Qfrency Text-to-Speech (TTS)
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Technology Offer
Qfrency Text-to-Speech (TTS)
- CSIR
- From South Africa
- Responsive
- Innovative Products and Technologies
Summary of the technology
The CSIR has developed a software product that converts digital text into synthetic speech, in all the 11 official South African languages.
Up until the development and commercialisation of the CSIR’s Qfrency Text-to-Speech (TTS) product there had been no other text-to-speech product in the market that could deliver synthetic voices in all 11 official South African languages. Ten of South Africa’s official languages have been classified as resource-scarce, where resources in this context refers to digital language resources (text as well as speech) and research resources (research into linguistics). CSIR researchers have, in the past 18 years, developed capabilities to work with resource-scarce languages and adapt state-of-the-art techniques in text-to-speech, for the South African context.
The CSIR’s Qfrency TTS technology overcomes the language barrier for users in government or business looking to reach a wider audience. The technology generates synthetic speech that is as close to human speech as possible, including articulation and accent. “We have progressed with our research and development of deep neural network (DNN) voices to the point that this technology presents a major leap in the naturalness of the synthetic voices that employ these DNN techniques. The next step in the Qfrency TTS development is to port this research and development into our commercial offering, thereby giving our customers access to the latest advances in this technology,” says CSIR senior engineer Aby Louw.
The current focus of commercialisation efforts is the business-to-business sector, focusing on large-volume users such as call centres in telecommunications companies, adding speech channels to chat bots employed for self-service applications by large corporations and adding a speech modality to online learning platforms.
Technology Field
Text-to-Speech
Business Opportunity
The current focus of commercialisation efforts is the business-to-business sector, focusing on large-volume users such as call centres in telecommunications companies, adding speech channels to chat bots employed for self-service applications by large corporations and adding a speech modality to online learning platforms.
Technology Description
Software product that converts digital text into synthetic speech, in all the 11 official South African languages
Benefits & Advantages
The technology generates synthetic speech that is as close to human speech as possible, including articulation and accent.
Related Keywords
About CSIR
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, commonly known as the CSIR, is a world-class African research and development organisation established through an Act of Parliament in 1945. The CSIR undertakes directed, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation that contributes to the improved quality of life of South Africans.
The CSIR’s shareholder is the South African Parliament, held in proxy by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.
CSIR vision
We are accelerators of socio-economic prosperity in South Africa through leading innovation.
CSIR mission
Collaboratively innovating and localising technologies while providing knowledge solutions for the inclusive and sustainable advancement of industry and society.
CSIR values
CSIR values statement:
Our beliefs, principles and the impact we wish to make to improve the quality of life of South Africans are EPIC. Team CSIR pursues Excellence, celebrates People, personifies Integrity, and welcomes Collaboration.
Our mandate
“The objects of the CSIR are, through directed and particularly multi-disciplinary research and technological innovation, to foster, in the national interest and in fields which in its opinion should receive preference, industrial and scientific development, either by itself or in co-operation with principals from the private or public sectors, and thereby to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people of the Republic, and to perform any other functions that may be assigned to the CSIR by or under this Act.”
(Scientific Research Council Act 46 of 1988, amended by Act 71 of 1990)
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