For nearly two years now voice of Siri for US English version has been a matter of speculation and rumours, but it seems that all of it will be laid to rest as the person who voiced this iOS assistant has finally come out in the open. It’s Susan Bennett.
According to a report on CNN an audio forensic expert who has over 30 years of experience in the field, after studying voices of Bennett and Siri, is 100% sure that voice of Siri in the United States is definitely Bennett. When asked why the delay in coming forward Bennett said that she wasn’t too sure if she “wanted the notoriety,” and where she “stood legally.”
A report on The Verge led many to believe that Allison Dufty was actually the person behind voice of Siri. However, Dufty denied these reports stating on her website that she is “absolutely, positively NOT the voice of Siri.”
Bennett said that this report on The Verge led her to shed her reservations. “…then this Verge video came out… and it seems like everyone was clamoring to find out who the real voice behind Siri is, and so I thought, well, you know, what the heck? This is the time”, said Bennett.
According to Bennett the recordings were made back in 2005 for four hours daily, day after day. She was made to read “nonsensical phrases and sentences” out of which audio engineers and experts working to develop Siri extracted “vowels, consonants, syllables and diphthongs.” These extractions were then synthesized to form words, sentences and paragraphs through a process known as concatenation.
Susan quite surprisingly came forward on the day when Siri is celebrating her second launch anniversary.
