English is spoken all around the globe. Unlike other widely spoken languages, such as Mandarin or Spanish, most of the estimated 1.5 billion people who speak English are not native speakers. This gives the language a rich variety of accents. While a foreign accent is not a bad thing, it can be an advantage to speak with a neutral accent at certain times.
Now, a start-up called Sanas has created an app that offers real-time “accent translation”. This allows users to phonetically adjust their manner of speech, without changing the natural intonation. For example, a question posed in a strong accent can be converted into a standard US or British accent while keeping the intonation that’s typical of a question. Sanas’s founders want to reduce accent discrimination and help non-native speakers feel more at ease when speaking via communication services such as WhatsApp and Zoom.
Software for your speech
Maxim Serebryakov from Russia, Shawn Zhang from China and Andrés Pérez Soderi from Venezuela are former Stanford University students who all speak English as a second language. They got the idea for Sanas after a friend told them he’d quit his call-centre job because of the verbal abuse he’d received about his accent when speaking English on the phone.
“We all come from international backgrounds,” says Serebryakov. “We’ve seen first-hand how people treat you differently because of the way you speak. It’s heartbreaking sometimes.” Zhang told CNN that his mother has lived in the US for more than 20 years but still asks him to speak for her when they go out together, because she’s embarrassed about her accent. “That’s one reason I joined Max and Andrés in building this company, trying to help people who think their voices aren’t being heard as much as their accents.”
To build this technology, the developers used data and recordings of professional actors’ voices to train neural networks so that these can recognize and reproduce various accents. Rather than going through lengthy training to “neutralize” an accent, users can convert their speech into their chosen accent in real time. Currently, the software works with American, Australian, British, Filipino, Indian and Spanish accents, but the team plans to expand the range in the future.
Technology for specific industries
Of course, accents greatly enrich a language and are an integral part of people’s identity. Sanas aims to bridge communication barriers in particular situations when clear messages are vital, such as between patients and doctors. The start-up is currently working with large call centres to develop its technology, but this is just the beginning. “We plan to introduce the accent- matching technology to a range of industries and environments far beyond customer care and technical support,” Serebryakov said. Although it could be a while until the application is available to individuals, the inventors want Sanas to help anybody who feels the need to be better understood.