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Originally Posted by legaleagll
Even if 2 becomes true, it still doesn't justify his argument that the Kindle is treated differently than a laptop, desktop, etc... I also don't think that voice synthesis will be anywhere near a competition for a human voice when reading a book at any time in the near or even distant future. In the past 20 years voice synthesis has gone from sounding like a robot to sounding a little less like a robot. There is a difference between what AT&T is doing in trying to develop a human sounding voice when the inputs and responses surround a very limited set of parameters and a voice reading text that could be as varied as science fiction to children's books. The nuances required for human reading, including analyzing the context to deliver a line with sarcasm or humor simply aren't within the realm of technology being developed.
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If (2) becomes true, then no one would buy audiobooks and the core of his argument becomes a little more valid, his pedantry about the differences between the kindle and the personal computer notwithstanding.
My academic research involves working with speech synthesis systems and while they are very far away from replacing human speech, I wouldn't rule out advances that would make it sound very good indeed. And for some people that would be enough. However, as I said, I don't think Amazon would ever make their text-to-speech feature that good even if such a synthesized voice were available. It will remain, at best, an accessibility feature that will never replace audiobooks. So, I think we agree on that point.
My money is an Amazon to figure this out by making it easy for consumers to consume books in multiple media and, at the same time, turning a profit for themselves.