There are more than 10 million people in the world who are unable to speak and they depend on computerized equipment to provide their voices. But because there are so few recorded voices for them, the same voice used by the physicist and writer Stephen Hawking is used by little children.

When speech scientist Rupal Patel was at a meeting and saw a young girl talking to a grown man and both were using the same computer voice, she knew something had to be done. So Patel worked to create custom (定制的) voices for custom people. To start the process, a voice donor (捐赠者) records a series of short stories and sentences. They don’t record every single word a person might say, but they typically cover all the different combinations of sounds that happen in language.

The process might take between five and seven hours, but it doesn’t have to be done all at once and it can be done in the donor’s home. The voice donor can start, stop and pick up whenever it’s convenient. They’re encouraged to record from the same place each time so the sound is continuous. Those recordings are then divided into little pieces of speech to be kept in a database (数据库). The person who will receive the voice also records a few special sounds. Patel’s team then searches the voice database for a perfect voice match. Finally, that donated voice is joined with the receiver’s sounds, which makes a custom voice.

So far, more than 14,000 speakers from 120 countries have contributed to what the company, VocaliD, calls “The Human Voicebank”. People who want to donate can record from anywhere they have a computer or phone, sharing their voice with anyone who needs it or even banking it for themselves. “English speakers from English-speaking countries share their voice as part of our Human Voicebank because they want to help bring speech to the speechless,” VocaliD spokesperson Elisabeth Nuboer said. “We have voice donors all over the world, ranging in age from 6 to 91 and welcome everyone and all your wonderful voice.”

What if instead of clicking on link after link on a company’s website, you could type a question and get an immediate, customized (定制的) answer? Some companies are working to make this a reality using chat-bots, which are computer programs that can communicate with human beings by phone, on messaging apps or on websites.

Chat-bots can look up information, answer frequently asked questions and collect information from users. They can be used to manage payments for online purchases, to help users decide what they want to purchase and to schedule and manage appointments.

There are two types of chat-bots: open and closed. A closed chat-bot follows a script, which may or may not involve using AI to understand users’ messages. An open chat-bot uses AI both to understand what users want and to generate responses. Open chat-bots are able to learn from their conversations and thus improve their ability to communicate over time. Having a conversation with them feels more natural, but if they have not been correctly trained, users may have a bad experience with them.

One significant advantage of chat-bots is that they are available all the time, even in the middle of the night. Plus, a single chat-bot can serve multiple users at once. Chat-bots have the potential to overcome several technological hurdles people face with ease. These include difficulty in navigating websites and trouble finding basic information and answers to simple questions.

However, in order for chat-bots to work, humans are still indispensable (必不可少的). Someone has to program the chat-bots at the very beginning, train them, and maintain and optimize (优化) the chat-bot system. Further, even open chat-bots may not have the answers to detailed questions, and many people simply prefer speaking to a human rather than a chat-bot. Thus, chat-bots are unlikely to completely replace human agents. Rather, they will help users solve simple problems so that customer service representatives can focus on more difficult issues.

Chat-bots have some limitations, but they are already revolutionizing the way customers interact with businesses and will continue to do so.

Amazing concept images have shown what homes of the future could look like, as preparations are made for the world’s first freefrom 3D-printed property (房产).

Experts will build a house called Curve Appeal, which will be 3D-printed off-site before being put together on-site to create two outside walls, a roof and an inside part. These four main sections will then be joined together.

Although 3D-printed buildings have been made before, this home — to be constructed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, later this year — will be the first of its kind, as it will contain no regular shapes or angles. The house is the creation of the design company WATG, based in London and California. The design for Curve Appeal draws inspiration from the Case Study House program.

The architects leading the program were famed for constantly pushing the limits in terms of minimalist (极简主义) materials, and trying to create open-plan spaces that focused on enhancing (增强) natural light. In a written statement, a spokesman for WATG said, “Employing many of the same modern design principles, Curve Appeal is the next evolutionary step. It’s important that the architecture and the environment work together harmoniously. The chosen site is steps away from the Tennessee River in a beautiful wooded, sunlit area.”

WATG was awarded the first prize in the Freeform Home Design Challenge in 2016 and given prize money of $ 8,000 to make its plans a reality. The competition was aimed at architects, designers, engineers and artists. Participants were challenged to design a 600 to 800sq ft single-family home that rethinks traditional aesthetics (美学), ergonomics, construction, building systems and structure.

Over the last year, WATG’s Chicago office has been developing their design with Branch Technology. This project is currently underway, working towards breaking ground later this year. Once completed, the Curve Appeal home will have open and light-filled inside living spaces.