WT Series : WT 3

WT-3

Carrying significant improvements from its WT-2 robot, Waseda University launched the WT-3, or the Waseda Talker No. 3, in 2003. This anthromorphic talking robot provides a more advanced and flexible mechanism in the vocal tract to make the sounds being produced more natural-sounding. Vowels are also produced more clearly. Stops are notable, as well as fricatives and nasal sounds.

The degrees of freedom of WT-3 are 18, three more than the previous 15 DOF of the WT-2. The tongue of the talking robot received two more degrees of freedom, making a total of seven. Japanese vowels and sounds are produced in a close manner, the way humans would produce them.

Features:

• Increased degrees of freedom from 15 to 18
• Clearer way of producing Japanese vowels and consonants
• Improved and flexible vocal tract mechanism
• Capable of stops, fricatives (consonants such as "F" and "S"), and nasal sounds