Text-to-Speech: Reading Tool to IVR

TTS goes back to the 1939 Worlds Fair & the introduction of the Voder synthesizer, which was the first machine to electronically generate speech. In 1961, Bell Labs demonstrated the first speech synthesis by a computer.

Text-to-speech (TTS), essential to technologies such as IVR systems (http://www.plumvoice.com/products/ivr-systems) is the creation of human speech from text characters. Most famously, TTS is what Stephen Hawking, who suffers from Lou Gehrigs illness, makes use of to speak.

In the mid-1980s, Stephen Hawking first began using a custom speech synthesizer attached to his wheelchair. Hawking makes use of program that lets him select words from menus using a switch in his hand, then use a speech synthesizer to vocalize the words.

With this expertise, Hawking has been able to write several books, give frequent lectures & even document a tv show. Perhaps because of his disability, they is of the most recognizable voices around.

However, TTS most common use is in the IVR (http://www.plumvoice.com) industry, where it is long been a staple of the expertise. In IVR systems, TTS translates the text in call flows in to messages transmitted to callers in to the method. While most IVR systems also incorporate recording expertise to transmit recorded messages, TTS permits call-flow designers to quickly generate call flows with any text they need.

While early researchers envisioned TTS as a learning tool for reading disabilities or a way for the blind to enjoy books, todays researchers are working to find makes use of in an array of industries including business, entertainment & medicine as well as schooling.