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r ical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori. Rhetorical Group plc. www.rhetoricalsystems.com Keith Edwards Applications Manager January 2001. r ical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica
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rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Rhetorical Group plc www.rhetoricalsystems.com Keith Edwards Applications Manager January 2001
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Group history • Apr 2000 Rhetorical Systems incorporated • Jun 2000 Toshiba place 2 year, £1.7m contract • Oct 2000 Rhetorical Group plc created • Dec 2000 £2m private placement investment, Rhetorical Group valued at £14m
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Rhetorical today • 35 full-time staff • Largest speech synthesis R&D team in the world • Aim: to be the best in the world at high quality, flexible text-to-speech synthesis - widest range of applications / domains - widest range of voices, accents, personalities
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Focus of Rhetorical Group • Text - to - Speech synthesis: • High intelligibility • - latest unit selection techniques • Pushing the barriers of naturalness - voices modelled on human voices and often almost indistinguishable from the original voice • High flexibility • - multi language, multi accent, multi voice • - modular system architecture • Core product: rVoice (launch: Q2 2001)
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Technological breakthrough • ‘Traditional’ approaches: • Formant based synthesis • Diphone based synthesis • - lacking vitality • - monotonic • - not suitable for extended use
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Technological breakthrough • rVoice: • Variable Unit Selection • - more natural sounding • - suitable for extended use • - in many applications almost indistinguishable • from a human voice • “Welcome to our new speech synthesiser.”
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori rVoice outlook • Applications and platforms: - telephony / mobile communications industry - games industry - internet • Input mechanisms: - unrestricted text (TTS) - domain specific text - concept to speech, with language generation • Voices and languages: - rVoice rapid voice prototyper - different accents and languages covered • All within a single generic system
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori rVoice core capabilities • Domain specific synthesis: • Flexible, scalable solution • - Airline information • - Car travel directions • - Financial news
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori rVoice core capabilities • Currently only UK English available • US English by Q1 2001 • German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian by Q4 2001 • Multi-accent English lexicon (110,000 words) - 200,000 by Q4 2001 • Semi-automatic prototyping of prosody • High scalability - building voices from any quantity of data • Same engine for all languages
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Talking heads • Ongoing work on rFace • Ability to capture 3D model of any head, • and combine it with speech
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Rhetorical team • Senior Management • - Marc Moens (CEO) • - Paul Taylor (CTO) • - Peter Denyer (Chairman) • Research Group • Product Development Group • Consultancy Group • Applications Group • Full Team: 35 people - 12 with PhDs - 6 studying part-time PhDs
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Rhetorical’s Attractions • Competitive, industry scale salaries • Generous share option scheme • Informal working environment • PhD study opportunities via CSTR or LTG • Edinburgh – “the Athens of the North” • Free coffee and donuts (really!) • We’re an exciting new company with great • people, great technology, and great prospects!
rical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhet orical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Make rVoice your voice!