Google acquires Phonetic Arts, aims to improve robo voices
Google on Friday said that it has acquired Phonetic Arts, a Cambridge, England based outfit that focuses on speech synthesis.
The grand plan for Google is to enhance the robo-voices when a computer speaks to you. Google Translate talks to you and rest assured Android devices will be yapping more often too. To date, Google has been focused on taking voice input for things like Web searches.
In a blog post, Google said Phonetic Arts researchers and engineers will strive to deliver natural computer speech from small samples of recorded voice.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Phonetic Arts has a series of products ranging from PA Studio, for voice creation, Composer, which combines recordings for new sentences, Generator, which takes text and turns it to voice and a game engine that mixes and matches parts.
