Advent of Computing Episode 6 - Digital Voices
Jun 16, 2019
Discover the fascinating journey of text-to-speech technology, from the groundbreaking Voter of 1937 to modern voice assistants. Hear about the vocoder’s crucial role in wartime communications and how it paved the way for innovative sound technologies. Delve into the remarkable performance of 'Daisy Bell' in 1961 and the significant strides made by Dennis Klatt that transformed synthetic speech. This entertaining exploration reveals the evolution of computer-generated voices, enhancing communication for everyone, especially those with speech impairments.
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First Cell Phone Voice Fun
- Sean Haas reminisces about his first cell phone with limited calling but a cool hands-free mode.
- This early experience highlights the excitement of having a robotic voice assistant in a pocket, even with basic functionality.
Early Speech Synthesis Focus
- Early speech synthesis aimed at replicating human speech physically or encoding voice patterns.
- Some machines even tried to simulate parts of the vocal tract like tongue and teeth for realism.
Vocoder Enables Secure Voice
- The vocoder encodes speech by measuring sound intensity across frequency bands to send less data.
- This made secure, low-bandwidth voice transmission possible during WWII, encrypting the coded signal.