AT&T Labs and Kyoto-based ATR Interpreting Telecommunications Research Laboratories have signed an 18 month research deal aimed at integrating the two labs’ speech recognition technologies. The initial research will focus on developing a real-time English to Japanese (and vice versa) translation package aimed at telephone operator services in the US and Japan. The R&D will be based around AT&T’s inter-operating communications protocol for speech translation. According to AsiaBizTech, ATR-ITL will bring its Japanese translation research and CHATR generic speech synthesis system – which can reportedly mimic ’emotion’ present in human speech and detect differing vocal dialects and inflections.
