http://www.acapela-group.com/ PHP en-EN Wed, 08 Jan 2014 10:31:53 +0100 http://www.acapela-group.com/audio-books-read-by-text-to-speech-a-success-story-told-by-the-avh-with-figures---user-testimonies---2313-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0100 December 17th, 2013


Six months after the introduction of audio books read out loud by Acapela Text To Speech voice 'Alice', the AVH ( the French Association for Visually impaired users) reports on end user reaction to this new offering.
The audio book is by far the media most used by visually impaired users to access written content. In 2012, 93% of the AVH library loans were audio books. But their production process when read by a human voice is long and cannot be shortened, hardly compatible with the end user's desire to access audio versions of novels that make the news at the same time as the printed books appear. While 60 000 new novels are available each year in the bookstores, only 1000 of them enter the AVH collection.
Facts & figures:
With audio books read by Text To Speech, the AVH can finally provide books to its users very quickly. As proof, during the new book season and the Fall French literary prizes, the audio versions of over 50 newly printed books were produced in a first wave.
Since the launch early in July, the number of loans has been extremely high: during the first 3 months, 14% of loaned titles were audio books read by Alice's voice, even though books read by speech synthesis were under represented within the AVH library collection.
Since July, the titles most downloaded from the Éole library have consistently been audio books read by Text To Speech. Among the top 50 books most downloaded, 24 use Alice's voice.
'Text To Speech allows the AVH, for the first time in our history, to provide our end users with audio versions of the book season, simultaneously as they make the news. From September to October we have delivered in 3 different waves no less than 50 titles of freshly printed books. The feed back from the end users has been very positive', comments Fernando Pinto da Silva, AVH Project Manager.
The prestigious 'Goncourt' award, for instance, has been downloaded 149 times and loaned 26 times on CD format in only 5 days.End user satisfaction survey:
Results of the survey, gleaned from information provided by the first 500 users to loan a book using speech synthesis, are very positive.
94,39 % of surveyed people assess the Alice voice as understandable or very understandable.
72 % of surveyed people say they will borrow books read by speech synthesis again.
71 % consider the introduction of speech synthesis major progress or very major progress.
Testimonies:
'I am 75 years old and I never thought I would be able to read the latest best sellers at the same time as people who can see. What a revolution!'
'You get used very quickly to Alice's voice. The voice is perfectly neutral, and we create the intonation ourselves, as we did, before, while reading print in books. I'm sometimes less sidetracked with Alice than with business books. Conversely, she is sometimes monotone, but we only notice if the book bores us!'
'Alice's voice is very pleasant and easy to understand. The reading with synthesized voice is very satisfying.'
 'It's great progress to be able to read books recorded with this synthetic voice. Recent books are made accessible and can be discussed with people around us who can see.'
'I appreciate enormously the use of synthetic voice which offers a superb choice.'
'Personally, I find it so wonderful to have so quickly books which have just come out and about which everyone is talking that Alice's small imperfections are mostly forgiven. I also think that this reading, of which the inflections are always the same, and which, essentially, doesn't convey emotion, 'obliges' a very personal reading. In fact it's very different from a recording by a donated voice and it seems to me that we shouldn't expect the same thing"
'I naively thought that Alice was a real person and asked myself how she could read so many books !'
'I was pleasantly surprised by the speed with which we can access the latest new books and I am aware that only a synthetic voice can offer us this service - so well done.']]> http://www.acapela-group.com/audio-books-read-by-text-to-speech-a-success-story-told-by-the-avh-with-figures---user-testimonies---2313-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/living-spoken-heritage-acapela-will-add-sami-to-its-language-portfolio--2312-speech-synthesis.html Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0100 November 21st, 2013


Sami Parliament of Norway has chosen Acapela Group to develop North Sami language text-to-speech.
Sami is a language spoken in the north of Norway, Finland and Sweden. Among all different Sami languages, Acapela will develop the most widespread, North Sami, spoken by 20 000 people.
A small audience for usual developments of text to speech for new languages. But Sami text to speech language creation is much more than just adding another language to a portfolio. It's part of a global project initiated by Sametinget to contribute to keep speaking, teaching and learning this minority language. Keep Sami a living spoken heritage, that's what Acapela text to speech voices will contribute to achieve - together with other linguistic and learning dedicated resources.
'We are very happy to add synthetic speech to our Sami resources, says , it is an outstanding tool to support Sami language promotion and use, either to read news, teach and learn, share stories or provide public announcements. Sami text to speech will allow to read any written content with the full respect of Sami grammar and specificities. Audio content in Sami will be accessible to all.'
To create Sami TTS, Acapela is using existing databases and lexicon provided by Sametinget and is working in close cooperation with its linguists. Full resources collected since the start of the project in 2005 are being used to create the male and female voices that will be available as 'Colibri voices', based on Acapela's HMM technology.
This technology allows to generate speech from trained statistical models where spectrum and prosody are modeled altogether. It does not require any specific recordings and speaker research. While naturalness may be degraded compared to HQ technology, Colibri voice creation process is lighter, shortened, voices are flexible with small footprint.   
'Latest advancement in the text to speech and Natural Language Processing allow us to create new languages and voices using existing databases with an acceptable audio result. It opens new opportunities for speech synthesis use such as the preservation of this minority language with voices that will be accessible to all. Widely speaking, with 'Colibri*' voices we can deal with new constraints and answer to market demands with an additional speech solution  that will benefit to more applications and usages' comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
The project is carried out by Divvun and Giellatekno (Centre for Sami language technology at the University of Tromsø) as through a tender process has engaged Acapela Group to make text to speech solutions for North Sami. Development of the system began in November this year and the finished product will be launched in October 2014.
*colibri = hummingbird in French
 ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/living-spoken-heritage-acapela-will-add-sami-to-its-language-portfolio--2312-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/prestigious--goncourt-----renaudot--french-literary-awards-are-already-available-to-visually-impaired-users--2310-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0100 November 5th, 2013

We are happy - together with the AVH - to share with you a new episode of our success story started this summer. After the introduction of Alice as the synthetic voice of Éole's AVH digital library, and the quick availability of freshly released books thanks to the text to speech vocalization capability, the AVH is now demonstrating that he can provide access to the newly awarded novels to it users with no delay.
'Goncourt' and 'Renaudot' are the first prizes to open the ball and the AVH will continue to display on its digital book shelves the awarded books of the literary season as they will be attributed. And at the same time than for printed book readers!
With the recent introduction in its digital library 'Éole' of audio books in Daisy format read by Acapela's synthetic voice, AVH can now very quickly make new titles available to its users, as synthetic voice enables written content to be vocalized rapidly.
'The use of new technologies like synthetic voice allows us to keep up with what's happening in literature and offers our users the very latest novels that everyone is talking about; without delay. It's a big first that we are proud of. The resulting audio is very pleasant and the borrowing rate for titles vocalized by synthetic voices, available for two months now, is very encouraging' said Fernando Pinto da Silva, from the AVH.

To listen to extracts of the 'Gouncourt' and 'Renaudot' prizes, read by Alice, the Acapela synthetic voice selected by AVH to vocalize literary works, just click on the links below:Sample n°1: "Au revoir là-haut", Pierre Lemaitre  Sample n°2: "Naissance", Yann Moix (min)
Click on the links for more information about the AVH and Éole]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/prestigious--goncourt-----renaudot--french-literary-awards-are-already-available-to-visually-impaired-users--2310-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/accessible-publishing-avh-the-french-association-for-the-visually-impaired-is-making-the-new-book-season-accessible-to-everyone--2309-speech-synthesis.html Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0200 September 13th, 2013


Novels that make the news are available in an audio version at the same time as printed books, by the AVH - with Acapela's voice.

With the recent introduction in its digital library 'Éole' of audio books in Daisy format read by Acapela's synthetic voice, AVH can now very quickly make new titles available to its users. Synthetic voice enables written content to be vocalized rapidly. The case is made by the availability this week on Éole's shelves of no less than 30 novels just off the printing press.

'The use of new technologies like synthetic voice allows us to keep up with what's happening in literature and offers our users the very latest novels that everyone is talking about; without delay. It's a big first that we are proud of. The resulting audio is very pleasant and the borrowing rate for titles vocalized by synthetic voices, available for two months now, is very encouraging' said Fernando Pinto da Silva, from the AVH.

'The vocalization of audio books is a key topic for us. We are very happy to be the vocal partner of AVH and to contribute to this project that  perfectly illustrates the power of speech synthesis to make content accessible very quickly to everyone. We hope the natural audio result will appeal to AVH users' commented Antoine Kauffeisen, Director of Marketing, Acapela Group.

The offer of audio books read with a synthetic voice is an additional service, but does not reduce the number of books produced each year by AVH recorded with a human voice. All the titles for this new season will soon be available as audio books recorded by actors. Registration at the media library Valentin Hauy and the borrowing of audio books is free, via download or CD.

To listen to extracts read by Alice, the Acapela synthetic voice selected by AVH to vocalize literary works, just click on the links below:Extract n°1: 'les anges meurent de nos blessures', Yasmina Khadra (2.11 min)Extract n°2: 'Canada', Richard Ford (2.01 min)Extract n°3: 'L'échange des princesses', Chantal Thomas (2.21 min)Extract n°4: La nostalgie heureuse', Amélie Nothomb (0.47 min)Extract n°5: 'Le quatrième mur', Sorj Chalandon (2.17 min)
Click on the links for more information about the AVH and Éole]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/accessible-publishing-avh-the-french-association-for-the-visually-impaired-is-making-the-new-book-season-accessible-to-everyone--2309-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/calling-our-savvy-community---content4all-r-d-project-voice-samples-survey-2308-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0200 August 13th, 2013


Acapela Group is continuously involved in R&D projects to keep the path of voice innovation. One very interesting current project is called 'Content4ALL'. It aims to better adapt speech synthesis for longer texts, such as story telling or news topics, for an improved user experience. The explosion of digital written content on small devices and screen interfaces is an issue that speech synthesis can easily solve. Indeed, context is favourable and market mature. The challenge is now to keep improving the user experience. And that's what we are working on at Acapela with this project.

Lend us your ears!  Your opinion is essential to us.
'Content4 All' is engaged. We are gaining ground and we now need your help!
We are running a survey about the quality of  improved voices reading longer texts and we definitely need your participation. Contribute to our R&D project! Lend us you ears and take 5 minutes of your time to hear some voice samples, rate and comment.
We greatly value your opinion that makes us move forward and create better voices. Spread the word!

http://www.acapela-group.com/Content4All/Content4AllSurvey1.php ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/calling-our-savvy-community---content4all-r-d-project-voice-samples-survey-2308-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/acapela-tts-for-windows-9-1-2293-speech-synthesis.html Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0200 June 28th, 2013



New Australian female voice, new breath groups for more naturalness, new parameters for acronyms, abbreviations and dates preprocessing, global voice quality enhancement and new Colibri voices bringing more flexibility are the key topics of the new release.
Acapela TTS for Windows 9.1, our SDK designed for the easy integration of text to speech into any Windows application is available to all developers.
The new version includes Acapela's new Australian female voice, Lisa, who joined male's Tyler .
Addition of breathing modules provides enhanced naturalness to Czech, Dutch, US and US English, Italian, Polish, Russian and Swedish - including regional voices from Scania and Gothenburg.
New Colibri voices allow users to play high speed text to speech with optimal intelligibility (while sounding more robotic) to perfectly answer to Accessibility users and low footprint requirements.
AcapelaTTS for Mac OS X will be available soon. ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/acapela-tts-for-windows-9-1-2293-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/infovox-ivox-3-2-includes-genuine-german-and-australian-children-voices-and-swedish-regional-voices--2292-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 25 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0200 June 25th, 2013


Acapela Group and AssistiveWare today announced the release of Infovox iVox(tm) 3.2 .
It adds the first genuine German and Australian text to speech children's voices for Mac OS X. The update also completes the Australian voice family, with the addition of female adult voice Lisa, and brings two new Swedish adults voices.
Developed by Acapela Group and AssistveWare, Infovox iVox(tm) provides system-wide clear and pleasant voices to Mac OS X for blind and vision impaired users, for individuals who need audible feedback or reading support, for language learning or for people who prefer listening to their computer. Infovox iVox brings natural-sounding text to speech within reach of many more kids, students, educators, and consumers, including people with vision, reading and speech impairments.
Infovox iVox 3.2 includes:    German children voices (Jonas and Lea)    Australian children voices (Liam and Olivia)    Australian adult female voice (Lisa)    Swedish adult male and female voice (Kal and Mia)

 
More information and voice samples on infovox iVox(tm) 3.2 webpage
]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/infovox-ivox-3-2-includes-genuine-german-and-australian-children-voices-and-swedish-regional-voices--2292-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/slidetalk-turn-your-presentations-into-engaging-talking-videos-with-acapela-voices-2291-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0200 June 11th, 2013


Watching video is a strongly established way to consume information. YouTube has more than 1 billion unique visitors per month and recent studies show that 92% of adults ages 18-29, and 80% of adults ages 30-49 watch videos via internet. The main reason why videos are such a successful mean s of conveying information is that they are easy to consume, engaging and entertaining.
However the common perception is that while learning from videos is fun and easy, creating eLearning videos is difficult and expensive. SlideTalk took as its own mission to change this perception, by making creation of eLearning videos a simple additional step to the much more common process of creating presentations.

SlideTalk is a cloud service that converts presentations, PowerPoint presentation or any collection of slides, into videos with an automatic voiceover, using Acapela text to speech.

3 simple steps process to go on air!
1- user uploads a presentation and then types in an explanatory text for each slide.
2- Typed in texts are automatically converted into voiceover by using Acapela voices
3-  Voiceover and slides are assembled into a video that is automatically published on YouTube or made available for download for publishing on intranets or corporate channels.

 "Many companies and organization regularly create presentations for both internal and external communication, but they seldom create videos, even if video is an enormously popular and efficient media to convey information." Says Johan Isaksson, co-founder of SlideTalk. "With SlideTalk, if you know how to build a presentation, than you also know how to build a high-quality talking video. Publishing information via video also provide to audience with the additional benefit of being able to choose when and where to access the information, a property which is often referred to just-in-time learning".

'Speech synthesis is the perfect solution to easily give the say to content with expressive voices, in many languages and playing with different voice persona to animate the content. A solution such as Slide Talk provides a friendly and powerful way to produce efficient and valuable content to share.' underlines Antoine Kauffeisen,  Marketing Director of Acapela Group.

SlideTalk provides a free access level and several premium options.

flashelement:slidetalk "The text-to-speech from Acapela Group provides the excellence in quality and a rich amount of variations in the choice of voices to make the resulting videos trustworthy and engaging. The large voice portfolio is crucial for supporting storytelling, allowing usage of several voices and expressions in the same video. The international community can also benefit from the availability of 26 languages and more than 70 voices" adds Johan.

About
SlideTalk is a startup company founded in 2012. Its mission is to make creation of videos for eLearning, education, marketing and tutorials simple and accessible by anyone independently of the technical skills or expertise in the field of video productions. In the first months after its launch in early 2013, thousands of users have joined SlideTalk and have created thousands of SlideTalk videos for public publishing on YouTube or download. http://www.slidetalk.net/

Acapela Group invents speech solutions to vocalize content with authentic & original voices that bring more meaning & intent. Over 100 resounding synthetic voices in 30 languages are ready to vocalize your content into a natural and pleasant audio result, by turning written input into speech. 
Acapela's repertoire includes voices of characters or celebrities, voices with accents or specific dialect attributes, voices that sing or tell stories, voices that can adopt different moods, voices for all ages and all languages. Because one voice cannot answer all and any needs, we aim to provide a resounding repertoire. And we can create the voice you need. Just for you.  This is Acapela bespoke expertise.
http://www.acapela-group.com]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/slidetalk-turn-your-presentations-into-engaging-talking-videos-with-acapela-voices-2291-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/childrens-voices-on-google-play-acapela-voices-for-boys-and-girls-2290-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 28 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 May 28th, 2013


The Google Play app, which offers Android users the possibility to easily turn any Android device into a smart talking companion using speech synthesis has enriched its repertoire.
Acapela kids' voices Rosie & Harry and Ella & Josh, UK and US English, have been added to the app's portfolio. This is only the start, other joyful children's tones will join the group later.

Made by children and for children, these voices are the first in the industry able to provide kids with a voice that resembles their own. Users with specific needs have been driving the innovation, to change the lives of young users, who can now  communicate with a voice that reflects their age.
The children's voices already enable children around the world with speech impairments to communicate, express their needs, wishes, thoughts and jokes! Youngsters can now share their words on any android device for e- learning, games, education, reading and many more apps.
Launched in September 2012, 'AcapelaTTS' voices on Google Play have been already downloaded about 25 000 times. A portfolio of 30 languages and 87 voices were available. The Top 5 features Russian Alyona as n°1, Czech Eliska as n°2, US English Heather & Will as numbers 3 & 4 and French Magaux as N°5.  With the 4 new children's voices, there are now a total of  91 Acapela voices on Google Play, in 30 languages! And new ones will join soon. Get yours!
Have a look at our Android talkative apps gallery and see at a glance where and how an Acapela voice can be a great talking partner to read aloud texts from your e-book or newspaper, navigate, hear real time translation, learn languages with audio feedback and much more. Acapela voices are compatible with Android Accessibility features and screen readers (Google TalkBack, Code Factory Mobile Speak, Spiel …)
flashelement:joshandella
Acapela TTS voices are available as an in app purchase.
Children's Premium voices are available for 11.99 euros per voice.
Other voices are available at 3,99 euros per voice.
Acapela TTS voices app has been designed for Android end users. 
We invite developers to register on www.acapela-for-android.com  to try the evaluation SDK and easily add a vocal dimension, in many languages, to all their applications.]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/childrens-voices-on-google-play-acapela-voices-for-boys-and-girls-2290-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/children-voices-now-available-for-german-young-users---meet-lea---jonas--2289-speech-synthesis.html Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 May 23rd, 2013


Tobii Technology, the leading provider of solutions for eye tracking and eye control view recognition, is proud to present the new German children voices developed in partnership with Acapela Group - the voice expert - and AssistiveWare , the leading innovator of assistive technology software for iOS and Mac OS X.
Lea & Jonas are joining the cheerful family of Acapela children genuine voices that already give the say to young users around the world (Australian, UK & US English are already available). The German children voices  were recorded by and for children - And it's a new milestone for the AAC and German users.
Tobii is the first and exclusive German provider in Germany in Windows integrated-based tools to offer such voices to its users. Boys and girls will finally be able to express their thoughts, needs and desire with a voice that sounds their age.
Assistiveware, will use expressive voices for future German-language products with MacOS and iOS operating systems.
'So far we were not able to provide young users a realistic & natural voice to express themselves. With the new Acapela voices, we are now offering to them authentic genuine voices. They sound so natural that they are accepted by children - one hardly hears that they come from a computer. As a result, the new children's voices are not only all natural, they perfectly match the needs of children and young people with communication restrictions.' said Uli Ehlert, Tobii Technology  Productmanager.
Hear Lea & Jonas voices sample here
 Read the German Press Release here.]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/children-voices-now-available-for-german-young-users---meet-lea---jonas--2289-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/new-genuine-australian-voices-for-aac--2288-speech-synthesis.html Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 May 2nd, 2013

Acapela Group & AssistiveWare unveil genuine, natural-sounding Australian children's voices  and a new female voice.

Acapela Group and AssistiveWare® B.V. are proud to unveil that the first ever genuine, natural-sounding Australian children's voices are now available in Proloquo2Go, a text-to-speech app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad designed to provide a voice for children who cannot speak. To complete the family today Proloquo2Go is also introducing Lisa, a new adult Australian female voice.
According to research, 1.3% of the Australian population, including approximately 35,000 children in Australia aged between 3 and 12 years, cannot rely on their natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. The new Australian children voices, Liam and Olivia, were recorded by and for children and, are now available for users to select as their preferred text-to-speech voice to communicate a want, need or thought using symbol-based communication or when typing with word-prediction.
"The new Australian children's voices will finally enable our children without speech to talk like their friends. Having an age appropriate voice, which not only speaks with an Australian accent but also provides children with access to the Aussie vocabulary, will have a positive impact on their social and communication development - in more ways than we can imagine. I look forward to hearing lots of happy little Vegemites using these voices in homes, shops, schools and the great outdoors!," said Jane Farrall, Speech Pathologist and Special Educator.
Proloquo2Go already provides a voice to over 50,000 users around the world, including over 5,000 Australians. Approximately 60% of the Proloquo2Go user base is 11-years-old or younger (as young as 2-years-old), yet prior to these new voices, Australian children only had access to an adult Australian male voice. This was one of the primary motivators for creating the child voices - to have a product that more accurately represents its users.
Hear a vocie sample of Olivia
Hear a voice sample of Liam
hear a voice Samples of Lisa
Meet the full Australian voices family
Commenting on the launch of the Australian children's voices, founder and CEO of AssistiveWare, David Niemeijer said, "Last year we introduced British and American children voices, which have already seen over 15,000 downloads and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Children and their parents have credited Proloquo2Go with a major improvement in their daily communication."
"Often, we hear that the cognitive and emotional skills of children are finally understood after using Proloquo2Go, where previously the child may have never been able to verbalise or express his or her thoughts. We are excited that those phrases will finally resemble the child's own voice."
"This groundbreaking project is the first of its kind in the industry," said Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group. "With over 2,000 hours of research, recording, processing and development, the new Australian children's voices are a fulfilling milestone and a reflection of our longtime leadership in this field."
The Australian children's voices and female voice are included in the Proloquo2Go text-to-speech app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad through a free 3.0 version update released today on the App Store. Version 3.0 also adds a number of other major features, including ExpressivePower(tm) and access for people with motor challenges who have difficulty using iPad's touch interface. After October 2013, the new Australian children voices will be available for licensing to other developers to utilise in their apps and communication devices, allowing even more children to access programs with voices that resemble their own.
The collaboration between Acapela Group and AssistiveWare dates back to 2003 when AssistiveWare was the first company to build a Mac product using the natural-sounding Acapela voices. Both companies share a strong dedication to the assistive technology market and were natural partners to tackle the challenges of developing children's voices designed for people who cannot speak. Acapela Group brought decades of experience in building natural-sounding text-to-speech voices. AssistiveWare brought its experience in working with people with speech-impairments though its BETT 2011 award-winning Proloquo2Go augmentative and alternative communication app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
The Proloquo2Go text-to-speech application is available for $199.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad or at http://appstore.com/proloquo2go. Version 3.0 includes the new Australian female and children voices as free downloads and is available at no charge to existing users.
For videos that include: a behind the scenes look at how children's voices are made, how text-to-speech works, some short interviews, and the impact Proloquo2Go and these new voices have, visit: http://www.assistiveware.com/american-childrens-voices.
About AssistiveWare
AssistiveWare®, a leading innovator of assistive technology software for iOS and Mac OS X with over 125,000 customers worldwide, is committed to collaborating with the global community to make a difference in peoples lives. The company's flagship product, Proloquo2Go®, is an award-winning Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) application for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch that provides a "voice" for people who have difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all. Founded in 2000, AssistiveWare was the first company to deliver universal access to Mac OS X with its award-winning KeyStrokes(tm) on-screen keyboard and the first to create genuine children's Text to Speech voices. Focused on its vision to empower people through innovative technology, AssistiveWare offers a wide-range of assistive technology products and services.
About Acapela Group
Acapela Group invents speech solutions that bring content to life through giving it a voice in up to 30 languages. More than 60 resounding synthetic, yet natural sounding voices as well as new, authentic American and British children's voices are ready to vocalize written content into a pleasant audio result. Acapela Group's repertoire includes producing a wide-ranging library of voices including voices that have: accents or specific dialect attributes, singing or storytelling ability, different moods and emphasis, voices for all ages and all languages and recognizable characters or celebrities. Each audio selection is authentic sounding, unique and original, presenting a distinct personality that perfectly matches different contexts. More than just simple vocalization of texts, Acapela Group aims to add a subtle layer of intelligence and significantly enrich audio dimension by offering more meaning and intent to each voice. ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/new-genuine-australian-voices-for-aac--2288-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/infovox4-all-in-one-local---portable-talking-companion-for-visually-impaired-users--2287-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 April 23rd, 2013

New version!
 Innovative yet simple and all-in-one product for seamless access to written information, no matter where the user is, at home, in the office or on the move using different computers. Infovox4 uses Acapela speech synthesis, speech empowers any PC with pleasant voices, transforming any written text into speech, in real time.
NEW BENEFITS!Windows 8 supportImproved intelligibility at high reading speed using the new "small and fast" Colibri voices, based on a brand new technology developed by Acapela Group.Possibility to modify pitch with the new Colibri voices.On/off switch for verbose mode that expands acronyms, abbreviations and datum. Add and remove voices at any time and free of charge, using the new Download Manager application. Menu-based GUI for easier navigation using screen reader applications.26 languages / 62 voices including  Australian English (voice Tyler) & Swedish dialects Scania (voice Mia) and Gothenburg (voice Kal).

Includes both a portable USB solution and 3 local installations, which follow users as they work on different PCs.Portable usage from USB allows immediate access to any computer, without need of installing locally or admin rightsLocal installations will function even without a USB plugged into the computerPossibility to transfer local installations to and from the USB at any time
The end user has access to all voices in all languages included in the license - with different genders and voice personas - so that user feels fully comfortable with the voices that become daily companions. The choice between languages provides access to information in foreign languages as well as language learning.
infovox4 is packaged with several useful applications, that can be easily launched from the infovox4 LaunchPad application. The NVDA screen reader help the user accessing a computer when no other screen reader is pre-installed. The Speech Creator enables easy creation of MP3 files for personal use, from any text file. The Pronunciation Editor allows easy management of lexicons and exceptions, to fine tune and customize the way names and exceptions are pronounced. The Download Manager allows to add and remove voices locally. The Voice Manager allows to create new voices with particular settings. The Configuration Wizard will guide step by step through installation and configuration of infovox4 on the computer.
More product information here]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/infovox4-all-in-one-local---portable-talking-companion-for-visually-impaired-users--2287-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/communication-aid-lightwriter-swift-helps-users-to-engage-fully-in-social-situations-with-acapela-voices--2286-speech-synthesis.html Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100 February 21st, 2013


Just slightly bigger than a smartphone, the latest text to speech communication device from Toby Churchill has been designed for literate people to help them communicate more confidently and fluently with anyone. It enables users to generate words, phrases and sentences rapidly, to be an active participant in the conversation, and to make themselves clearly heard.

"Conversational analysis has shown that you've got as little as half a second to get a response into a conversation," said Neel Shearer, Product Manager at Toby Churchill. "Lightwriter Swift will allow you to do that."
The Lightwriter Swift has been designed for enhanced interactive conversation with its unique dual screen technology. It delivers high quality sound through dual speakers with responsive, natural-sounding speech from Acapela.
Acapela text to speech turns written messages into a pleasant voice instantaneously. Quick touch controls with joystick access enhance device ease of use and rapid access to 'social sounds' help to get end user's message across within the context of the conversation, providing a perfectly natural and audible output even in a noisy environment.
The new Lightwriter Swift is aimed at people who have lost their speech through stroke, brain injury or cancer as well as those living with conditions such as cerebral palsy and motor neurone disease.

The pocket-sized dedicated device already speaks English (UK & US) and will be soon available in the same range of Acapela voices that all other Lightwriter devices are: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
To date, more than 40,000 people around the world have used a Lightwriter to aid their communication. Lightwriters are exported to 23 different countries and are available in 13 different languages.
http://www.toby-churchill.com/lightwriter-community
About Toby Churchill:
Founded in 1973, Toby Churchill Limited has a long and rich history. The founder, Toby Churchill, pioneered the first keyboard-based communication device - the Lightwriter - over 40 years ago. Today, Toby Churchill Limited is a leading, global provider of high-tech augmentative communication solutions.
Our range of communication products, in 13 languages, supports the particular and changing needs of people living with speech impairments. Acapela speech technology is the underpinning for this multilingual support.
Dedicated to researching and developing products and services which are reliable and dependable, we strive to meet and exceed customer expectations. Our guiding principle is the seamless integration of people and technologies. By working closely with researchers, academic institutions and high quality partner companies such as Acapela, we continually explore new developments to expand on the solutions we provide and the needs we serve. We are privileged to work as part of this amazing community.
http://www.toby-churchill.com
  ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/communication-aid-lightwriter-swift-helps-users-to-engage-fully-in-social-situations-with-acapela-voices--2286-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/industrial-supervision-acapela-group-signs-an-agreement-with-delta-technologies-sud-ouest-pertaining-to-vocal-alarms-2285-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100 January 15th, 2013


Acapela Group, leader in speech synthesis, and Delta Technologies, electronics and industrial IT specialist, have signed an agreement relating to the development and commercialization of Speech Unit, created for the surveillance of sensitive industrial sites.
Speech Unit is a powerful hardware unit which boosts the performance of the industrial supervision system SCADA (Supervision, Alarm and Data Acquisition) by integrating intelligent vocal alarms and creating a highly effective and secure machine > man dialogue.
Speech Unit has been deployed with great success for 10 years by Acapela in more than 1000 industrial sites to give a voice to totally automatic, unmanned, installations which need tight surveillance: petrol and gas refineries, power stations, water treatment plants etc. The alerts are transmitted vocally and in real time via synthetic voice directly to the person responsible, ensuring awareness of any problems and an ultra rapid response.
Acapela is transferring this activity, which has become a reference in an ultra specialised domain, because it wants to focus exclusively on the development and creation of synthetic voice software, a very dynamic market due to the profusion of new interfaces and interactive content. Delta Technologies has been able to enhance its line with a unique and inventive product which has been adopted by such major players as INEO, CNES, VEOLIA, GDF SUEZ….
Through this agreement, which came into force 1 January 2013, Speech Unit's numerous clients will be able to continue to install and use the intelligent vocal alarm as part of their supervision strategies while at the same time benefiting from all the latest innovations and advances in Acapela speech synthesis and the new developments and services emanating from Delta Technologies' own industrial expertise. 
For more information about Speech Unit and this agreement: contact@delta-technologies.fr and info@acapela-group.com
About Delta Technologies - http://www.delta-technologies.fr]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/industrial-supervision-acapela-group-signs-an-agreement-with-delta-technologies-sud-ouest-pertaining-to-vocal-alarms-2285-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/free-talking-widget-put-a-bad-guy-on-your-blog-or-give-it-a-royal-british-tone--2284-speech-synthesis.html Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100 December 5th, 2012


Our popular talking widget now offers all the voices of our repertoire (including country, hiphop, child or expressive voices,...).
Get Yours!

All you have to do is to select your favorite voice (may be the most tricky part of the game!), then adjust the color, resize -or not- the widget and don't forget to add your personal welcome message. Copy/paste the few lines of codes on your website to get your own talkative spot on your pages. That's it. your blog now speaks. Tell us which voice is your favorite one.
Use it either to support you in your language learning with some words or phrases, to animate your blog, to read simple messages that you would like to hear rather than read... It's up to you to make it speak the way you like with you favourite voice!
Get yours at www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-widget-blog.html
Acapela Talking widget uses Acapela VaaS solution which allows to turn any written text  into speech, in real time. Full interactive demo on www.acapela-group.com.]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/free-talking-widget-put-a-bad-guy-on-your-blog-or-give-it-a-royal-british-tone--2284-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/new-voices-available-on-the-interactive-demo--2283-speech-synthesis.html Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100 November 19th, 2012


Try them on the interactive demo.
Type in your own words and hear how your content may sound depending on the voice you choose. Select any of the Child voices ; Will or Antoine in different moods; Queen Elizabeth; Australian Tyler; Hip hop Saul; Country Micah, Dimitris, Jeroen or Margaux either happy or sad. Ask Will the story teller to be a 'bad guy' or a 'little creature'.  
Acapela's repertoire includes voices of characters or celebrities, with accents or specific dialect attributes, that sing or tell stories, that can adopt different moods, for all ages and all languages. Because one voice cannot answer all and any needs, we aim to provide a resounding repertoire. And we can create the voice you need. Just for you.  This is Acapela bespoke expertise.
More than just simple vocalization of texts, Acapela aims to add a subtle layer of intelligence, to significantly enrich audio dimension with more meaning and intent.
Full list of new voices available in the interactive demo:Rosie and Harry (UK English - child)Ella and Josh (US English - child)Micah (US English - 'Country')Saul (US English - 'hiphop')Tyler (Australian English)Will (US English - Happy, sad, upClose, fromAFar, bad guy, little creature, old man)Antoine  (French - Happy, Sad, upClose, fromAFar)Margaux (Happy - happy or sad)Jeroen (Dutch BE - happy or sad)Dimitris (Greek - happy or sad)Queen Elizabeth (UK English)]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/new-voices-available-on-the-interactive-demo--2283-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/try-the-children-voices--2282-speech-synthesis.html Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100 November 9th, 2012

Rosie, Harry, Josh and Ella, the English children voices developed with Assistiveware are now available on Acapela's interactive demo.
Try it out with your own words. Type in your text or dialogue and hear how it sounds like with world's first genuine, natural-sounding children's voices. A world premiere that will change the life of young users allowing them to access programs with voices that resemble their own. Made by and for children.
To read the full story and look at the making of, click here - for the interactive demo, click here.

(General availability January 2013 - don't hesitate to contact us for more information)]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/try-the-children-voices--2282-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/children-voices-now-available-in-infovox-ivox-2281-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100 November 6th, 2012

Infovox iVox adds first genuine children's voices to Mac OS X
Acapela Group and AssistiveWare(R) announced the release of Infovox iVox 3.1, which adds to the repertoire the first four genuine, natural-sounding children's voices, now available on Mac OS X as well as three new male voices.

Infovox iVox(tm) provides system-wide clear and pleasant voices to Mac OS X for blind and vision impaired users, for individuals who need audible feedback or reading support, for language learning or for people who prefer listening to their computer.

To support the needs of our younger users, Infovox iVox 3.1 now offers four genuine children's text to speech voices: boy and girl voice for both American English and British English. The high-quality voices were recorded by and for children.
Learn more about how these voices were made and how Text to Speech works here.

In addition, the update offers three new male voices: two American voices, Will and the southern-sounding Micah voice as well as the Australian Tyler voice. Besides adding new voices, Infovox iVox 3.1 also fixes an issue with characters with diacritical marks. Words that contain accents will now be pronounced correctly in any foreign language.
The voices work with any Mac application, including Apple's VoiceOver, TextEdit, Preview, Safari, Adobe's Acrobat Reader, AssistiveWare's VisioVoice, Proloquo and GhostReader.
More info about Infovox iVox 3.1 here.]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/children-voices-now-available-in-infovox-ivox-2281-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/google-play-personalize-your-android-device-with-the-voice-you-like--2280-speech-synthesis.html Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0200 September 20th, 2012

Play with voices: a unique repertoire brought to you by Acapela 
Your phone gets wallpapers, ringtones and widgets and plenty of apps and games that follow you around all the time. But what about a voice? Now, you can download the Acapela TTS Voices app, listen to any of the 50 voices available in 26 languages and select one voice or more to turn your Android device into a smart talking companion - for only 3.99 euros/voice.


Acapela TTS Voices app offers 400 million Android users the opportunity to easily add a pleasant voice to speech empower their Google Play apps. Every day around one million new Android users can tune into the voice of their choice.  First feedback from beta testers confirmed that users really want and appreciate pleasant, clear and responsive natural voices. 
Here are some comments we received:
"I just installed the voices, and bought Rachel. I am loving this. The voices are so responsive, it is really good",
"Great app. Smoothest talk app I have ever heard",
"Good voices! It works perfectly on my HTC Hero. Very good voice quality! "
or "Working very well as Google navigation voice assistant. True Indian voice. "Voices all simply here! 
Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch (NL, Belgium), English (UK, US, India, Australia), Finnish, French (France, Canada), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil), Spanish (Spain, North America), Russian, Swedish and Turkish are already available with a resounding repertoire of 50 authentic voices, including Swedish dialects, local accents and even the voice of Queen Elizabeth.
They are all ready to vocalize the content of your android device into a natural and pleasant audio result, by turning written input into speech in real time.
 
Have a look at the talkative apps gallery and see at a glance where and how an Acapela voice can be a great talking partner to read aloud texts from your e-book or newspaper, navigate with Google Navigation or other GPS apps, hear real time translation, learn languages with audio feedback and much more!

Acapela voices are compatible with Android Accessibility features and screen readers (Google TalkBack, Code Factory Mobile Speak, Spiel …)
For further information, click HERE   - For download, click HERE 

Acapela TTS voices app has been designed for Android end users. 
We invite developers to register on http://www.acapela-for-android.com  to try the evaluation SDK and easily add a vocal dimension, in many languages, to all their applications.

Acapela TTS voices are available on Google Play as in-app purchase at 3.99 euros per voice.

]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/google-play-personalize-your-android-device-with-the-voice-you-like--2280-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/news-from-acapela-box-com-2279-speech-synthesis.html Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0200 September 19th, 2012


Chinese and Japanese voices now available, support of phonetic transcriptions and a new corporate pack.
'Lulu' and 'Sakura' have joined the brilliant repertoire of acapela box, the on line smart service for easy production of voice files. Also part of the news, the support of phonetic transcriptions  by the Pronunciation Editor  & a new 500€ package that provides more credits for money, for companies who need to create large amount of files. Acapela-box packs now ranges from 5 to 500 euros to answer to all different needs and usages.

Check out acapela-box, register for free and test the service.
]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/news-from-acapela-box-com-2279-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/american-genuine-children-s-voices-assistiveware-and-acapela-group-unveil-genuine-natural-sounding-children-s-voices-for-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-2278-speech-synthesis.html Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0200 July 25th, 2012


American Girl and Boy Voices Now Available in the Proloquo2Go App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Acapela Group and AssistiveWare are proud to unveil the first American genuine, natural-sounding children's voices now available in Proloquo2Go, designed to provide a voice for children who cannot speak. The US Census Bureau estimates that as many as 720,000 American children aged between 6 and 14-years-old have significant speech problems and difficulties being understood.[1]   
The American children voices, Josh and Ella, were recorded by and for children. Users can select the authentic boy or girl as their preferred Text to Speech voice to speak a want, need or thought using symbol-based communication or typing with word-prediction. The voices are included in the Proloquo2Go App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch through a new free 2.1 version update released today on the App Store. flashelement:joshandella
After December 2012, these new voices will be available for licensing to other developers to utilize in their apps and communication devices, allowing even more children to access programs with voices that resemble their own. 
"It is a really exciting advancement in the field of augmentative and alternative communication to finally have excellent, natural-sounding voices for young children," said Joan Bruno, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Director, Communication Technology Resources.
"This groundbreaking project is the first of its kind in the industry," said Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group. "With over 2,500 hours of research, recording, processing and development, the new children's voices are a fulfilling result and a reflection of our longtime leadership in this field."
Proloquo2Go already provides a voice to tens of thousands of users around the world. About 60% of the Proloquo2Go user base is 11-years-old or younger (as young as 2-years-old), yet prior to these new voices, children could only select adult voices or artificially emulated children's voices. This was one of the primary motivators for creating the child voices - to have a product that more accurately represents its users.  
 "We have already received positive feedback from children and their parents that the unique voice offering in Proloquo2Go makes a positive difference in how they communicate," said David Niemeijer, founder and CEO of AssistiveWare. "Often, we hear that the cognitive and emotional skills of children are finally understood because prior to using Proloquo2Go, the child may have never been able to verbalize or express his or her thoughts. We are excited that those phrases will finally resemble the child's own voice."flashelement:usvoices
 The collaboration between Acapela Group and AssistiveWare dates back to 2003 when AssistiveWare was the first company to build a Mac product using the natural-sounding Acapela voices. Both companies share a strong dedication to the assistive technology market and were natural partners to tackle the challenges of developing children's voices designed for people who cannot speak. Acapela Group brought decades of experience in building natural-sounding Text to Speech voices. AssistiveWare brought its experience in working with people with speech-impairments though its BETT 2011 award-winning Proloquo2Go augmentative and alternative communication app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
 The Proloquo2Go App is available for $189.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore. Version 2.1 includes the new American children voices as free downloads and is available at no charge to existing users.
 For videos that include: a behind the scenes look at the project, how Text to Speech works, some short interviews, and the impact Proloquo2Go and these new voices have visit: http://www.assistiveware.com/american-childrens-voices. 
About AssistiveWare
Founded in 2000, AssistiveWare has established itself as the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X and iOS. AssistiveWare works in close collaboration with end users and professionals to offer a portfolio of award-winning solutions for individuals with physical, vision, communication, and reading impairments. In 2002, AssistiveWare was the first company to deliver universal access to Mac OS X with the KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard. Always innovating, AssistiveWare was also the first company to release a full-featured Augmentative and Alternative Communication solution for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch - the award-winning app, Proloquo2Go. Recently AssistiveWare released Pictello, an exciting multilingual visual story telling app for iOS.
About Acapela Group
Acapela Group invents speech solutions that bring content to life through giving it a voice in up to 30 languages. More than 60 resounding synthetic, yet natural sounding voices as well as new, authentic British children's voices are ready to vocalize written content into a pleasant audio result. Acapela Group's repertoire includes producing a wide-ranging library of voices including voices that have: accents or specific dialect attributes, singing or storytelling ability, different moods and emphasis, voices for all ages and all languages and recognizable characters or celebrities. Each audio selection is authentic sounding, unique and original, presenting a distinct personality that perfectly matches different contexts. More than just simple vocalization of texts, Acapela Group aims to add a subtle layer of intelligence and significantly enrich audio dimension by offering more meaning and intent to each voice.
Media Contact:
Heather Sorensen
Plugged In PR for AssistiveWare and Acapela Group
503-841-0625
heather@pluggedinpr.com
[1] US Census Bureau (2008) "Americans With Disabilities: 2005", US Census Bureau, December 2008.
URL: http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p70-117.pdf  
]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/american-genuine-children-s-voices-assistiveware-and-acapela-group-unveil-genuine-natural-sounding-children-s-voices-for-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-2278-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/2-5-million-talkative-apps--2277-speech-synthesis.html Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0200 June 27th, 2012


Our acapela-for-iphone gallery is proud to feature 100 talking apps, using Acapela voices for many different purposes: RSS & web readers, translation and language learning, navigation and GPS, accessibility and A.A.C., eBook readers utilities, education, productivity, sport, health or social networking.






We did the Math: 2,5 million apps speech empowered by acapela voices have been downloaded so far & are doing their talkative job the world over. Thank you to all the smart users and developers!

Developers can use any of the Acapela voices to turn written content into a pleasant audio result with Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad SDK. It has been designed for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad developer community to easily add a vocal dimension, in many languages, to all their applications.

Sign up for free on Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad Website to download the evaluation SDK and get access to related information.

and for Android apps, follow the link: acapela-for-android.com]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/2-5-million-talkative-apps--2277-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/assistiveware-and-acapela-group-unveil-world-s-first-genuine-natural-sounding-british-children-s-voices-for-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-2276-speech-synthesis.html Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0200 June 19th, 2012


British Girl and Boy Voices Now Available in the Proloquo2Go App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Acapela Group and AssistiveWare are proud to unveil the world's first genuine, natural-sounding children's voices now available in Proloquo2Go, designed to provide a voice to over 74,000 children and teens in England who cannot speak for themselves [1]. 

The voices of British children Harry and Rosie were recorded by and for children. Users can select the authentic boy or girl as their preferred Text to Speech voice to speak a want, need or thought using symbol-based communication or typing with word-prediction. The voices are included in the Proloquo2Go App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch through a new free update released today on the App Store. After December 2012, these new voices will be available for licensing to other developers to utilize in their apps and communication devices, allowing even more children to access programs with voices that resemble their own.
flashelement:kids
'These new voices will further transform the lives of children who cannot speak and the lives of those around them,' said Anna Reeves, National AAC Coordinator for England. 'It may be the very first time that families hear their own children speak with a child's voice - you can't put a price on that.'

'This groundbreaking project is the first of its kind in the industry,' said Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group. 'With over 2,500 hours of research, recording, processing and development, the new children's voices are a fulfilling result and a reflection of our longtime leadership in this field.'

Proloquo2Go already provides a voice to tens of thousands of users around the world. In addition to the new children's voices, the new 2.0 version also includes enhanced customization tools, new research-based vocabularies, a total of seven new voices and an improved user-interface.

'We have already received positive feedback from children and their parents that the unique voice offering in Proloquo2Go makes a positive difference in how they communicate,' said David Niemeijer, founder and CEO of AssistiveWare. 'Often, we hear that the cognitive and emotional skills of children are finally understood because prior to using Proloquo2Go, the child may have never been able to verbalize or express his or her thoughts. We are excited that those phrases will finally resemble the child's own voice.'

About 60% of the Proloquo2Go user base is 11-years-old or younger, yet prior to these new voices, children could only select adult voices or artificially emulated children's voices. This was one of the primary motivators for creating the child voices - to have a product that more accurately represents its users.  
flashelement:ruby
The collaboration between Acapela Group and AssistiveWare dates back to 2003 when AssistiveWare was the first company to build a Mac product using the natural-sounding Acapela voices. Both companies share a strong dedication to the assistive technology market and were natural partners to tackle the challenges of developing children's voices designed for people who cannot speak. Acapela Group brought decades of experience in building natural-sounding Text to Speech voices. AssistiveWare brought its experience in working with people with speech-impairments though its BETT 2011 award-winning Proloquo2Go augmentative and alternative communication app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

The Proloquo2Go App is available for 129.99 GBP from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at http://itunes.com/apps/proloquo2go. The update to version 2.0, including the new British children's voices, is free to existing users.

For videos that include: a behind the scenes look at the project, how Text to Speech works, some short interviews, and the impact Proloquo2Go and these new voices have on Ruby, a 6-year-old girl from Bristol visit: http://www.assistiveware.com/british-childrens-voices.
[1] September 2011 Report by Communication Matters: http://www.communicationmatters.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/standards/aac_quality_standard_for_commissioners_sept_2011.pdf
About AssistiveWare:
Founded in 2000, AssistiveWare has established itself as the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X and iOS. AssistiveWare works in close collaboration with end users and professionals to offer a portfolio of award-winning solutions for individuals with physical, vision, communication, and reading impairments. In 2002, AssistiveWare was the first company to deliver universal access to Mac OS X with the KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard. Always innovating, AssistiveWare was also the first company to release a full-featured Augmentative and Alternative Communication solution for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch - the award-winning app, Proloquo2Go. Recently AssistiveWare released Pictello, an exciting multilingual visual story telling app for iOS.

About Acapela Group:
Acapela Group invents speech solutions that bring content to life through giving it a voice in up to 30 languages. More than 60 resounding synthetic, yet natural sounding voices as well as new, authentic British children's voices are ready to vocalize written content into a pleasant audio result. Acapela Group's repertoire includes producing a wide-ranging library of voices including voices that have: accents or specific dialect attributes, singing or storytelling ability, different moods and emphasis, voices for all ages and all languages and recognizable characters or celebrities. Each audio selection is authentic sounding, unique and original, presenting a distinct personality that perfectly matches different contexts. More than just simple vocalization of texts, Acapela Group aims to add a subtle layer of intelligence and significantly enrich audio dimension by offering more meaning and intent to each voice.

Media Contact
Heather Sorensen
Plugged In PR for AssistiveWare and Acapela Group
503-841-0625
heather@pluggedinpr.com

]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/assistiveware-and-acapela-group-unveil-world-s-first-genuine-natural-sounding-british-children-s-voices-for-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-2276-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/new-ios-app-for-visually-impaired-blindsquare-helps-blind-people-to-find-the-right-places-2274-speech-synthesis.html Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 May 30th, 2012


"What is the most popular café within 200 meters radius?': listen to BlindSquare talking app designed to help visually impaired users to find the right places.
BlindSquare, provides visually impaired people new ways to get information on their surroundings. It has recently been launched in Apple App Store and is currently available for iPad and iPhone. 
BlindSquare combines location information (GPS), speech synthesis and some public databases in order to provide the desired information to its user. It can tell the blind person their current address (based on location), where is the nearest crossing, all the shops and services found in a certain radius - and much more. It can even asssist them to get off the bus at the right stop or guide them to a certain place. 
BlindSquare speaks English, Finnish and Swedish, speech synthesis is provided by Acapela Group.
 
MIPsoft has been developing this application in close co-operation with Finnish Federation for Visually Impaired. It has been tested by many blind users - some even from USA and Australia. 
 MIPsoft, founded in 1989,  is a software company specialized in developing applications for mobile smartphones. The most known applications are Kyyti, assisting those who use public transportation, and Kierrätys, that can help in finding all recycling centers in Finland.
Finnish Federation for Visually Impaired - FFVI - is a national organisation. Its aim is to secure blind and partially sighted an equal status with other Finnish citizens. FFVI produces special information services and participates in developing special information and mobility solutions. 
BlindSquare on the Apple appstore ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/new-ios-app-for-visually-impaired-blindsquare-helps-blind-people-to-find-the-right-places-2274-speech-synthesis.html http://www.acapela-group.com/accessibility---voice-expertise-in-frankfurt--2271-speech-synthesis.html Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 May 21st, 2012


Meet Acapela team during Sight City, the German's exhibition for aids for the blind and the visually impaired that will take place in Frankfurt from May 23-25th.
Acapela will be happy to welcome you on Optelec booth (A7)
http://www.sightcity.net/2012/en/ ]]> http://www.acapela-group.com/accessibility---voice-expertise-in-frankfurt--2271-speech-synthesis.html