1/7/11

A New Model for Synthetic Speech

It's I!

Toshiba Research Europe posted a letter on the LibriVox forum asking if it was OK with us if they contacted certain of our narrators to create synthetic voices of them for text-to-speech applications:

http://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30499

Today I got a private message through LibriVox from Dr. Buchholz, asking me if I'm OK with being a model!  This doesn't require any involvement from me - they process my recordings to break down how I pronounce the various syllables in their various intonations.  And they probably won't attribute the result to me; I'll probably be known as something like "U.S. male with little natural accent".

Toshiba is (at least at first) planning to improve computer-generated spoken texts. (They already have their technology aboard some GPS models.) But someday, when you buy a new "smart" refrigerator or car or some-such, you may be surprised to hear it using my voice!