Text-to-Speech (TTS) Voices Demo
Ever Wanted to Build a Text to Speech App
Text-to-speech technology also referred to as TTS for short, is the artificial production of human speech. The process used in the past was called concatenative text-to-speech.
The approach relied solely on collecting long speech fragments from single speakers and then combining them to form complete utterances.A text-to-speech engine would search the large database for speech units matched to a user's input text once they needed to convert text to speech.
That would then proceed with splicing audio fragments.Even though this process outdated earlier modes of speech synthesis, the overall sound was quite monotonous and somewhat robotic.
To give you an idea of what this sounded like, some of you may have used Adobe's PDF reader to listen to its text-to-speech feature.WaveNet's text-to-speech system is one example of advanced deep learning through neural networks.
As far as my comparison with conventional text-to-speech applications goes, it has moved away from pure concatenation to a near-fluid synthesis process.
DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014, developed WaveNet, a deep neural network that generates raw audio waveforms using probabilistic and autoregressive models.
This new synthesis method produces more natural-sounding computer-generated speech than the most advanced concatenative algorithms, with listeners rating it as significantly better than the best concatenative methods.
The text-to-speech space is now becoming more mainstream with the introduction of WaveNet, Amazon Polly, and other technologies such as Google's text-to-speech.
Interaction between humans and machines is long and elusive. Thus, we are much closer to the Star Trek era with these newer ways of text-to-speech synthesis.
As depicted in the image above, we can communicate verbally and receive real-time feedback from computer systems using natural, human-like voices.You can enhance your text or voice-based applications with powerful features by converting between the two types.
It is evident that accessibility benefits from implementing text-to-speech and speech-to-text options. The deaf person could become a part of your podcasting audience if you provide a transcript of the show to visually impaired or dyslexic readers.
Having explored the history and the current status of text-to-speech we can now look at some application scenarios and places we can apply text-to-speech synthesis.
This will inspire you to think about ways you can incorporate this technology into your applications and appreciate the possibilities of text to speech integration.
Reading Applications
Despite being so simple, this is such a broad use case that your imagination is your only limitation.
You could build a Chrome plugin or application that reads your favorites out loud while you go about your daily grind such as commuting to work.
Consider, for example, the article you are currently reading — it can be transformed easily into an MP3 that you can take with you wherever you go.
By using text to speech, you can now make audio recordings of virtually any content. Not everyone has great vocal abilities.
Saving time and money by utilizing text-to-speech generation could probably replace the need for setting up a home studio or having to hire help.
Notification Systems
Systems that can use text to speech include those used to inform passengers at airports in real-time in the voice of a lifelike voice, queue-based applications in hospitals, or appointment reminders.
The ability to deliver PIN codes over the phone for 2FA authentication is a powerful feature to have.
The option might seem redundant to you if you've used Telegram or an application that requires 2FA authentication, but you've probably seen it before.
The phone verification process requires users to be verified by mobile phone — by sending a PIN code to a prospective user who then enters the PIN on a website or via a mobile app.
By enabling text to speech in these notification systems, you can reduce costs since you don't need to hire a professional announcer.
In Gaming — Talking Avatars
The use of avatars in games can be relatable to gamers. They give themselves another identity when creating a digital avatar.
As with creative hobbies, the purpose of a digital avatar is generally to escape to another world, just as we do through immersion into a virtual world. Our avatars extend upon our own identities via virtual immersion
A live-talking character based on user-defined text could present information and interact with players through games that use text-to-speech synthesis.
With digital avatars, you can control the voice and assist users with support requests on your website just like in chat applications.
By interacting with virtual characters or cartoon characters during a training simulation, a complex topic can be made more tangible.
In presentations, videos, live streams, and more, you can engage with the audience by using talking avatars, and as a result, convey your message in an automated way or in real-time.
Speaking avatars are anything from virtual receptionists to personal assistants for elderly or lonely users.
AI agents can significantly improve the quality of human-human interaction and human-machine communication.
IoT
The internet of things with text-to-speech and internet of things connections enable the Internet of Things with text-to-speech to enable voice on many of the items connected to the Internet of Things.
You can now talk to your alarm clock, dishwasher, TV, home, and industrial appliances.
With the help of text-to-speech technology, your set-top box reads your show guides, movie reviews, and summaries out loud. Your smart TV provides weather updates, sports scores, movie descriptions, etc., in a natural tone of voice.
E-Learning
Text-to-speech can also be implemented in e-learning systems. By adding text to speech to e-learning applications, you can bring learning content, such as PDF, ebooks, and other learning content, to life.
Students now have the option to listen to static content, as it is more visual and engaging than reading it.
Text to speech works best when it complements reading print content, but it does not absolve those who cannot read print for a variety of reasons, including disability.
Monitoring and Call Center Applications
If you're a developer creating software for call management, monitoring, and observability, or perhaps you're just writing microservices.
Text-to-speech synthesis can increase the functionality of these systems and make them better when things go wrong.
Banking and Finance
My interest in banking has grown over the years due to the improved usability of the applications.
Our time has come where services like Amazon Echo can help us find our bank account balance, transfer money, and find out about recent transactions hands-free.
Bank customers can benefit from text-to-speech because it enables them to avoid waiting in lines, giving them a better experience.
A stock market notification on the go, financial checks on the go, etc. — there are times when you want a quick notification about the current price of certain financial products.
While in transit, you may need to check your balance or pay last-minute bills using phone banking IVR.
My current bank and many Indonesian banks still manually call for debt collection reminders — yours does as well.
Just imagine how many hours could be better used for other tasks.
Use Cases Less Suited to Text-to-Speech
In addition to good, there is an equal number of evil actors conspiring to make the most of such new technology.
Let's think about impersonation fraud or cold calling scams that scam people into handing over their personal information, to name just a few.
Because voice is an identifier, it can be used as a biometric measure for security.
Voice-activated access has become more common as IoT becomes more prevalent.
Several banks are even taking voice-authentication solutions for account holders.
As demand increases, so too do bad actors who lurk and wait to build a system that fails them.
It wasn't until last year that Adobe released a demo of Voco, a new application for audio editing and creation.
Often called Photoshop-for-voice. Voice changers can change a voiceover with a click of a mouse.
There might be a variety of illicit ways to use this technology in conjunction with TTS, such as synthesizing your voice.
With such technology, your voice could be used for oppressive purposes.
You should watch this video just to see what's possible in deepfake audio.
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