Japanese Politician Greets Guests at Kawasaki Event with his own Digital Voice
Councilor and LDP representative Norio Aoki, enlisted the help of AI Voice Platform CoeFont to improve accessibility features.
CoeFont Co., Ltd. provided content utilising the digital voice of Norio Aoki, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and elected councilor of Kawasaki City Council, at the function to celebrate Norio Aoki’s inauguration as the 44th Chairman of the Kawasaki City Council held on the 14th of November.
January 30th, 2024, 12:00 JST
As Kawasaki City celebrates the 100th anniversary of its municipal council on July 1st, 2024, a variety of initiatives are being undertaken by citizens, businesses, organizations and other entities to create a ‘New Kawasaki’ for the next 100 years. At this milestone, more than 500 guests gathered to celebrate the inauguration of Norio Aoki as the 44th Chairman of the Kawasaki City Council.
In the coming era, the use of cutting-edge technologies, including AI, will not only be essential in daily life, but also to enable organizations and individuals from diverse backgrounds to thrive. Aoki’s strong desire to make Kawasaki a hub where different talents and technologies can flourish gave CoeFont the opportunity to showcase the potential of AI voice technology in action.
Guests at the official function were surprised when Norio Aoki, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and elected councilor of Kawasaki City Council, took the stage to welcome them in both Japanese and English using his digital voice. The multilingual digital voice was produced by AI Voice Platform CoeFont, a company well-known for their philanthropic projects using AI Voice after winning Japan’s 2023 Social Products Awards for their contribution to society. The event was made even more memorable by CoeFont’s original character, Cal (voiced by famous Japanese voice actor Tomoyuki Morikawa), who read out congratulatory messages.
CoeFont’s Cross-Lingual TTS
CoeFont can create natural digital voices that sound just like your own. Digital Voices are voice replicas produced with advanced AI algorithms and deep learning techniques to imitate the complex array of tones and colors that make each voice original. Once created, the voice is able to read out typed text in your own voice. Using CoeFonts Cross-Lingual TTS the CoeFont team were able to take Councilor Aoki’s Japanese voice recording and create a multilingual digital voice capable of speaking English and Chinese, as well as Japanese.
Councilor Aoki commented
“I couldn’t imagine what kind of voice would be created when we did the recording. Still, when I heard my digital voice for the first time, I was surprised not only at its high quality but also at its ability to speak in English and Chinese, as well as Japanese, which is the only language I recorded in. Kawasaki City will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its municipal administration this year and is actively using various technologies to enable a diverse range of individuals and organizations to play an active role. CoeFont technology has made things previously impossible possible, like my digital voice making announcements in multiple languages at this event, and we have received a lot of great feedback. I plan to continue incorporating this kind of technology to reach out to more Kawasaki citizens in a variety of ways.”
Accessibility with Digital Voices
AI Voice Platform CoeFont also recently collaborated with Councilor Aoki to improve the accessibility of his website. His multilingual digital voice was used with their text-to-speech editor to produce audio for the website in both Japanese and English.
The inclusion of audio content not only improved the website’s accessibility for individuals with disabilities, but also for elderly Japanese individuals who are unable to read Kanji, busy parents who do not have time to peruse the website, and immigrants who have relocated to the city.
The councilor, who has been elected for four consecutive terms, hopes his updated site will allow more constituents to understand city politics and follow the changes that are being made in the city.
Norio Aoki
Norio Aoki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the elected councilor of Kawasaki City Council. As a father of three he has advocated for children’s health and education, as well as support for busy parents.
Visit his website to listen to Norio Aoki’s digital voice reading his policies in Japanese and English from the link below.
https://aokinorio.com/profile/
CoeFont’s Voice For All Project
CoeFont believes it is imperative to use cutting-edge technology to support people’s lives and create a better future. We believe AI voices can be used to support people and benefit society, which is why we are developing an ethical digital voice hub for both digital voice creators and users.
If you would like to collaborate with us on an upcoming project, feel free to reach out via this form.
Voice Right Protection Initiative
Our commitment to protecting voice rights has been unwavering since the beginning of our company’s journey, which is why our platform is designed to enable digital voice creators to retain full control over the use of their digital voices. Collaborating with leading figures in both AI and Acting communities, Coefont is working to lead the way in creating a global standard for the protection of voices.
Voice Revive and Digital Voice Gifting Initiative
Founded on the belief that everyone has the right to a voice, we have been working with patients and medical institutions in Japan to create the most natural voice replications possible and provide free digital voice creation and use to people faced with the prospect of losing their voice. We expanded coverage to people with speech disabilities. Our voice gifting project gives members the opportunity to gift a copy of their digital voices to improve the quality of life of those who have already lost their natural voices for medical reasons.
AI Voice Platform CoeFont
CoeFont( https://CoeFont.cloud ), an innovative AI Voice Platform using the latest AI technology to convert voices into expressive, easy-to-use digital voices which can be used with Text-To-Speech, Voice Changer, and Cross-Lingual TTS. The CoeFont platform provides immediate access to our Voice Hub with over 10,000 diverse digital voices. Whether for training sessions, internal announcements, audiobooks, promotional content, or live during meetings or streaming, these voices are always ready to bring your ideas to life.
About CoeFont Co., Ltd.
CoeFont Co., Ltd. develops and provides AI-based services, established in 2020 and registered as a Tokyo Tech Venture. We are currently conducting research on AI-based voice synthesis and providing “CoeFont” under the concept of “bringing voices to all creators.” We aim to pioneer the voice content market with easy-to-understand natural AI voices.
Listen to the audio press release here
