MAGE enables the reactive and continuous models modification in the HMM-based speech synthesis framework. Here, we present our first prototype system for extended interpolation applied for interactive accent control. Available accent models for American, Canadian and British English are manipulated in realtime by means of a gesturally controlled interactive geographical map. The accent interpolation is applied to one gender at a time, but the user is able to reactive alter between genders, while controlling the speakers to be interpolated at a time. Index Terms: speech synthesis, reactive, dialect, interpolation 1. Reactive HMM-based speech synthesis In the application, various English accents need to be controlled and interpolated in realtime. Therefore, we use MAGE 1 , which supports a realtime architecture for reactive HMM-based speech synthesis. MAGE uses multiple threads, and each thread can be affected by the user, allowing accurate controls over the different production levels of the artificial speech [1]. Accessing and controlling the thread responsible for the model manipulation we can reactively modify the way the available models are used for the parameter generation. MAGE allows the reactive control of the the interpolation weights of every feature stream for every phonetic label, as illustrated in Figure 1. This feature allows reactive and continuous control over the degree of interpolation between various models, maintaining any other controls. 2. Reactive accent interpolation map
['Maria Astrinaki', 'Junichi Yamagishi', 'Simon King', "Nicolas D'Alessandro", 'Thierry Dutoit']
Reactive accent interpolation through an interactive map application.