Simulated conversations can provide an interactive experience with a specific character, personality, actor, historical figure or other person, whether real or fictional. These interactive experiences may be particularly applicable for various entertainment and informational settings. For example, simulated conversations may be utilized in a theme park setting to enable interactions and real-time conversations with costumed performers. The opportunity for guests to meet and chat with their favorite animated characters in real life may provide a considerable incentive for repeated visits to the theme park.
In some cases, it may be appropriate to use a voice-alike talent that can convincingly emulate the voice of the character. However, this approach may be difficult to scale up for large-scale deployments. The costs of securing and training suitable talent may be very high. Furthermore, voice performance authorizations for the desired character may be unavailable due to contracts or other circumstances.
One solution for providing simulated conversations is to utilize a voice soundboard, where a number of pre-recorded phrases are mapped to individual selections. However, to provide a convincing and natural result, a very large number of phrases need to be mapped, quickly rendering the simple soundboard approach impractical. Another solution is to utilize speech synthesis, which can provide for an unlimited number of arbitrary phrases. However, the present state of speech synthesis technology is still inadequate for providing a convincing and natural sounding voice performance.