Advanced database preprocessing and preparations that enable telecommunication services based on speech synthesis
Speech synthesis now profitably automates services by speaking information from computer databases. Some of these services provide driving directions, traffic and timetable information, stock quotes and related financial services, and catalog ordering. One particularly successful telecommunication service, Automated Customer Name and Address (ACNA), sometimes called Reverse Directory Assistance (RDA), requires synthesis with high intelligibility and name pronunciation accuracy, both of which are achieved by current synthesis technology. However, even the best of current technology is not good enough to mindlessly `drop' into complex services. Customized directory preprocessing is necessary to transform listing data, which commonly contains unconventional abbreviations, acronyms unknown to the synthesizer, and scrambled word ordering, into a sentence suitable for synthesis. We describe our directory preprocessing programs used in successful implementations of synthesis in two major US telephone companies. It is also necessary that locality terms, which have considerable geographical variability, are pronounced in accordance with local customs; otherwise, the service will have an outsider's feel to the customers. We also describe an experiment that determined whether the naturalness of recorded speech for prompts and other fixed messages offsets the undesirable discontinuity between natural and synthesized utterances.
database preprocessing speech synthesis reverse directory services