“Voice is becoming more and more prevalent as a mode of interaction with all kinds of devices and services. The ability to provide not only voice input but also voice output or Text-to-speech (TTS), is also becoming a critical technology that supports AI,” said senior program manager Qingying Liao. “Whether you need to interact on a device, over the phone, in a vehicle, through a building PA system, or even with a translated input, TTS is a crucial part of your end-to-end solution. It is also a necessity for all applications that enable accessibility.” Those features will now be available in Bulgarian, Croatian, Malaysian, Slovenian, Tamil, and Vietnamese. With other 28, these the languages are available across 48 locales and voice fonts. The Bing Speech API lets developers access the latest generation of speech recognition and training models for integration in various services. It can be combined with other Cognitive Services APIs for a powerful AI solution.
Microsoft Translator Speech API
However, the languages aren’t just coming to Bing, they’ll be available in Microsoft Translator. “In addition, these new TTS languages will become available through the Microsoft Translator Speech API and the Microsoft Translator apps by the end of February 2018, making these new languages text-to-speech output available for developers integrating the Translator speech API as well as end-users of the Microsoft Translator apps and Translator live feature,” adds Liao. The Bing Speech languages, on the other hand, are available immediately. You can try them today on the Azure site.
