As part of our Custom Development efforts, we always aim to take on new challenging projects. Crimsonwing’s most recent project driving innovation is the custom development of a speech synthesiser for the Maltese language – a first of its kind. The speech synthesiser will enable computers to produce and process spoken Maltese, which will allow a more natural interaction between the speaker and the computer, recognising keyboard and verbal input and being able to transform text into audio speech format. The first prototype was delivered in August 2010.

This project was initiated by the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA), and is co-financed via an 85% grant by the European Regional Development Fund and 15% by the Maltese government. Being EU funded, the project falls under the EU’s cohesion policy 2007-2013 “Investing In Competitiveness For A Better Quality Of Life”. Crimsonwing won the tender for this project in February 2010 and Carmel Gafa, Head of Technology, said “We are proud to have won the tender for this challenging and interesting project. The synthesiser will make a significant difference to many Maltese speaking people who need accessible electronic media, for example partially sighted, blind, illiterate, injured and physically disabled people. It is also an honour to work with leading experts in this field, like Prof. Paul Micallef and Prof. Ray Fabri, and we are making excellent progress on the project.” Based on a strong commitment of social responsibility, Crimsonwing is very dedicated to this project with a firm ambition to continuously improve social environments.

The synthesiser will be SAPI-compliant (Speech Application Programming Interface), which is an Application Programming Interface defined by Microsoft for speech recognition and speech synthesis, specifying a standard interface that guarantees interoperability with the majority of speech-enabled applications and assistive technologies on the Microsoft Windows platform.

The technology for speech recognition engines already exists but not for the Maltese language. Therefore, people requiring speech-enabled technology have had to rely on alternative languages. One of the challenges with this project is the Maltese language itself, as pronunciation and grammar rules are complex. Therefore, development within the highly specialised field of speech synthesis is a very challenging and rewarding endeavour for an IT company.

Maltese Speech Synthesiser - Detailed (154.21 kB)

 FITA Document - Speech Synthesiser (404.92 kB)

News Item 1- Maltese Speech Synthesiser

News Item 2 - Good Progress on Project

Please see the Custom Development section for other projects.