Creating a Zoom bot to synthesize speech from Zoom chat messages in a virtual classroom

• Main Author: Low, Jun Sheng
• Other Authors: Wonkeun Chang
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/166913
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The outbreak of COVID-19 terraformed various aspects of our lives forcefully: the widespread adoption of remote work, increased reliance on virtual conferencing technologies, and the surge of online education. Remote work has become the new normal with virtual conferencing technologies playing a pivotal role. One such field is education and the rise of virtual classrooms enabling global collaboration, more productivity and increased accessibility. Yet, these technologies fall short in facilitating organic human interactions. There is a growing need to enhance the virtual learning experience, making it more engaging, flexible, and interactive. This Final Year Project (FYP) aims to address aforementioned limitations through an innovative text-to-speech (TTS) application that can elevate the virtual classroom experience. The TTS bot comprises two primary components: a Python-based TTS engine that converts text input into speech, and a React Chat App that provides an intuitive user interface for seamless interaction with the TTS engine. The bot's key features include real-time speech synthesis, dynamic voice modulation, and interactive question-and-answer capabilities, which collectively work towards fostering a more engaging and immersive virtual learning environment.