Siri speaks: the human behind Siri's voice tells her story
Ever feel like Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant on iPhones, doesn鈥檛 sound like what you would expect?
Perhaps that鈥檚 because Siri is actually a Susan.
Susan Bennett, that is. Atlanta-based voice actress Bennett Thursday that she is the voice of Apple鈥檚 trademark voice-control system. Though Apple and Nuance, the voice recognition company believed to be behind Siri, declined to comment, audio experts confirm that Bennett鈥檚 voice is the one accompanying millions of iPhones around the world.
According to the CNN report, Bennett originally did the recordings for ScanSoft (which later became Nuance), a software company looking for voice recordings for a new project focused on speech construction. For an entire month in July 2005, she recorded more than four hours of speech per day (a tiring process that she says may have led to Siri sounding as if she has a bit of an attitude).
She didn鈥檛 think of the assignment again until October 2011, when a colleague got the brand-new iPhone 4S, equipped with Siri. Her colleague asked if the voice was Bennett鈥檚, so Bennett took a listen.
"Oh, I knew," she said. "It's obviously me. It's my voice,鈥� she told CNN.
Listening to the interview, you can definitely hear the similarity between Bennett鈥檚 voice and Siri, that is if Bennett鈥檚 voice was deconstructed to vowels and syllables, then stretched to different pitches and speeds.
鈥淭hese snippets were ... synthesized in a process called concatenation that builds words, sentences, paragraphs,鈥� according to the CNN article. 鈥淎nd that is how voices like hers find their way into GPS and telephone systems.鈥�
CNN confirmed Bennett鈥檚 voice is Siri with an executive from GM Voices, who worked with ScanSoft, as well as an audio expert (who confirmed with a colleague). Apple and Nuance declined to comment, as the voices in voice-recognition technology services are usually kept secret.
Bennett was motivated to go public with her celebrity voice after tech website posted an article on voice-recognition software that hinted that the identity of Siri was actually Allison Dufty, another voice-over actress, who denied the claims.
But now Bennett's voice won鈥檛 be answering when you ask, 鈥淲here's the best Thai food restaurant nearby?鈥�
The updated iOS 7 iPhone system uses a different voice for Siri, as well as a male voice, whose identities are unknown. But that doesn鈥檛 mean Bennett is going away. She has been in the voice talent business since the 1970s, so you can hear her on everything from Delta Airlines to First National Bank鈥檚 ATM machines.
