According to Vitaly Grigorash, president of Bookmate, the demand for audiobooks is constantly growing, but many works are still not available in audio format. The virtual narrator is intended to solve this problem and make books more accessible, including for the blind and visually impaired.
The virtual narrator function will work for books in the Bookmate catalog that have not previously had audio versions and have been approved to be read aloud by their copyright holders. Yandex noted that currently this opportunity is available for 13 thousand books.
The virtual narrator was developed on the basis of Yandex speech technologies, including the experience of using the Alice virtual assistant and other company products. In the first stage, the user is presented with a male voice, which will be filled with a female voice over time.
Source: Ferra
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