Reader mobile app now for Android



    Three years ago, we released the Reader mobile app for iOS, and we began to receive letters from many users asking if we were going to release a version for Android. The development is completed, and the official launch of the “Reader” on Google Play took place .

    " Reader " - is a mobile application that reads aloud text uploaded to it books and documents using the technology of synthesis of Russian speech. In fact, it allows you to voice any book in real time (.fb2, .epub, .txt, .rtf). Books are voiced right on your mobile device, without access to the Internet.

    The application is undemanding to the device’s resources and works stably on devices with 2 CPU cores and 512MB of RAM.

    When developing the Android version of the "Reader", we approached the process from scratch, so it is not much like an option for iOS. This mainly concerns the user interaction interface with the application, it has become convenient for them to control with one hand while walking or driving. It will be interesting to know your opinion whether the application has become better from this.



    A small video review of the "Reader" for Android



    Future plans To
    refine the functionality in accordance with your wishes, increase the speed and stability of the application. We will adjust the sound of speech synthesis, make it even better.
    We plan to add new voices and speech synthesis languages. We have in stock several more voices in Russian, as well as the English-language “Carol” and the voice “Asel” in Kazakh.

    You can listen to their sound here .

    About speech synthesis technology
    The TTS speech synthesis engines used in the Reader are proprietary MDGs. They use an original hybrid implementation of several well-known technologies: Unit Selection and statistical modeling of speech parameters based on hidden Markov models (HMM). The first provides the natural timbre of the synthesized voice, and the second allows you to give the voice the necessary intonational, semantic and emotional coloring.
    In addition, the MDG speech synthesizer is able to understand the meaning of the text depending on the context: a large volume of the dictionary provides the correct interpretation in ambiguous situations and the correct pronunciation of abbreviations and abbreviations.

    Other amenities
    "Reader" for Android will be free (with the pre-installed voice "Vladimir"). The remaining votes can be bought at 35 rubles. The test period for each vote is 5 days.

    Answers to some frequently asked questions.
    Is it possible to embed the voices of our speech synthesis in other readers, for example, in FBReader?
    - No, the voices built into the “Reader” are not yet embedded in other applications. So that our speech synthesis can be used in other applications, we plan to release a separate Plug-In application.

    How can we get our speech synthesis and embed it in your project / application / site ?
    - For this, we have a speech synthesis SDK for the OS: Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Raspberry and the cloud-based Internet service VoiceFabric.ru

    That's all for now. Listen to books with pleasure!

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