donga.com launches Korean voice news today

The donga.com launches voice-composed news service for the first time among Korean media, starting today.

Netizens will be able to listen to news stories in Korean posted on the donga.com web site (www.donga.com). The donga.com has developed the new system jointly with Voicetech and Voicewear. The voice-composition news service is to transform characters into voice in real time by utilizing the latest voice recognition technology.

In particular, the automatic newspaper-reading program is a high-tech voice composition software made through an upgrade of existing voice composition technology. The voice composition technology has been used for services for weather, traffic conditions and securities. However, the technology is being applied to reading news articles for the first time.

To use the service, Netizens are required to be equipped with a speaker and sound card in their PCs. Once users access donga.com, they need only to click icons that have a shape of a speaker to hear recorded voice.

kkh@donga.com