Here’s a technology that Microsoft is developing at their research labs lately. The new technology, called the Monolingual TTS, translates users’ speech from one language to another and what’s very exciting is that, the technology translates all these in the users’ own voice. The Monolingual TTS was revealed at TechFest 2012 recently. Microsoft thinks that the new technology can render speech sentences in different languages for building this mixed coded bilingual text to speech systems.
When quizzed about where these could be put to use, Microsoft’s Frank Soong says:
“We will be able to do quite a few scenario applications,”
Microsoft Research has been working hard to create virtual avatars being used along with a variety of technologies. And with this Monolingual TTS, the avatars not only looks like the users, which is achieved by photo-realistic effects, but they can also mimic the users’ voice and make lip movements along with the speech in a different language. The technology is also said to be almost accurate, instant and can be personalized.
If this comes out, we would not be surprised to see Mission Impossible style hacks across the world! Just kidding!
Source: Microsoft Research, Technology Review