I'd like to start by saying that certain days can change history.
For example, September the 11th.
On that day, a series of terrible events changed the history of the world forever.
Maybe it's just a coincidence,
but also on September 11th my daughter Clara was born.
On that day, a series of terrible events left her with cerebral palsy.
This is my family, my wife Aline, and our daughter Clara
who due to a medical error is unable to walk or talk.
And from the moment I learned what had happened to my daughter,
empowering people with disabilities became a passion for me.
We started working to change lives, not just for my daughter
but for thousands of people with disabilities, in Brazil and abroad.
Imagine the worst kind of prison. Would it be solitary confinement?
For millions of people with disabilities, their bodies are a prison.
There is no worse prison than your own body.
Just like my daughter, many people are aware, intelligent,
but they're trapped inside bodies which don't obey their commands.
How do these people communicate?
Usually, they communicate using cards,
that was how I'd communicate with my daughter.
If she wanted an apple, for example,
I had to make a card with the drawing of an apple
so she could sort of point to it.
This was very complicated.
That's when we decided to create Livox.
It's a software, a platform,
that allows people with disabilities to communicate, and also learn.
For the first time in history,
artificial intelligence and contextual awareness was used
to create intelligent algorithms specially made for people with disabilities.
Livox has intelligent algorithms
for motor, cognitive and visual disabilities.
Regardless of the level of motor, cognitive or visual disability,
Livox adjusts itself for each of these disability types.
Let me give you an example.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough time to show all the algorithms that Livox has,
but one of the examples I can tell you is in relation to touch.
People with disabilities cannot touch the tablet like we can.
They hit the screen, swipe their hand, touch it incorrectly.
They cannot aim exactly where they want to touch.
This was a very serious problem.
So one of Livox algorithms we created is called Intellitouch,
If someone without a disability touches the tablet screen,
Livox knows that this person has no disability, and so does nothing.
But, if a disabled person touches the tablet screen,
Livox calculates how many fingers are touching the screen, for how long,
if that person is swiping their hand over it, or not,
how likely they are to click on a certain item according to the time and location;
and it corrects the imperfect touch of the disabled person.
One of the most interesting things in Livox is that you can create profiles.
I'm also the director of a large physical therapy clinic
and we've tested Livox on thousands of disabled people.
So we were able to transform this knowledge,
this know-how that we have with disabled people, in algorithms.
So Livox has been widely used, for example, in schools.
Here we can see a profile, for example: high-functioning autism,
Clara Pereira, visual impairment and cerebral palsy.
So imagine, for example,
teachers who have just got a student with a disability, who have autism.
If they select autism in Livox,
Livox will adjust for the visual, cognitive and motor characteristics
of someone with autism.
If they receive another student with cerebral palsy
and they select cerebral palsy,
Livox will adjust for the visual, cognitive and motor characteristics
of someone with cerebral palsy;
characteristics which are totally different from autism, for example.
There are no limits of deficiencies for Livox.
You can create endless diagnostic profiles for endless types of disabilities.
Besides communication, disabled people can do much more through Livox.
For example, they can play instruments in music lessons at school.
They can learn to read, write, listen to music, watch videos,
use in therapies, and learn difficult concepts such as mathematics.
Now stop and think for a moment.
Until recently, these people couldn't even communicate.
Imagine the impact on the daily lives of these people.
Now they can do so much more.
How many people need Livox?
Brazil has about 50 million people with disabilities.
Of these 50 million people with disabilities,
15 million, which is roughly equivalent to the population of New York and London,
are people who need Livox in Brazil.
They're people with cerebral palsy, stroke sequelae,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism,
and other diseases and deficiencies that hinder the speech process.
Now imagine the whole world.
According to the World Health Organization
there are about one billion people with disabilities in the world.
They are the largest minority in the world.
We know this, and that's why we created Livox to speak 25 thousand languages;
and we already cater for around 10 thousand disabled people in Brazil.
People always ask me what I talk about with my daughter.
We've talked a lot through Livox, although she can't speak orally.
People always ask me what she said that touched me the most.
This photo is a very recent photo of her, which was a photo for a document.
I said to her, "Clara, this is for a document, a passport. Be serious."
This was the most serious photo that we managed from her.
She's watched all the Disney movies. Every one of them.
And through Livox, I asked her which Disney princess is she;
after all, this is a fantasy of every girl.
Which Disney princess do you think she said she is?
Who's going to guess? You're all too shy!
Who said Ariel? You got full points! Very good, she said she was Ariel.
Has anyone here watched the Ariel movie? Raise your hands.
I watched it about 200 times only yesterday.
What touched me the most was why she said she's Ariel.
I'm going to show a part of the movie
which shows a little why she said she's Ariel.
(Video) Prince: Oh, I see.
(Yapping)
Are you OK, miss? I'm sorry if this knucklehead scared you.
He's harmless, really...
You seem very familiar to me. Have we met?
(Yapping)
We have met! I knew it! You're the one I've been looking for!
What's your name?
What's wrong? What is it?
Can't you speak?
Oh, then you couldn't be who I thought.
(Video ends)
Carlos Pereira: Amazing, right?
She told me she's Ariel,
because for most of the time Ariel can't speak.
Towards the end of the movie some magic happens that makes Ariel speak again.
Unfortunately, our lives aren't like a Walt Disney movie.
But this doesn't mean we cannot do certain magical things,
and we're happy to have created something magical
that is giving a voice, not only to my daughter,
but also to thousands of people with disabilities
throughout Brazil, and the world.
When we know what goes on in our children's minds,
we can make dreams come true, and I took her to Disney
where she met Ariel, dressed up herself as Ariel.
Look at her face! She couldn't believe
she was finally meeting the princess she so wants to be.
She told me afterward that she had fulfilled a dream
when finally meeting Ariel in person.
The work we're doing is about real social inclusion.
In Brazil alone we've traveled over 400 thousand kilometers,
in all the states.
That's the equivalent of more than ten laps around the world.
I've been here several times in Rio Grande do Sul,
in several cities here inside the state, bringing technology and social inclusion.
Our work has also been recognized several times.
In December 2014, I was in Washington,
where we received an award from the Inter-American Development Bank,
as the technological innovation with the greatest impact in 2014.
Besides this, in February, we were in Abu Dhabi
where we received a UN award for the best social inclusion app in the world.
We competed along thousands of apps from 178 countries,
and were very pleased to bring this award here to Brazil.
We also have important partners, like SAP, for example;
and we've just closed a joint venture deal
with partners of companies in the Arab League. This is me in Riyadh.
Livox has already been translated and localized into Arabic.
In two weeks' time I'll be returning to Saudi Arabia
for a final technical meeting, and for the deployment
in the Middle East and North Africa.
Google...
Google got to know about us, and sent a team to film our story,
to show in a global event, called Google I/O.
I'd like to show you something about it in this video.
[Google I/O. San Francisco, May 28, 2015]
[Recife, Brazil]
(Video) (English) If you have a good idea, it doesn't matter where you are.
We are proving that it's possible to make money and to make social good as well.
I met my wife I think 17 to 18 years ago.
We did everything that we could for my wife to have a good pregnancy.
When my daughter was born, she didn't cry.
Something was very wrong.
Even though she's disabled,
I saw that my daughter was trying to communicate.
I needed to do something.
I'm a developer, and that's why I created Livox.
It's a software that enables people with severe disabilities
to communicate and to learn.
Through Livox she can read and write.
There are over one billion people with disabilities on the planet.
Livox is not a product only for Brazil.
It's a product for the whole world.
[Keep building.]
(Applause)
(Video) (English) So those are some powerful stories.
They are just some small examples
of the ways that developers are having substantial impact around the world.
We are also excited that Carlos and his family could join us today!
(Applause)
(Video ends)
Carlos Pereira: This was broadcast live around the world,
and I'm happy to say that after this we started a partnership with Google,
and we're working with new incredible algorithms
that will change forever
the lives of millions of people with disabilities around the world.
And why did Google call me to go there?
They wanted to highlight businesses
that are making a substantial impact around the world.
I'd also like to say that Livox is real.
It's not just an idea, not just a prototype,
and it's already changing the lives of thousands of people with disabilities.
I'd love to tell you about each of their stories,
each of these thousands of people; but unfortunately that's not possible.
So I'd like to show you
the story of three people with very different disabilities,
and how Livox is liberating these people.
This is the last video.
(Video) (English) Although Clara cannot write by herself,
through Livox she's succeeded in writing her first story
that was published in a book.
Maybe she can be a writer in the future.
(Livox voice) (English) I'm a doll that can speak and write.
(Livox voice) (English) Mouth cancer did not take away my will to live.
Livox helped me to overcome this difficult time of my life.
(Livox voice) (English) Though my body is a prison for me,
I always wanted to be free.
With Livox I am able to make my dreams come true.
And now...
I'm free.
(Video ends)
CP: Incredible!
It allows an eight-year-old girl, who cannot pick up a pencil and paper,
to learn to read and write a story which was published in a book,
which was the case of my daughter.
It allows a person who had mouth cancer,
who lost all of his teeth, tongue and jaw, which can't grow back again,
to communicate and even attend his customers by phone through Livox.
It also allows a man who uses Livox with his feet,
who was living a limited life, to now go out partying,
to say he wants to have a beer,
say that he wants to go skydiving,
and actually goes skydiving, experimenting a real sense of freedom.
The change in the life of this man who skydived was so big
that he recently found a girlfriend and got married.
So, it's an incredible change in the lives of these people.
I'd like to end with a phrase from the American Senator Daniel Webster,
when he said:
"If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception,
I would choose to keep the power of communication,
for by it I would soon regain all the rest."
Thank you very much.
(Applause)