Michael Ko
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Applied Science
- Program:
- Campus: Vancouver
In the summer of 2017, Michael Ko received some heartbreaking news. His older brother, Daniel, who has muscular dystrophy (MD), had gone into cardiac arrest. After he was rushed to the hospital and stabilized in the ER, Daniel spent four months in intensive care, slowly recovering from the ordeal. But it left him bedridden and with impaired speech due to a tracheostomy.
That fall, Michael began his major in engineering physics. As he sat in class, learning more about the process of transforming engineering ideas into practical technologies, he began to wonder if he could build something that would improve Daniel’s quality of life. By the end of the year, he knew what that something could be: an assistive AI device which would enable Daniel to control the electronic devices in his room.
“[Daniel] had been struggling to turn on the lights or music, and existing voice recognition software had trouble recognizing his words,” says Michael. “So even though I had no background in programming or electrical engineering, I thought I would try to design a device that could help solve this problem.”
Michael always planned to optimize and expand the capabilities of his technology, but with a full academic schedule — he is currently enrolled in six courses and a lab — it hasn’t been easy to find the time. Over the winter break, however, and with the help of online guides and tutorials, he was finally able to implement some new features. Daniel can now use the device to make phone calls through an external module. He can also access Google Assistant by saying a certain keyword instead of “Hello Google” or “Okay Google” — phrases he is unable to pronounce clearly enough for the Google Voice Search interface to recognize.
