Group Sense is determined to set new standards and make its electronic dictionaries sound good
A native English speaker reads out a word or sentence and each time it sounds exactly the same at the push of a button on an electronic dictionary.
Thanks to the advanced development and applications of sound synthesising technologies, the pronunciation function in the electronic dictionaries sounds almost like a private English tutor. 'Sound synthesising technologies have matured,' said Samson Tam Wai-ho, chairman of Group Sense (International).
There are various voice synthesising technologies with different international codec standards including Voxware, Real Speak, Solo Male and Lernout & Hauspie Female Voice systems which encode and decode the digital data of real person voice recordings.
'For pronunciation in electronic dictionaries, MP3 is regarded as the best among users,' Dr Tam said.
Voice synthesising systems are incorporated in products based on the requirements of users. The higher the memory, the better the sound quality and the more costly the product will be, according to Dr Tam. 'We decide on the use of technology based on the price level of the end products.'
Group Sense uses MP3 for its dictionaries targeting the higher-end market segment. For more competitively priced products destined for developing countries, synthesising codec with higher compression ratio was preferred because it required less memory, he said.