At least it got easier for law enforcement to fake confessions...
What's that, Adobe? A Photoshop for faking voices?
Recorded voice evidence will never quite be the same again. It might not even be "evidence". Last week, Adobe demonstrated a voice manipulation package called VoCo – a research project, and not (yet) a product, it says. Described as a "Photoshop for voiceovers", VoCo is actually quite brilliant. Given a speaking sample of …
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 10:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
On the other side of this, I used to work at a firm that made IVR's ( interactive phone systems ).
Pre-planning the voice, getting it recorded correctly, cutting it up, dealing with spec changes, it was a nightmare. If we could have just licensed the speakers voice, it would have been so much easier.
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 10:33 GMT Dave 126
>We suspect this technology is bad news for soundalike voice artistes – and may prompt a shift for owners of well-known voices such as Stephen Fry (pictured below) to move to an IP-based, licensing model.
The Simpsons did it - featured an advertisement for a movie with Marlon Brando as Truckosaurus, then said "professional celebrity voice impersonator" in the verbal equivalent of small print.
But anyway - would someone please donate a Tivo, Chromecast, Netflix subscription, Apple TV or even Kodi box to Mr O? It seems that the only reason he is fatigued by Stephen Fry is that he can only watch BBC, Dave and adverts on ITV. It would be a kind act, and could brighten this Reg writer's Christmas.
Before his income from voiceovers, Stephen Fry was a writer, like Mr O - only more adept, humane, successful and well known. Still, there is positive precedent for Mr O's future career development - Charlie Brooker, the satirist, piss taker in print and on screen, and well received creator of Nathan Barley and Black Mirror used to write for PC Zone (an irreverent tech-focused publication) back in the 90's.
Charlie Brooker knew that there was so much dross on TV that to limit himself to knocking one individual would be just daft. A masterclass on how to rip into the television schedules can be found here: http://www.tvgohome.com/archive.html The humour is very much in the vein the Reg prides itself on. Because we care.
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 16:35 GMT Dave 126
Re: The trouble with TV Go Home
>The trouble with TV Go Home is that in the years since it was created it has changed from satire to a handbook.
Ditto Nathan Barley. If Charlie Brooker were to act as George Lucas did with Star Wars and re-release a Special Edition Nathan Barley with Extra CGI Effects, he could digitally place 'ironic' beards on most of the characters and it would look like a contemporary documentary.
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 12:11 GMT Sampler
Inflection?
So, they can synthesize the voice pattern, but does the programme know where to add the right infection and emphasis on words, or will it be the same as my sat nav that monotonely relays lists of road names, directions and distances in a dead inhuman voice?
Feel it'll be a while before celeb voice impersonators need to worry about their income..
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 17:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Authenticity???
Adobe claims watermarking technology will be used to determine the authenticity of the records offered as evidence
Which is fine as long as "evidence" is stored in an adobe file format.
Oh wait, analog loop problem - if you can play the [synthetic voice] audio file, you can re-record it to a WAV with no metadata.
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Wednesday 9th November 2016 19:25 GMT Mage
Re: Authenticity???
With cleverly added background hum that has frequency variations etc for the required time and place
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Friday 11th November 2016 23:21 GMT Mystereed
Re: So twenty minutes, eh?
Yes - was my first thought: why 20 minutes? Is there an equivalent set of words that will deliver all the building blocks? Bit like The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy log uses all the letters in an alphabet for typing practice. If yes, how easy to social engineer a few phrases to get that minimum number out?
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