Fans of Red Velvet's Irene and NCT's Taeyong could soon wake up to the voices of the two idols with the use of the Celeb Alarm function of SK Telecom's AI speakers.
Unlike mechanical sounding recordings of celebrity voices, SK Telecom promises a more natural and seamless interaction with Irene and Taeyong with their state of the art technology.
Soompi reported SM Entertainment and SK Telecom entered into a partnership to bring Irene and Taeyong's voices to its NUGU AI speakers for its new Celeb Alarm function.
The Celeb Alarm function will notify users of their alarms and schedules using a celebrity's voice. This means that fans can be woken up by Irene's sweet voice or a reminder can be heard in Taeyong's dreamy tone. The service will be added to NUGU next month.
The integration of Irene and Taeyong's voices into the NUGU AI speakers is a step up from the previous practice of selling celebrity voice alarms as content. Previous celebrity alarms were made by simply recording their voices.
However, SK's Celeb Alarm uses AI voice technology which will allow users to choose pet names to refer to Irene or Taeyong's settings. This will provide a more personal touch to the users' Celeb Alarm experience.
What makes Celeb Alarm unique is its use of SK Telecom's Text To Speech technology. This technology splits a person's previously recorded voice into words and recombines it with an exclusive engine. Words also flow seamlessly and naturally with the use of deep learning technology.
According to SK, it is also working towards personalizing the experience for the users by having them record and use their own voices on the device in the future.
Meanwhile, it is not just Irene's voice that is drawing attention from fans. It was, recently, reported by Koreaboo that the Red Velvet member became a trending topic online as plastic surgery centers in Korea revealed that her face is the most popular choice in their clinics.
According to surgeons, their clients prefer their new looks to be modeled after Irene because of her natural beauty. Doctors said that while Irene's nose wasn't very high and the outline was distinct. They also praised the outline of her eyes that make the most natural looks for their patients. Surgeons revealed that many of their patients come to their clinics with photos of Irene.
