Text-to-speech – what does it mean?
Text-to-speech (TTS) technology converts digital texts into voice. We can also talk about speech synthesis or text-to-speech technology. It enables automated "reading aloud" of textual content on a website or on one's own electronic device, for example. TTS is an assistive technology that is available for almost every device.
With a single click of the mouse or the press of a finger, text-to-voice technology converts text into a listenable audio track. TTS technology has been utilised, for example, to meet the needs of special groups, as it has been possible to support the learning of children suffering from learning and concentration disorders with the help of sound. The technology has also brought help to those suffering from vision problems. In the future, text-to-speech technology will certainly be used more and more in digital communication aimed at all users.
How does TTS technology work?
Text-to-speech technology is implemented with the help of artificial intelligence. In most services and TTS applications that use this technology, the speed of the text can be adjusted. You can try adjusting the speed of speech, for example, with the speed control found under the Listen button on this blog. Please note that the speed must be selected before you press the arrow symbol.
The authenticity of speech varies greatly between different services and applications. For example, the speech of speech synthesizers found in the accessibility settings of mobile devices may not reach the level of, for example, an artificial intelligence voice installed directly on a website.
What are the benefits of speech synthesis?
TTS technology is especially helpful for people with special learning difficulties, the elderly and the visually impaired, for example. However, text-to-speech technology can benefit all people who consume online content.
Some service providers make it possible to consume content so that, for example, the screen of a mobile phone is closed. In this case, the service makes use of the player and the user's options for consuming content become significantly more diverse. Often, by using the phone's own accessibility settings, the text to be read aloud is painted, after which the application plays the desired text fragment as a sound. The features are very dependent on the service provider.
Text-to-speech technology can make the reading experience multisensory – in addition to speech, some services offer text monitoring.
The combination of text and speech can contribute to a child's learning in the following ways, for example:
- improving word recognition
- improving concentration and recall
- transferring the child's ability to concentrate on the thing being learned from saying words
- helping children find and correct spelling mistakes
Text-to-speech technology as a tool for communication
The potential of TTS technology has been noticed on media websites and applications. For example, Kuntalehti's, Ilkka-Pohjalainen and Greetings of Peace On the website, the news is now available for listening. The listening feature can be found at the beginning of the article text or next to the social media icons. In some media, text-to-voice technology has been used so that journalists have recorded their own news to listen to. In this case, the AI voice has been replaced with a real human voice.