August 17, 2004

You've got (noisy) mail!

From the New Scientist's print edition comes this story of "Chattering emails."

Computers can already convert your email into speech, but the voice sounds robotic and expressionless. So IBM is developing a system that allows a PC to read out email in a voice mimicking that of the person who sent it (US patent application 2004/143438).

To set up the system, a sender reads a couple of introductory paragraphs containing key words into a microphone. IBM's software then builds a small data file that contains key characteristics of the user's speech including pitch, tone, enunciation and rhythm.

This file is then automatically attached to any emails they send. When you get the email your PC uses the voice profile to synthesise speech that makes the computer sound like the sender. So your boss's email will sound suitably dictatorial, while your friends will sound reassuringly chatty. (Ed. note -- what happens if you've been working with the boss for so long [24 years, in my case] that he could qualify as either or both?)

To prevent pranksters from copying someone's voice profile and attaching it to fraudulent or obscene messages, IBM recommends that users encrypt their voice profile. Even then they should only share it with trusted friends and colleagues.

Posted by Linkmeister at August 17, 2004 11:41 AM
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