Trends of ASR and TTS applications in Japan

This paper describes recent trends of ASR and TTS telecommunications applications in Japan. ASR applications focus on public services such as voice-activated information retrieval, operator assistance, and voice dialing. Major TTS applications include information service by voice and e-mail reading. The usage of ASR and TTS functions is expected to dramatically increase in the near future with the penetration of handy and mobile telephone terminals; hot topics are text broadcasting and digital communication.