“Microsoft Sam” just got personal — and exotic.
Microsoft researchers have introduced a new software package that translates English into 26 languages, and synthesizes the result in a voice that sounds like the user.
You can finally say that naughty thing to your French lover, or simply ask for a bathroom in Tokyo.
Using text-to-speech, the system can even translate into Mandarin Chinese.
The software can create a model of any English speaker’s voice in just an hour of training.
Extremetech.com reported that the result is then “mushed into Microsoft’s standard text-to-speech model for the target translation language.”
While the digitized robot sound still lingers, the end result sounds more personal and less foreign, preserving the accent and tone of your actual voice.