DECtalk Archive

DECtalk Archive Contents What is DECtalk DECtalk is a speech synthesizer, originally released as a hardware module in 1984 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). DECtalk's origins The DECtalk technology is based on the work of Dennis Klatt, who was a pioneer in speech synthesis throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He developed the phoneme-to-speech part of a system known as MITalk, a project developed at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), using recordings of his own voice to build a functioning voice model, later to be known as Perfect Paul. Perfect Paul would end up being a model emulating how Klatt talked in his younger days. In 1982, Klatt developed his own speech system nown as Klattalk, which added other voices to give a much wider selection, most of which were modelled after his family. This included Beautiful Betty, modelled after Klatt's wife, and a child voice, Kit the Kid, modelled after his daughter. In 1983, DEC bought an exclusive license to Klattalk to use it i ... Read full article.