Bluey and Bingo are a pair of computer-generated voices created by the researchers at the University of Michigan’s Computer Science and Engineering department. The project, which began in 2010, was designed to create synthetic voices that could be used for text-to-speech applications, or for conversational user interfaces.
The voices were created by taking recordings of human male and female speakers and then programming them to produce a variety of accents and tones. The voices are designed to be both friendly and engaging, and are used in a number of applications including Google’s Now on Tap service, Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant, and Apple’s Siri voice assistant.
The voices have been well-received by users, with many praising their friendliness and natural accents. However, they have also been accused of being too artificial sounding.
Despite this criticism, the Bluey and Bingo voices are still widely used in a number of applications across a variety of platforms. They are likely to remain popular as developers continue to develop new uses for them.
