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by james macgregor | November 2nd, 2001 | contact: james@netribution.co.uk

Rhetorical Finds A Voice In US

Edinburgh-based speech synthesis company Rhetorical Systems is knocking on the door of Hollywood after signing a lucrative partnership with US media firm Pulse.

The deal will see Rhetorical, which specialises in converting text to speech, provide the voices for computer-generated movie stars to be used on websites.

Rhetorical Systems’ technology, called rVoice, will be used to give a naturally sounding human voice to Pulse’s digital characters, which are capable of working within areas of online learning and communication, customer relations management, e-mail and instant messaging and the creation of website hosts.

Pulse’s technology has attracted investment from AOL Time Warner and Softbank and has a client base including NBC, Warner Brothers, The Jim Henson Company, creator of the muppets, MTV and Electronic Arts.

Star Voices

Rhetorical’s rVoice software can replicate the voices of the stars by digitally replicating natural-sounding, pitch and intonation voices.

Marc Moens, chief executive of Rhetorical Systems, said: "With rVoice, Pulse’s 3D characters can be complemented with completely natural speech synthesis. The process of developing such characters becomes much quicker.

"The deal will see computerised characters become much more realistic and compelling as the possibilities expand."

Celebrity Voices

Rhetorical said it expected to offer custom and "celebrity" voices, under licence from the film, television and other entertainment industries, for various forms of web communication and entertainment.

Using automated lip-synching integrated with highly natural synthesised speech the range of characters will extend across gender, and cover a wide variety of different accents.

To date, Rhetorical has created six different voices ranging from a Bronx drawl to a Scots accent with others planned for launch within the next three months.

Bespoke Solutions

Moens added: "Synthesised voices will increasingly become an integral part of the development of interactive solutions - built as the character is built, rather than having to build the character around the limitations of an actor’s voice."

Apart from achieving high-quality synthesised voices, Rhetorical has also developed tools and technology to develop new voices and to tune voices to new domains.

Rhetorical Systems has recently signed major retailing deals with Phillips and Nuance, two of the world’s largest developers of speech technology.

The firm was set up in April 2000 with an initial £2 million of private investment. It is currently close to securing a further multi-million round of venture funding which will fuel its push into US markets.


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