CereProc releases free advanced speech synthesis SDK for the academic speech and language research community

InterSpeech 2006 Pittsburgh, 17th September

CereProc, the Scottish Edinburgh-based speech synthesis company, is pleased to announce the release of the CereVoice Speech Synthesis SDK for academic research.

The CereVoice SDK is the first real-time free speech synthesis system for research and non-commercial applications. The system is initially being released with one female Scottish voice.

Dr Matthew Aylett, Chief Technology Officer of CereProc explains: "We're delighted to release this version of CereVoice to the academic and research community world wide. CereProc, as a company, feels very strongly about supporting speech research and as such, we are happy to be offering the SDK to any research centre free of charge under license. I believe that the CereVoice SDK compliments the University of Edinburgh's Festival system by offering a scaleable and robust commercial grade synthesis system for carrying out research in dialogue and synthesis applications."

Chief Executive Officer Paul Welham adds: "The Board felt it was important to release this SDK to the academic research community first, to show our support for speech and language researchers around the world. We're already delighted to be working with some of the most respected speech research institutions in the world, such as the University Of Edinburgh's Centre for Speech Technology Research, and the release of CereVoice will enable us to build on existing links, as well as explore new ones. A full commercial release of CereVoice will be available later in the year, with off-the-shelf voices for software applications that require characterful speech synthesis. At the same time CereProc will announce a series of services that will give speech application developers access to cost-effective exclusive voices for use with CereVoice in their applications."

All researchers in dialogue and/or interactive voice response (IVR) technology, or those interested in exploring new applications or adding speech synthesis to existing applications, should in the first instance email Dr Matthew Aylett at academic@cereproc.com

Commercial speech application developers should contact CereProc via email at info@cereproc.com

About CereProc

CereProc is a leading speech synthesis developer, with research and development facilities in Edinburgh and a commercial HQ in London.

CereProc has an advanced voice creation processes that reduces the time and cost needed to create new voices, while its CereScuer application enables the fast production of studio quality prompts that sounds real and have character.

CereProc directors and staff are all recognized as leaders in their field and the company works with partners such as the Centre for Speech Technology research at the University of Edinburgh, as well as with the Edinburgh-Stanford Link, a research technology fund that invests in speech and language developments at the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University, in California. CereProc is also working with Barcelona Media.

CereProc is a proud recipient of a Scottish Executive SMART grant, which was awarded to the company to continue researching and developing its pioneering technology.

For further media enquires, please contact Nick Wright at nick@cereproc.com or call 07949 525753.