Technology inspired by the love between father and daughter | Carlos Pereira | TEDxUnisinos

Clara, a seven-year-old girl, is the great inspiration to her father, computer analyst Carlos Pereira. She has cerebral palsy, and so he developed the world's first app that allows people with a disability to communicate. The project won an award at the United Nations (UN) in Abu Dhabi, and has also been recognized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, USA.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but inde-pendently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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)