rical rhetorical r Rhetorical Group plc hetorical rhetorical

rical rhetorical r Rhetorical Group plc hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori www. rhetoricalsystems. com Keith Edwards Applications Manager January 2001

rical r Group rhetorical history hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v Apr 2000 Rhetorical Systems incorporated v Jun 2000 Toshiba place 2 year, £ 1. 7 m contract v Oct 2000 Rhetorical Group plc created v Dec 2000 £ 2 m private placement investment, Rhetorical Group valued at £ 14 m

rical rhetorical r Rhetorical today hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v 35 full-time staff v Largest speech synthesis R&D team in the world v Aim: to be the best in the world at high quality, flexible text-to-speech synthesis - widest range of applications / domains - widest range of voices, accents, personalities

rical Focus rhetorical of Rhetorical Group r hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori Text - to - Speech synthesis: v High intelligibility - latest unit selection techniques v Pushing the barriers of naturalness - voices modelled on human voices and often almost indistinguishable from the original voice v High flexibility - multi language, multi accent, multi voice - modular system architecture Core product: r. Voice (launch: Q 2 2001)

rical rhetorical Technological breakthroughr hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori ‘Traditional’ approaches: v Formant based synthesis v Diphone based synthesis - lacking vitality - monotonic - not suitable for extended use

rical rhetorical Technological breakthroughr hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori r. Voice: v Variable Unit Selection - more natural sounding - suitable for extended use - in many applications almost indistinguishable from a human voice “Welcome to our new speech synthesiser. ”

rical r r. Voice rhetorical outlook hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v Applications and platforms: - telephony / mobile communications industry - games industry - internet v Input mechanisms: - unrestricted text (TTS) - domain specific text - concept to speech, with language generation v Voices and languages: - r. Voice rapid voice prototyper - different accents and languages covered v All within a single generic system

rical r r. Voice rhetorical core capabilities hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori Domain specific synthesis: v Flexible, scalable solution - Airline information - Car travel directions - Financial news

rical r r. Voice rhetorical core capabilities hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v Currently only UK English available US English by Q 1 2001 v German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian by Q 4 2001 v Multi-accent English lexicon (110, 000 words) v - 200, 000 by Q 4 2001 Semi-automatic prototyping of prosody v High scalability v - building voices from any quantity of data v Same engine for all languages

rical r Talkingrhetorical heads hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v v Ongoing work on r. Face Ability to capture 3 D model of any head, and combine it with speech

rical rhetorical r Rhetorical team hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v Senior Management - Marc Moens (CEO) - Paul Taylor (CTO) - Peter Denyer (Chairman) Research Group v Product Development Group v Consultancy Group v Applications Group v Full Team: 35 people v - 12 with Ph. Ds - 6 studying part-time Ph. Ds

rical rhetorical r Rhetorical’s Attractions hetorical rhetorical rhetori cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori v Competitive, industry scale salaries v Generous share option scheme Informal working environment v Ph. D study opportunities via CSTR or LTG v Edinburgh – “the Athens of the North” v Free coffee and donuts (really!) v We’re an exciting new company with great people, great technology, and great prospects!

rical rhetorical rhetorica l rhetorical rhetori Make r. Voice your voice! cal rhetorical rhetorical r hetorical rhetorical rhetori