TV ad: Samsung / Tallk: Within Reach

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Cheil Worldwide España and Samsung have launched a new app which allows Spanish-speaking ALS patients to not only keep communicating with their families, friends and carers but to control utilities in their homes, such as lights and TV, after the disease impacts their ability to speak or move. Tallk is a free app which turns any camera on a Samsung smartphone or tablet into an eye movement tracker with the ability to turn tiny pupil gestures into words and actions, allowing people who are physically incapable of speaking or moving to keep communicating with their family and friends and control IoT connected utilities and devices. It has been designed particularly for people who have ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as motor neurone disease, and have lost the power to speak and move even though they retain their mental abilities. Uniquely, the Tallk app interfaces with Bixby, Samsung’s voice assistant, meaning the user can also operate smart-enabled devices with their eyes – turning on lights, adjusting the air conditioning or changing channels on the TV, for example. Although eye-tracking technology enabling text communication on its own is not new, the cost of the devices currently available for Spanish language ALS patients is around €6,000, making them inaccessible to most since the average income in Spain is only €23,000. The aim of Samsung’s Tallk app is to democratise communication and independence. Tallk is the product of Samsung’s Technology With A Purpose platform and was developed by Cheil Worldwide España in collaboration with Fundación Luzón, Spain’s leading ALS charity, and Irisbond, a hardware company specialising in eye movement tracking, which is based in San Sebastián.