MUMBAI: Samsung India has launched a digital campaign showcasing the capabilities of its digital voice assistant – Bixby through a powerful narrative that strikes a chord with viewers.
The film is inspired by the life of a Motor Neuron Disease (MND)/ALS patient Sonal (name changed) who agreed to let Samsung work on a pilot project to help preserve her voice forever for her daughter.
The campaign shows a loving mother who is diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (MND)/ALS and is losing her voice and ability to move, and how Samsung customises its AI-enabled Bixby technology to keep her voice alive on a Samsung smartphone so that her loved ones can continue to hear her voice.
In the pilot phase of the project, Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore (SRI-B) worked with a company which specialises in core speech technologies. We recorded an independent voice, and using TTS (Text To Speech) technology tested that voice for compatibility on Android OS (Samsung Smartphone). Testing on Tizen OS (Refrigerator, Television) is under progress. This phase led to the discovery of Asha Ek Hope Foundation, the first registered NGO for MND/ALS in India. It is a non-profit organisation supporting people with motor neuron disease (MND) and their families. It’s striving to infuse hope and positivity in their life, which will empower them to overcome the illness.
Samsung India chief marketing officer Ranjivjit Singh said, “This film depicts how Samsung can make the seemingly impossible, possible by using its AI voice assistant, Bixby to preserve the voice of a mother who is diagnosed with MND.",/p>
In the film, the daughter is seen reading out an essay at school where she describes the beautiful relationship with her mother. She crafts a narrative which celebrates the mother daughter bond through activities, just the two of them spending time together, listening to and laughing with one another. As the video continues streaming, the mother is missing from the picture and we see the daughter speaking to a phone with her father in the backdrop.
Samsung believes in delivering connected consumer experiences across its spectrum of products and has been focused on cutting edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), Machine learning and 5G mobile networks. It spent more than $14 billion on R&D globally last year and has more than 65,000 engineers and designers working to innovate and, bring the best products and solutions for our consumers.