<s>
Lessac	B-Application
Technologies	I-Application
,	I-Application
Inc	I-Application
.	I-Application
(	O
LTI	O
)	O
is	O
an	O
American	O
firm	O
which	O
develops	O
voice	B-Application
synthesis	I-Application
software	O
,	O
licenses	O
technology	O
and	O
sells	O
synthesized	O
novels	O
as	O
MP3	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
LTI	O
technology	O
is	O
partly	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
work	O
of	O
the	O
late	O
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
,	O
a	O
Professor	O
of	O
Theater	O
at	O
the	O
State	O
University	O
of	O
New	O
York	O
and	O
the	O
creator	O
of	O
Lessac	O
Kinesensic	O
Training	O
,	O
and	O
LTI	O
has	O
licensed	O
exclusive	O
rights	O
to	O
exploit	O
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
's	O
copyrighted	O
works	O
in	O
the	O
fields	O
of	O
speech	B-Application
synthesis	I-Application
and	O
speech	O
recognition	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
's	O
textual	O
annotation	O
system	O
,	O
which	O
was	O
originally	O
developed	O
to	O
assist	O
actors	O
,	O
singers	O
,	O
and	O
orators	O
in	O
marking	O
up	O
scripts	O
to	O
prepare	O
for	O
performance	O
,	O
is	O
adapted	O
in	O
LTI	O
's	O
speech	B-Application
synthesis	I-Application
system	O
as	O
the	O
basic	O
representation	O
of	O
the	O
speech	O
to	O
be	O
synthesized	O
(	O
Lessemes	O
)	O
,	O
in	O
contrast	O
to	O
many	O
other	O
systems	O
which	O
use	O
a	O
phonetic	O
representation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
LTI	O
's	O
software	O
has	O
two	O
major	O
components	O
:	O
(	O
1	O
)	O
a	O
linguistic	O
front-end	O
that	O
converts	O
plain	O
text	O
to	O
a	O
sequence	O
of	O
prosodic	O
and	O
phonosensory	O
graphic	O
symbols	O
(	O
Lessemes	O
)	O
based	O
on	O
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
's	O
annotation	O
system	O
,	O
which	O
specify	O
the	O
speech	O
units	O
to	O
be	O
synthesized	O
;	O
(	O
2	O
)	O
a	O
signal-processing	O
back-end	O
that	O
takes	O
the	O
Lessemes	O
as	O
acoustic	O
data	O
and	O
produces	O
human-sounding	O
synthesized	B-Application
speech	I-Application
as	O
output	O
,	O
using	O
unit	O
selection	O
and	O
concatenation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
LTI	O
's	O
text-to-speech	B-Application
system	O
came	O
in	O
second	O
in	O
the	O
world-wide	O
Blizzard	O
Challenge	O
2011	O
and	O
2012	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Blizzard	O
Challenge	O
,	O
conducted	O
by	O
the	O
Language	B-General_Concept
Technologies	I-General_Concept
Institute	I-General_Concept
of	O
Carnegie	O
Mellon	O
University	O
,	O
was	O
devised	O
as	O
a	O
way	O
to	O
evaluate	O
speech	B-Application
synthesis	I-Application
techniques	O
by	O
having	O
different	O
research	O
groups	O
build	O
voices	O
from	O
the	O
same	O
voice-actor	O
recordings	O
,	O
and	O
comparing	O
the	O
results	O
through	O
listening	O
tests	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
LTI	O
was	O
founded	O
in	O
2000	O
by	O
H	O
.	O
Donald	O
Wilson	O
(	O
chairman	O
)	O
,	O
a	O
lawyer	O
,	O
LexisNexis	B-Library
entrepreneur	O
and	O
business	O
associate	O
of	O
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
;	O
and	O
Gary	O
A	O
.	O
Marple	O
(	O
chief	O
inventor	O
)	O
,	O
after	O
Marple	O
suggested	O
that	O
Arthur	O
Lessac	O
's	O
kinesensic	O
voice	O
training	O
might	O
be	O
applicable	O
to	O
computational	O
linguistics	O
.	O
</s>
