Usability assessment of text-to-speech synthesis for additional detail in an automated telephone banking system

International audienceThis paper describes a comprehensive usability evaluation of an automated telephone banking system which employs text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis in offering additional detail on customers' account transactions. The paper describes a series of four experiments in which TTS was employed to offer an extra level of detail to recent transactions listings within an established banking service which otherwise uses recorded speech from a professional recording artist. Results from the experiments show that participants welcome the added value of TTS in being able to provide additional detail on their account transactions, but that TTS should be used minimally in the service

Text to speech synthesis for Ghanaian local languages (Twi)

Thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, April 2016Businesses in Ghana do communicate with each other through letters, telephones, fax, and emails. Due to the growth of technology, most of these businesses are providing their services online to make it convenient for customers. However, these mediums of communication have some limitations when it comes to language. In the instance where the parties involved in the communication speak and understand different languages, it becomes difficult to understand. Businesses would like to reach out to these people in a language they can understand. Statistics have shown that almost half of the Ghanaian Adult (15 and above) population are illiterates however they also need to do business as well to take care of their family. The challenge is that due to their inability to understand the message, either in text or audio, they tend to be left out in this age of technology growth. As a solution, this paper intends to develop a text-to-speech application system in Twi which can be used to develop prompts for Interactive Voice Response.Ashesi University Colleg