What's that, Adobe? A Photoshop for faking voices?

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.

To do a really good job of faking a recording it would also have to fake the 50Hz mains hum fluctuations so it appears to have been recorded at the appropriate time and date:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671

>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.

One Question:

What would Toast of London say about this?

A beta version of this sotfware...

...was used for Peter Dinklage's voice role for the video game 'Destiny'.

watermarking technology will be used to determine the authenticity

can I get a crack already, or do I need to wait a mo, til they release it as a proper application?

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..

software is actually rubbish

I managed to sit through the demo video (something must be wrong with me). Inflection and sentence rhythm very far from captured.

Also, American talky-people in the video are very very irritating

Goodbye voice authentication - parting is such sweet sorrow...

Its been possible to do similar faking with high end music editing software for years, albeit by chopping out syllables, replacing and the like, but its such a skilled activity its below the public radar. Not sure there is really any such thing as digital evidence.

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.

So twenty minutes, eh?

How long is a presidential inauguration speech, must be at lest that ;o)