Have you ever tried preparing for an important presentation or speech in front of your bedroom mirror? Research shows that large number of people fear public speaking more than they fear death. Odd, as it seems, some people pay a hefty amount of money to hire speech consultants who can help overcome this fear. Two seniors from the University City district in Philadelphia decided just to change that.
Meet Orai, an app, designed to help people become better speakers. Developed in-house by Drexel University seniors Danish Dhamani and Paritosh Gupta, this app aims to help people become better speakers by providing feedback on their speech using artificial intelligence and Virtual Reality technology, helping people practise and improve their speech while giving them the experience of being in front of a large virtual audience through a VR Headset. The app analyzes the user’s confidence level, including voice modulations and the use of filler words. All this data is then processed via Machine Learning technology to provide an accurate feedback on the user’s speech. At the core, Orai is an artificial intelligence company, aiming to provide human-like expertise and feedback on speech.
Co-Founders Danish Dhamani and Paritosh Gupta came up with this idea, back in Fall 2015, at PennApps XII. Contemplating about what to present at the prestigious hackathon, they formulated the idea and materialised it in the form of a hack, grabbing a spot within the top 10 hacks at PennApps XII. And there’s been no looking back ever since. The duo from Philadelphia’s University City district then went on from coast to coast, winning a series of business pitch competitions across the United States and in the process raising over $45,000. And after over an year of development and testing, the duo is all ready to launch their app on the App Store later this week.
Built in the heart of Philly at a startup incubator called the Baiada Institute at Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, the startup aims to expand their user base at an exponential rate, and help the world improve their speech. As a powerful mix of Engineering and Computer Science students, this duo is all set to disrupt the speech consultancy industry.
To know more about Orai App, click here.
The University City Post 