The quality of life enjoyed by elderly and blind people is now able to be enhanced by a hi-tech development of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).
The centre's researchers have developed a News Voice Information Service (NVIS), with which elderly and disabled people are able to access news, knowledge and information over the Internet or via telephones. The project also aims to reduce the digital-access gap.
The team leader of Nectec's NVIS project, Nattanun Thatphithakkul, said the new service provided an alternative for elderly and disabled people.
The NVIS project is based on the Vaja version 6, a Thai text-to-speech or speech recognition engine that was developed in 1998. It has been further developed and now synthesizes Thai speech by using natural language-processing technology. The development involves a variety of technologies, including acoustic phonetics, corpus-based synthesis, discourse and speech synthesis, innovative speech signal processing techniques, input annotations and text processing, as well as prosody prediction.
The NVIS provides text to speech services via three channels: a website, by programme download, and via telephones, using interactive voice response. The project now provides news in six categories: politics, business, international news, social news and crime, and sports and regional news. The original stories come from MCOT, ASTV, Thai PBS and TV Channel 7.
The project boasts an accuracy rate of 80 per cent for its synthesized speech. It also covers 50,000 transcribed English words, which the system spells in English for users.
People wishing to use the service can find the website at www.hlt.nectec.or.th/speech/nvis. News is chosen by clicking on items, which are then read to the user. Alternatively, a user can input written text to the website with an upper limit of 1,200 characters and the system will read it.
Users are also able to download and install an NVIS desktop programme into home computers. They can then instruct their computers to read for them any text or information, with an upper limit of 1,200 words, without the need to access the Internet.
People can also access the service free of charge via their telephones. They may dial a call centre or the NVIS database at (02) 565 7008, and using interactive voice response technology, order up and listen to the news. Callers can select a channel and the news that interests them. The call centre has 30 lines dedicated to NVIS.
Moreover, the call center also allows them to create up to nine bookmarks or short cuts, allowing them to mark places in the six news categories for later reference.
"Elderly or disabled people who want the NVIS to read special information, knowledge or news just have to drag and drop written text into a box provided at the website. There is a limit of 1,200 characters per time. The system will then read that information in real time," Nattanun said.
The director of Nectec's Human Language Technology Laboratory, Chai Wutiwiwatchai, said the development team was planning next to provide weather and gold-price information on the NVIS.
As well, the team is planning in the near future to provide a text-to-speech service at drug- and health-information website www.yaandyou.net. The website has a database covering pharmaceutical drugs and offers drug- and health-related information to Thai visitors.
"The NVIS enables Thai people to cross the information-technology bridge and enhances the quality of life for elderly and disabled people," Chai said.
