WIRED interviewed Hugo Barra, Android's director of product management, after submitting the Google I / O and the news being announced in Android world. In the interview,
explains why Google Toolbar now has the world's most advanced voice system, with the best speech, best conversational voice and the best answer possible.
Google has worked hard to improve its Voice Search, a name that is always present in Android, and has remained so even with the latest new features, and much attention has focused on the speed of data exchange and voice quality.
Finding a person with the perfect voice for this purpose has not been easy. We have entrusted to an independent casting and the selection of candidates selected after 10, we started testing to see which entry better respond to our needs. We went from 10 to 2 and then we chose the female voice you hear today. Many companies today rely on Nuance and Microsoft or others for speech synthesis, but we wanted to offer an internal system over our competitors.
The intention has always been to create a system able to talk, meet and interact in conversational mode with the user. I think the result is clear and we have created the world's first high-quality voice, sounding natural, conversational , and a pleasant voice that soon it will be all over the world.
Hugo Barra
Asked who was the star of Hugo's voice answers:
I actually do not know his name. In fact, nobody knows his name. It 'a secret.
Barra has also explained the reason for which Google Voice Search does not want to compare to other competitors or Siri clarifying that " Google is not your mama " :
Google is a neutral party, not your friend, secretary or a sister. not your mother. It's not your girlfriend or your boyfriend. Google is an entity that gathers information and creates systems to improve the tools available today . The world calls for novelty and investments and we respond to the question, no matter who the sender of the request. It 's very important for this reason that this entity (Google) remains impartial, and any comparisons, irony or allusions would not be suitable for continued policy of impartiality.
Hugo also mentions the Nexus 10 and, when asked if in future you will see these devices, says that when the Nexus 7 is the primary focus but that could be considered a solution for a 10-inch in the future expansion of supply. Finally, Hugo states that the new Google Voice will not in contrast with S-Voice or vocal systems present in Android, but it will be a part of the system that can be exploited and used by different manufacturers or even eliminated or replaced with proprietary solutions.
FullInterview
