Introduction
Ah, actual content! Yay!
Ever since their invention, computers have been made to do amazing things, so much that they do some things better than humans. Computers surpassed the entire human race in raw computing power in 1977* and since have bested us us in chess, GO, and other games. But computers do have a definite advantage in those kinds of things, they are made to input, store, and use concrete information, which, compared to them at least, humans are inherently not as good at. How about we give them a real challenge, an unfair one, one that is the most biased towards humans’ skills as possible, so we can feel good about ourselves for at least a decade or so… How about singing? The human vocal cords are just so weird and so unique that anything other than humans singing will be a real challenge. I mean, they’ve been able to do that since 1961, but that certainly doesn’t mean they sounded human. The IBM 7094 sounded like a cross between a robot and a pipe organ. In general, computers trying to replicate humans from scratch is extremely difficult. They might need some help…
Enter the Vocaloid project. Started in 2000, it intended to do just that: give computers some help. It now is one of the most realistic synthesizers and by far the most popular voice synthesizer ever. You may have even heard of it already, although I’ll bet you still don’t know what it is. I intend to solve that! Here we go!
*Citation: What If?- Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions, by Randall Munroe. I only cited this because it's a really good book. Go read it.
Ever since their invention, computers have been made to do amazing things, so much that they do some things better than humans. Computers surpassed the entire human race in raw computing power in 1977* and since have bested us us in chess, GO, and other games. But computers do have a definite advantage in those kinds of things, they are made to input, store, and use concrete information, which, compared to them at least, humans are inherently not as good at. How about we give them a real challenge, an unfair one, one that is the most biased towards humans’ skills as possible, so we can feel good about ourselves for at least a decade or so… How about singing? The human vocal cords are just so weird and so unique that anything other than humans singing will be a real challenge. I mean, they’ve been able to do that since 1961, but that certainly doesn’t mean they sounded human. The IBM 7094 sounded like a cross between a robot and a pipe organ. In general, computers trying to replicate humans from scratch is extremely difficult. They might need some help…
Enter the Vocaloid project. Started in 2000, it intended to do just that: give computers some help. It now is one of the most realistic synthesizers and by far the most popular voice synthesizer ever. You may have even heard of it already, although I’ll bet you still don’t know what it is. I intend to solve that! Here we go!
*Citation: What If?- Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions, by Randall Munroe. I only cited this because it's a really good book. Go read it.
Waaaait just a minute there, what happened? *sighs* I do not quite understand Blogger yet, please have patience...
ReplyDeleteMy patience is as infinite as the sky, which is an ill-defined quantity that dosen't really make sense. What do we mean when we say "the sky", anyway? Do we mean all of space? Do we mean the edge of the atmosphere-or even the atmosphere itself? Or a combination of these? These are the questions that keep me up at night, sweating and gnawing at my fingernails in irrational fear of the Seventh Man. Anyway, this is interesting, keep relaying information.
ReplyDeleteApparently it doesn't apply account changes retroactively.
DeleteBoo -w-
ReplyDelete^^^ Who is that mysterious [Unknown] person :o
DeleteAnd time to reply on my own comment again. Happy birthday me! It's 00:08 for me right now. Which means it's march 14th! -w-
DeleteShe knows who I am.
DeleteHi, River! It's Felix!
ReplyDelete"Felix" (if that is indeed his true name) is a different person than the "Unknown" that commented above.
DeleteHi guys.
ReplyDelete*tries to figure out a way to tell you all politely not to spam comment*
*fails*
Or maybe I did succeed? Or maybe this is a good amount of commenting? But it probably shouldn't turn into something like the RMB? Anyway, hi Felix, happy belated birthday Davide. I'm glad we worked out a solution. Be prepared for a new post tomorrow afternoon, I plan to post every Friday and Saturday.
Sadly i'm not planning to stick around. This is one of the worst places to communicate... sorry... xD
DeleteMaybe Felix will. [He's starting to creep me out on Nationstates...] Hey! Wait a second! This isn't any better than Discord! Hmph. Disappointment level 100
My brother drew a cool picture and posted it on facebook. It really is stunning.
ReplyDeleteNo post today?
ReplyDelete