Microsoft introduces Hindi and Indian English to its Neural Text-to-Speech service – Times of India

CHENNAI: Microsoft India has announced the addition of English (Indian) and Hindi to its Neural Text to Speech (TTS) service. Neural TTS is a part of the Azure Cognitive Services segment of Microsoft and converts text to life-like speech for a more natural interface.
The two Indian languages are among the 15 new dialects added to the service.
With natural-sounding speech that matches stress patterns and intonation of human voices, Neural TTS aims at reducing listening fatigue when users are interacting with AI systems.
Microsoft’s Neural TTS can be used to make interactions with chatbots and virtual assistants more natural and engaging. It is also being used to convert digital texts such as e-books into audiobooks and being deployed for in-car navigation systems.
“Organizations across sectors like telecom, media, and entertainment, retail, manufacturing and product/ service development are using Neural TTS. Udaan, India’s largest online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, is using text-to- speech in Azure to develop conversational interfaces for their voice assistants,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Our text-to-speech services have played a key role in democratizing information reach and empowering people and organizations. Through the inclusion of English (India) and Hindi in Neural TTS, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to refining speech and voice-based services for personal and business use in India,” Sundar Srinivasan, general manager, Microsoft India (R&D), said.
Overall, Microsoft TTS now supports 110 voices and over 45 languages and variants.