Makoto Shozakai, General Manager, Speech Solutions at Asahi Kasei, said, "We are very pleased to help SVOX add the Japanese SVOX lingware package to their product lineup. Automotive T1 suppliers and car makers will now have the fantastic opportunity to improve their products with the premium SVOX Japanese unit selection TTS solution."
According to SVOX, Japan is one of the most advanced and thus most important markets for companies in the navigation industry, as more than 50% of all new cars are sold with integrated navigation systems. "Through the addition of Japanese lingware to the portfolio, SVOX yet again demonstrates its dedication to responsive service, which has been one of the guiding principles since the founding of the company in 2000," Mr. Jantzen said.
From day one, SVOX has put strong emphasis on the architectural aspects of its product designs, resulting in a unique modular and scalable architecture. As a result only the engine is ported to other platforms, while all languages, regardless of the language family, are completely platform independent. This means that the newly launched Japanese lingware runs with the same TTS engine software as all of SVOX's European languages. This unique architecture also enables SVOX to introduce new languages in less than nine months.
The SVOX language portfolio currently includes UK English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Polish, US English, North American Spanish, Canadian French, Chinese Mandarin, Korean, Danish and Japanese. Cantonese and Norwegian will follow shortly.