Speech technology provider Loquendo (News - Alert) has announced the release of an upgraded version of Annika, the company’s female Swedish voice. By adding Annika to Loquendo TTS 7, she now offers improved pronunciation accuracy and has also been enriched with “Expressive Cues” for conveying heightened expressivity and an increased emotional range.

An award-winning solution, the Loquendo TTS 7 also offers Mixed Language support, an Audio mixer to add synchronized music or sound effects, and an extensive menu of prosodic features to enable the adjusting of speaking rate, timbre and pitch of voice.

 

By using Voice Creator, integrators can even modify any existing Loquendo voice to create their own customized personas to better suit corporate profile and enable differentiation from competitors. 

Like all of Loquendo voices, Annika is available for all platforms, whether it is telephony servers, desktop PCs or embedded devices. Such flexibility ensures Loquendo can focus on widespread adoption within its current distribution area.

 

There are plans in place to provide Annika with a male friend this summer. A male Swedish voice will be added, followed by the release of the Finnish and Danish languages toward the end of 2008.

These releases are expected to provide Loquendo clients with increased leverage in the thriving Scandinavian markets, as well as providing the company the ability to extend its reach across Europe and the world.  

 

Currently available languages include: U.S. and U.K. English, Swedish, German, Dutch, French, American Spanish, Mexican, Chilean and Argentinean Spanish, Castilian, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Brazilian, Portuguese, Italian, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish, Canadian French and Polish in both male and female voices, with more consistently under development.

Offering more than 30 years experience in speech technology, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech market. Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Embedded Technologies and Loquendo Speaker Identification and Verification are designed to be high-quality, high-performance technology that can guarantee systems integrators the best solutions in 23 languages with 55 voices.

Loquendo is positioned as the only speech technology vendor that provides a complete product line for navigation and handheld devices, desktop PCs and telephony servers, guaranteeing the same portfolio of languages and the same core engine in all these environments.

This latest announcement continues to build on Loquendo’s impressive speech offerings that can appeal to their global clientele. It is essential for speech technology solutions to do more than just offer voice. They must be able to accommodate the language and culture of the region to make it the most pleasant experience possible for the customer.