Voice assistants are built for fast talkers with free hands: they end your turn after a second of silence, and one misheard word can change or delete something. For people living with paralysis, ALS, MS, Parkinson's or arthritis, a simple to-do list becomes hard work. Heed is a hands-free task manager you just talk to. The browser streams audio directly to AssemblyAI Universal-3.5 Pro Streaming with a short-lived token, and partial words appear in under 300 ms (median). Each final turn goes to NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on Nebius Token Factory, which returns JSON actions that the server validates against the real task list before anything changes. Heed uses the streaming API as a live control surface: - When a turn trails off ("Remind me to..."), Heed stays silent, merges the words with what comes next and sends UpdateConfiguration to lengthen the silence thresholds without reconnecting. - One switch, a big button or the Space key sends ForceEndpoint, closing a turn 380 ms after speech. - The user's names are sent as keyterms_prompt mid-stream: "Callas" and "Dr. Ake for" became "Kallista" and "Dr. Okafor". - Each spoken reply is passed back as agent_context, so a short "Yes." after a confirmation question is understood. Deletes need a spoken yes and "undo that" restores any change. Large high-contrast text, screen-reader live regions and spoken replies are built in. The hosted demo replays a real recorded session with no API calls; live mode runs locally with your own keys. Business model: a free tier, $7.99 a month for individuals and $12 per seat for rehab clinics, occupational therapists and employers. Streaming costs $0.45 per hour and Heed streams only while you speak, so a typical user costs one to two dollars a month. Built with AI assistance (Claude Code), directed and reviewed by the entrant.
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