Credit: Courtesy of Heath Ahrens

Heath Ahrens, pictured in his office, got the idea for iSpeech while commuting from Morris County to Rutgers Business School in Newark. The company's website allows users to convert text to audio; it's slogan is "Read with Your Ears."

Ever since he was a boy, Heath Ahrens loved to build things. Tools, circuits, and wires often surrounded him as he tore apart expensive electronic devices and tried to put them back together.

The 27-year-old is using that passion and the business skills he learned at Rutgers to build his new creation – iSpeech.

iSpeech is a website that allows users to take almost any text and convert it into clearly spoken audio – free of charge. The digital audio file can then be downloaded to a computer or electronic device, such as an iPod. The concept inspired the company's slogan, "Read with Your Ears."

Ahrens, who graduated from Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick in May, has always enjoyed creating technology. He started his own computer business while still in high school. “Now,” he says, “I’m just doing that on a bigger scale.”

The idea for iSpeech came to him while a business school student during his 40-minute commute from Mendham, New Jersey, to Newark for class. “I was sitting in traffic on Route 78, wasting time with a ton of reading still to do, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could listen to reading assignments while I was driving?’”

Ahrens began to search for software that would convert text to audio. He was familiar with these types of programs because he had worked on computers that automatically answer telephone calls using text. “The software I found was time consuming and difficult to use,” said Ahrens. “I thought there must be a way to make this easy for students.”

Using the limited software available, Ahrens started converting his class readings to audio files and listening to them on the way to class. He soon realized that listening was not only efficient, but it could also help people with disabilities.

Ahrens, who has a learning disability himself, believes listening to his notes helped him graduate with a 4.0 average.

“I basically read everything I could through my ears,” Ahrens said. “Once you listen to something three or four times, you can’t help but learn it.”

Once Ahrens’ classmates got wind of his new study tool, they asked him to convert their notes as well. “I got such an overwhelming response from my professors and the people in my class that I decided I should make a business of it,” Ahrens said.

Ahrens conducted an independent study to measure demand for a Web-based, text-to-speech solution, and the decision to pursue iSpeech was as a result of extensive research including surveys, preference tests, and observation.

After creating a business plan, Ahrens gathered a group of programmers and assistants to help him build the website. They created a program that is different from other text-conversion software because it doesn’t need to be downloaded to a computer to work: Users simply upload or copy and paste text, and the program on iSpeech’s website will turn it into an audio file within seconds.

In 2006, Ahrens tested the first version of iSpeech with students at the Newark Campus by posting a few ads on the social network site Facebook. During its first testing phase, iSpeech attracted more than 1,500 users. Most of the original testers have committed to using iSpeech again.

In May 2007, Ahrens officially incorporated iSpeech and recently launched the new iSpeech Beta site. He credits his business school professors’ advice and support for much of the website’s early success.

“Rutgers has one of the best business programs out there, because the professors keep things current,” Ahrens said. “When I was deciding on the business model for iSpeech, one of my professors helped me figure out the way to generate revenue.”

Ahrens and his team are now working with the business school faculty to make file sharing on iSpeech even easier. They are building a Blackboard (Newark Campus’s online course tool) plug-in, which would allow students to access any audio file ever uploaded.

While helping college students convert class notes and textbook pages was the initial intent of iSpeech, Ahrens is looking to the future. Right now, he is working with cellular phone companies to convert text files, such as emails, to audio. Ultimately, Ahrens hopes iSpeech will be the place people go to for text-to-audio conversion.

“We’re looking at converting everything from blogs to Wikipedia pages,” said Ahrens. “Our goal is to put a little speaker button next to everything that is text on the internet, so people can download and listen to it whenever they want.”

For more information about iSpeech, go to www.iSpeech.org or email info@ispeech.org.