TTS Gujarati

It is very important that the computer must be able to synthesize speech in Indian languages because English is not the first language for most of the people in countries like India.

In a particular case study, such as interacting with visually challenged people, following distinct requirements for TTS (Text-to-Speech) were identified.

- Native language screen readers are preferred.

- Even if the language is English, the accent for the same should be Indian as the foreign accent is found difficult to follow

- While JAWS is the most popular Windows-based screen-reader, the price is too high for a common user. So, a good quality free or open-source alternative is desired.

Keeping in mind the above requirements, a screen reading system along with TTS in Indian languages is desired to be obtained. The project for the same is divided into two parts. In phase 1, several languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi and Telugu were considered and corresponding systems were developed. In phase2, other official languages will be covered.

Gujarati is one of the official languages of India and adopted by the state of Gujarat as the State Language. In India, more than 60 million people speak Gujarati. This project attempts to develop a speech synthesis system for the Gujarati language.

The Festival Speech synthesis system is one of the most commonly used frameworks for the development of new systems. It is very useful as it is open-source and hence it is possible to modify the code to provide support for the languages we need.

Project Staff Members:

Present: Tanvina B.Patel, Nirmesh J. Shah, Hardik Sailor, Mohammadi Zaki, Vibha Prajapati, Janki Akhani

Past: Swati Talesara, Nilesh Vaishnav, Yashesh Gaur, Bhargav Kanakiya

Labeling Consultants: Asmita Dholariya and Mittal Mistry

TTS Demo:

Presently TTS voice in Gujarati is built using the festival framework and HTS framework. The voice-over artists chosen for this task are Ms. Dhwani Dalal and Mr. Dhiraj Kaka. The TTS Demo for the USS voices can be found on this TTS-Gujarati-Demo. (Local link - http://10.100.59.164/DonlabTTS/).

Eg: આ અમારુ ટી.ટી.એસનું ડેમો છે

SMS Reader: Link

Phase I: Link