Do you know voice synthesis technology? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, it’s the technology used by Dr. Stephen Hawking to communicate more easily. This technology is certainly great when it comes to inclusivity and accessibility… But did you know that anyone can use it? Whether for studying or multitasking, the truth is that this technology is extremely versatile for anyone. Therefore, today I will tell you a little about How Does Text-To-Speech Technology Work?
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Text-To-Speech?
At a fundamental level, the way text-to-speech technology works can be broken down into the following processes:
First, a text-to-speech engine listens for sound waves produced by a human voice and converts them into language data. This process is Automatic Speech-Recognition (ASR). However, before you can do anything with that data, you must derive the meaning of those words. This process is called natural language generation (NLG).
Artificial intelligence has developed the ability to generate original and creative responses to the audio data it takes in. As James Vlahos, author of Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think puts it, “Neural networks are crafting original things for computers to say. They’re not just taking prescribed words; they’re doing so after being trained on large volumes of human speech: movie subtitles and Reddit threads and whatnot. They are learning about people’s communication style and the kinds of things person B might say after person A.”
Once a text-to-speech engine has generated the text it intends to convert to speech, it needs to produce the sounds necessary for articulation. This stage of the process involves converting the characters of the language into different phonemes or sounds. To achieve this, the text-to-speech engine must understand the context of the sentence in order to determine the correct tense.
Using the human voice to forge a synthetic
One of the most important models for speech synthesis is the concatenated text-to-speech; which is “where a very large database of short speech fragments from a single speaker is recorded and then recombined to form full utterances.”
While famous benchmarks for speech computing include the HAL sentient computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and the speech synthesizer used by Stephen Hawking, the synthetic voice of the future is not entirely robotic. The sound of authentic human speech will play a key role in shaping original synthetic voices that sound increasingly human.
If you are producing a synthetic voice for your brand, inputting the voices of real actors, you have the opportunity to imbue your brand voice with your own personality or vocal identity. As text-to-speech technology becomes more widespread, selecting the race, gender, and other vocal characteristics of the voices the input will allow you to create a unique synthetic voice that represents who you are.
Check Woord: A Free, High-Quality Text-To-Speech Software
Woord is a free online TTS with a lot of interesting features. It’s available in more than 50 languages, including many English, Portuguese, and Spanish dialects. You can also choose between masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral voices. All of these capabilities, as well as all of the languages, are accessible for free on the basic plan, allowing you to check out the service before purchasing the premium version. The free edition includes up to 20.000 characters every month, as well as professional voices, a chrome plugin, an SSML editor, and an MP3 download. Because the voices in this application are genuine, you may adjust their speed and structure.
You may convert your writing into professional speaking by using high-quality female or male voices. It’s ideal for e-learning, PowerPoint or PowerPoint presentations, YouTube videos, and making your website more accessible to visually impaired people.
Woord‘s TTS is a one-of-a-kind AI-assisted text-to-speech service and solution. This text-to-speech service uses high-quality, natural-sounding male or female voices
This service can help you improve your listening, speaking, and pronouncing abilities. While doing something else, listen to any printed text with real voices.
You can create your own audio here for free! And here’s a guide on how to use their SSML editor.
For more information like this…
Text To Speech: The Solution To Creating Posts With Audio
Woord- A TTS Tool For YouTube Tutorials
Also published on Medium.