IBM Develops Human-Sounding Computer Voice

IBM researchers have developed a computer voice they say is so realistic, you can't differentiate it from a real human. They have even included various "ums", "ers" and sighs to increase the "humanity."

According to Andy Aaron, of IBM's Thomas J Watson research group speech team,

"These sounds can be incredibly subtle, even unnoticeable, but have a profound psychological effect. It can be extremely reassuring to have a more attentive-sounding voice.

"When you are on the telephone on an automated service helping you fix your computer or buy insurance, this could make the difference between being a happy customer or hanging up and cancelling a service.

"We are almost at the point where the voice is indistinguishable from a human, but that is not our goal. We don't want to fool anybody."

OK, so you don't want to fool anyone. Why bother then? I suppose it's the psychological effect, as Aaron indicated. He went on to state the technology will even reach to situations such as interruptions with a "shh" or cough.

The tech has recently been patented as "generating paralinguistic phenomena via markup in text-to-speech syntheses." Whew.

Here's my question: considering the experience of some with regards to customer service reps (CSRs) in non-North American countries, would an human-sounding automated CSR actually be better?

Ah, well, let's listen to one of the most human computer voices around: the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry: