24 January 2006

Grant to teach computers to speak with Aussie accent

University of Canberra PhD student David Worrall has won a grant of almost $9,000 to develop an Australian dialect voice synthesiser, ADVOIS.

The $8,977 was awarded in the third and final round of the Australia Council for the Arts' 'Sounding-out' initiative , which aims to support and raise awareness of Australian made music instruments and 'sound-interface practices'.

ADVOIS allows speech to be synthesised with an Australian sound.

Mr Worrall came up with the idea after being "dissatisfied" with the range of voice synthesisers available.

"There's lots of voice synthesisers on the market but none of them have an Australian accent," Mr Worrall said.

"They all have American accents or some obscure accent like Afrikaans. They are not from our culture. We need one that's more resonant with our culture."

Voice synthesisers are used for reading texts, such as to people who are blind, or for automatic telephone answering services.

Vice-Chancellor Roger Dean said: "I'm proud that the recipient of this grant is a participant in the Sonic Communications Research Group which I founded."

Professor Dean added he was pleased the creative efforts of the University's students and staff were being acknowledged.

UC Communications

Gaye Morrison
T: 02 6201 5855
M: 0409 470 755

Kaddie Pass
T: 02 6201 2681

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Last Updated on August 1, 2005