> Televirtual unveils a Virtual TV Weatherman > > By Submitter: Televirtual > > Working in collaboration with Britain's top speech scientists and the > BBC's weather graphic suppliers , Metra, Televirtual proudly announces > the world's first synthetic broadcaster. > > Whilst many of today's small screen personalities are arguably > artificial, advanced content pioneers Televirtual, have now produced > one which is certifiably so. > > Televirtual's UK Media Lab has just given birth to METman , a virtual > weather reporter/forecaster, whose entire performance is generated > automatically from a few lines of text-based data issued as a > meteorological summary, and accompanied by a weather map update. > > METman doesn't even need a script. > > In the final application , raw field-entry data, in the form of facts > and figures will be fed into the system, which automatically draws > from a lexicon of appropriate phrases, to produce a narrative > description of events past, and those to come. This text is then fed > into METvoice the first ever artificial voice or TTS (Text-to-Speech) > engine, to be custom-built to broadcast standards. > > The human vocal model for METvoice was Televirtual boss and founder, > Tim Child, a broadcaster and former TV newsman. > > Modern speech engines are created by recording up to 30 hours of > dictated speech, but by capturing Tim's speaking patterns as well as > words and phrases, Televirtual were able to 'fine-tune' the new engine > to a performance level unheard of to date.. > > The new speech engine has further powerful features. Operating as part > of Televirtual's award-winning RAP animation system, METvoice features > a powerful XML-style mark up language stream, triggering lip-synch > animations, and controlling and dictating the 3d animated METman' s > moods, expressions, gestures, and screen positions. > > Whilst the new voice is still being improved upon, the early results > are impressive. ' Unless you were aware or suspected it, you would not > normally be able to detect METman's vocal performance as anything > other than the real thing,' said Tim. > > Further 'broadcast' voices are now planned, and the breakthrough is by > no means limited to weather forecasting. Gaming channels and Quiz TV > variants could also employ the system to operate virtual presenters in > virtual sets , at a fraction of the cost of conventional presentation > methods. > > But the big market for such synthetic voice and character creation > applications is probably in the Home of the near Future. > > Installed in domestic television set top boxes (STBs) , 3d ' > announcers ' will be able to present a personalised information > service tailored to individual requirements. > > Such 'homecasters ' would be able to advise on TV viewing schedules, > read the news and weather on demand, and trawl the internet on request. > > > In disability scenarios, they will be able to read incoming emails to > the blind, and could 'sign' to the deaf or provide lip-readable > augmented information to the hard of hearing, whilst the > speech-impaired might use them to make phone calls. > > more details from > www.televirtual.com >
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