Since the announcement yesterday that the Boston Subway system would introduce new TTS voices to its line-up, I got to thinking about the differences I’ve noticed in various public transportation systems. When I was living in London, the Tube’s persona closely mimicked that of the typical British lady in her 50s - calm, contained, and overly polite. Of course, the woman behind the voices (Emma Clarke) was recently fired following public statements she made regarding the Tube’s shoddy service. Here’s a video that should give a taste of what it’s like to ride the Tube:
Next up, one of my favorite countries - Espana! Their Barcelona subway system, called el Metro, just got tricked out with new trains, which feature male voices. Call it machismo or consistency.
And, of course, NYC’s own subway … which has no real name aside from “somewhat unreliable” or “increasingly annoying.” Here’s a video of the L train, which runs from Manhattan to northern Brooklyn, and has some of the newest personas.
Good morning! This post is coming to you super-early, because I have way too much to do later today. So, before my boss creeps in, here’s all the news for the week so far. Our faithful, intrepid managing editor Len hath returned from the Genesys G-Force conference (read his posts about G-Force here), and he’ll have more to report to you in coming days. Such as what he did with the Genesys-emblazoned belt buckle … and how the rest of the office kind of wants it to add to our wall of “free stuff vendors send us.” So, unless you’re totally intrigued by how Xerox (haha, remember photocopies?) plans to compete with Google and Salesforce, or that giant squid is still freaking you out (hello, it has the world’s largest eyes), follow the jump for less-disgusting news stories! [Speech Tech Blog, Information Week, Associated Press]
If you go to our website, you’ll notice that some of ourwebstoriesarespeechified. We’re using Loquendo’s TTS engine. The voice is called Alison. We chose her because we liked her concatenation and she didn’t sound too threatening. We also convinced our editor-in-chief that she was actually Cokie Roberts. Tell us what you think in the comments below!
Finally, we’d love for some of you clever people to contribute to this blog once every two weeks. If you’re interested, send us an email. Let us know your name, title, and favorite speech tech-related deployment over the last year. Also your favorite superhero and/or Greek god.
Our friends at Global Industry Analysts tell us that the speech technology market is expected to grow at a rate of 36 percent — globally — through the year 2015 (OK, that sounded really sci-fi). The industries analyzed? ASR, TTS, and speaker verification. The countries targeted? The U.S., Canada, Japan, Europe, and, according to the report, “Rest of World.” Hmmm… For the full details, pony up $3,950. Or, sit back and relax — this kind of growth in the face of a recession should come as good news. [Global Industry Analysts]
Update: When I called Global Industry Analysts to ask them a few questions about the report, the person manning the phone told me they will not “grant interviews” about it. We all have our doubts about research at times, but this one seems super-suspicious. If you’re going to publish a report, be able to explain how you came to those conclusions, got the numbers, and what it means to the industry you’re discussing. If this isn’t just another self-serving paper written on behalf of the vendor community, I wouldn’t be too surprised.
A few days ago, TTS company Cepstral announced it was providing services for the avatar-based virtual world/community IMVU Virtual World. I wrote a news story about this, but my searching didn’t end there. A press release about the joint venture included a link to a YouTube video posted by IMVU, demonstrating how the program sounded.
Though Cepstral’s Patrick Dexter says the video features rough-cut, demo-quality processing, I’m still convinced this is incredibly creepy. Especially the line, “I love your tats, are they new?” that pops up around 1:43 into the video. After I got my second tattoo, I’m pretty sure a guy said that to me, actually. Or, I could go my usual route and employ the line at 3:15 - “I can become a futuristic robot ready to blast alien evil doers out of the galaxy.” Enjoy!
Good morning! This post is coming to you super-early, because I have way too much to do later today. So, before my boss creeps in, here’s all the news for the week so far. Our faithful, intrepid managing editor Len hath returned from the Genesys G-Force conference (read his posts about G-Force 
