Paulo Condado is a confirmed speaker of TEDxEdges Algarve and he will talk about his ground-breaking software "EasyVoice" that allows the breaking of barriers for people with voice disabilities, and showing the importance of studying new interaction methods for people with disabilities.
Paulo Condado, born in 1979, is currently a Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE), sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MCTES), on the topic of Computers and Accessibilities under supervision of Professor Fernando Lobo. He has a PhD in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science and a degree in Computer Science and Business from the University of Algarve. During his PhD studies he was also a visiting researcher at the MIT Media Lab (USA) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil).
He has been working on the design and use of assistive technologies. Paulo developed EasyVoice, a system which integrates speech synthesis with Voice over IP technology and text input methods to allow a person with motor impairments and voice disabilities to engage in phone conversations with a synthesized voice. His work has been published in prestigious international conferences such as the 9th ACM Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS-2007) and the 11th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP-2008). The EasyVoice system also got the attention of the Portuguese media, namely from the national TV stations (RTP, SIC, TVI), the national radio station TSF, the PCGUIA magazine, and some regional newspapers.
His work was praised by Jim Fruchterman, MacArthur Fellow in 2006 and a well known person in the area of Computers & Accessibility, who consider EasyVoice to be an important contribution to the field on the Benetech Blog.
