduar valle?
11:11
Imagine carrying around someone else's voice
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Imagjinoni sikur te udhetoni me zerin e dikujt tjeter
11:14
for nine years
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per nente vjet
11:16
and finally finding your own voice.
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dhe pastaj te gjeni zerin tuaj.
11:21
Imagine that.
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Imagjinojeni
11:23
This is what William said:
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Kjo eshte ajo qe Williami tha:
11:25
"Never heard me before."
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"Nuk e kisha degjuar asnjehere veten."
11:32
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
11:34
(Applause)
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(duartrokitje)
Translated by Aida Musai
Reviewed by Helena Bedalli

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rupal Patel - Speech scientist
People relying on synthetic speech use the voice they’re given, not their own. Rupal Patel created the vocaliD project to change that.

Why you should listen

Northeastern University computer science professor Rupal Patel looks for ways to give voice to the voiceless. As founder and director of the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab), she developed a technology that combines real human voices with the characteristics of individual speech patterns. The result is VocaliD, an innovation that gives people who can't speak the ability to communicate in a voice all their own.

"There's nothing better than seeing the person who's actually going to use it, seeing their reaction, seeing their smile," says Patel.

More profile about the speaker
Rupal Patel | Speaker | TED.com