Text-To-Speech (TTS) is a tool that helps people to communicate. There is a wide range of possibilities, such as blind people using screen readers, people with speech disabilities, means of transport that speaks information about a place, GPS systems and more.
TTS systems have been having innovation over the years; many people and companies have been adapted it for their needs, as well as worked in support for their languages. Today we have a lot of Text-To-Speech systems that offers his advantages. However, in the Ecuadorian land, no Text-To-Speech voices are available, hence they need to use a Mexican, a Colombian or a Castillian Spanish voice for their needs, so they will not be able to feel very identified with what they are communicating, as well as Kichwa speakers doesn't know how to use Text-To-Speech, because no voices for Kichwa and other languages are available, so they will have to communicate using a language other than their native language.
The mission of the RHVoice-ec project is facilitate communication for Ecuadorian speakers with voices in which they can identify, including indigenous languages. This way, we are creating a world of inclusion for this side.
RHVoice is a free, open-source TTS synthesizer. It supports many languages such as Russian, English, Portuguese, Czech, Esperanto, Servian, Nepali and much more. His voices are based in high quality recordings of natural speech databases, but they are small, because it uses a statistical parametric synthesis method. However, these voices sound pleasant to the ears and are fastest to respond. RHVoice also supports multiple platforms like Windows (sapi5 and NVDA screen reader), Linux, and Android.
Given the mission of this new project, we hope the support of different cultures in Ecuador to grow it. This project is still in the initial roots. Stay tuned!