Cepstral Receives Military Funding as Provider of Speech Synthesis Technology

PITTSBURGH, PA - Cepstral LLC, a company that provides speech technologies and services, announced it has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Stanford Research International (SRI) for advanced technology development in speech synthesis for handheld and mobile devices. Under the terms of the contracts, Cepstral will provide voices for field translation and other speech-related programs that DARPA and SRI are spearheading. Cepstral will provide effective speech synthesis in major program areas, where constraints may include field versatility and adaptability, on-device deployment, and software delivery of voices and voice information. "We are working with DARPA and SRI to make speech synthesis flexible and adaptable for logistics, maintenance, intelligence, and other military - as well as social and commercial - applications," said Kevin A. Lenzo, CTO and co-founder of Cepstral. "Using today's small portable devices, we are able to deliver rich and descriptive information into the field, helping lower the risk to troops and civilians." "We are extremely pleased to be working with SRI and DARPA," said Jaime A. Smith, president and CEO of Cepstral. "The technology we are developing will play an important role in information delivery and translation for the land warrior and ultimately increase effectiveness and safety in the field. These contracts will allow us to advance our core technology in areas that represent increasingly important applications of speech for both the government and our commercial customers."