Taika Waititi-Directed Apple Film Reveals the Life-Changing Power of iPhones’ Personal Voice Feature!
Yesterday, on November 30, Apple unveiled a new short film that tells a heartwarming story about a young girl and a mythical creature embarking on a thrilling expedition across various landscapes, including a forest, in search of her lost voice. Directed by the renowned Taika Waititi, known for his work on Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Love and Thunder, the film serves as an allegory to shed light on the challenges faced by individuals with speech disabilities. In a characteristic Waititi fashion, the story reaches its climax, effectively conveying the message. The advertisement emphasizes the capabilities of the latest iOS 17 feature, Personal Voice on iPhones, in assisting those with speech impairments.
The short film will be released before the International Day of Persons with Disabilities celebrated on December 3, which is a UN day whose purpose is to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities in all areas of society. The video has been published on Apple’s official YouTube channel, and it has almost 70 thousand views in less than a day.
Apple’s short film tells about the struggles of people with speech disabilities
The entire film is narrated by Tristram Ingham, a New Zealander who suffers from facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), which causes progressive muscle wasting starting in the face, shoulders and arms and can eventually lead to the inability to speak and feed himself. , or in some cases blink. According to a post on Apple Newsroom, in 2013 he started using a wheelchair, and in recent years he has noticed changes in his voice. The entire narration was done using the Personal Voice feature.
In the video, the girl and the creature search the forest, desert and ocean in search of a lost voice, which at the end is revealed to belong to Ingham, who is shown using his iPhone’s accessibility feature to read a bedtime story. his granddaughter.
“The disability community is very aware of proxy voices that speak for us,” Ingham told Apple Newsroom. “Historically, service providers have spoken on behalf of the disabled, the family has spoken on behalf of the disabled. If technology enables voice to be preserved and maintained, that is autonomy, that is the right to self-determination.”
Personal voice on iPhones
Personal Voice is a machine learning-based feature that allows iPhone to speak with your voice. Your iPhone can create a copy of your voice and then synthesize that same voice to make it seem like it’s speaking with your voice. According to Apple, this feature was introduced keeping in mind those users who “are at risk of losing the ability to speak – such as those with a recent diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or other diseases that can gradually affect the ability to speak.” .
