Glasses for Voice: How One Founder Rebuilt Speech After Cancer
Konrad Zieliński lost his voice to cancer years ago while he was a student at the University of Warsaw. For people with his condition, the traditional options have been limited: handheld speaking devices that sound flat and robotic, or surgically implanted voice prostheses that require ongoing maintenance to prevent complications.
Rather than accept those trade-offs, he set out to build something better. His answer is a noninvasive device — what he describes as glasses for voice — that requires no surgery and aims to let laryngectomees speak with emotion, laugh, shout, and even sing.
From Personal Loss to a Clear Mission
Zieliński did not stop at coping with his own condition. He went on to complete a PhD focused on bionic systems for laryngectomees, people who have had their voice boxes (larynxes) removed. While working on his thesis, he began developing a wearable device that could restore expressive speech without surgery.
That academic work became the foundation for a real product. The goal was simple to state but hard to build: give people back a voice that still sounds human.
Uhura Bionics and the Whitney Device
In 2023, Zieliński launched Uhura Bionics, a startup selected as one of the Startup Battlefield 200, a group of early-stage companies chosen to showcase their products at a major tech conference next month.
The company offers two wearable devices: a more basic model and a high-end version called Whitney, named after the singer Whitney Houston.
Zieliński says he hopes laryngectomees will use Whitney just like people with poor eyesight use glasses. That comparison is where the idea of glasses for voice comes from — a wearable you put on, rather than a surgery you recover from.
“I’m satisfied with what I’ve built because you added the emotional layer,” he said in a voice that indeed carries plenty of intonation, though with a slight electronic undertone.
That emotional layer is the core of the pitch. Where older speaking devices flatten speech into something robotic, Whitney is designed to preserve the human qualities of laughter, shouting, and singing.
Why Emotion Matters in a Synthetic Voice
Most assistive speaking tools focus on intelligibility — can the listener understand the words? Whitney aims higher. It targets prosody, the rise and fall of pitch that carries meaning and feeling.
Without prosody, a question sounds like a statement. A joke lands flat. A shout of joy sounds like a robot reading a label. For laryngectomees, that loss of expression is often as painful as the loss of speech itself.
What Comes Next for Uhura Bionics
The next step in Uhura’s development is adding higher-pitched voice options for women, as well as personalization features so users don’t all sound alike. Both additions address a common complaint about synthetic speech: everyone ends up sounding the same.
For now, Uhura sells its products as wellness devices, which means users must pay out of pocket: $500 for the basic option and $1,500 for Whitney.
The startup is in the process of getting them classified as Class I medical devices, the lowest-risk category, in Europe and, later, the U.S. That classification would allow for partial reimbursement through health insurance.
Zieliński estimates the market size for devices serving laryngectomees at about $2 billion, but says it could be larger if Uhura expands to serve people with other speech disorders.
A Growing Field of Competitors
Uhura is not alone in offering modern solutions for people who have lost their voices. Competitors include Atos Medical, a medical device company with products in the space, and startups like Laronix.
Still, Zieliński is certain Whitney will resonate with other laryngectomees. He will be demonstrating its capabilities not only at the upcoming tech conference, but also at SF Tech Week in October, where he will sing onstage with the help of Whitney.
Seeing the Technology in Person
The conference runs October 13–15, where attendees can see Uhura Bionics in person, along with the rest of the Startup Battlefield 200 competitors.
For a founder who lost his own voice to cancer, the mission is deeply personal. If Whitney works as intended, the glasses for voice could give laryngectomees something the old devices never could: a voice that still sounds like them.
