Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • SA Country Life

    Machine Love

    Jan 13, 2020 5 minutes

    At an informal marriage ceremony in Japan in November 2018, 39 guests gathered to witness the promise of faithfulness that 35-year-old Akihiko Kondo would make to Hatsune Miku. The school-administrator groom was dressed in a white tuxedo, his bride in a designer dress for the occasion.

    But this was not your usual wedding ceremony. Hatsune is a Vocaloid software product released in 2007 by Crypton Future Media. (Vocaloid software uses artificially created voices not just to say anything but to sing it. It is used for computer speech and as vocals in songs.)

    Hatsune attended the ceremony in the form of a plush toy with her trademark long turquoise hair. It was not a legal marriage but that didn’t matter to the groom or his guests.

    Hatsune’s voice has been incorporated into a holographic display by another company called Gatebox

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from SA Country Life

    SA Country Life2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
    Restaurants
    Friends of my aunt Beryl, who live semi-permanently in the quaint West Coast town of Darling, recommended we pay a visit to The Old Forge on a recent weekend trip. Owned by English couple Derek and Nina Poole, the bar and restaurant building has been
    SA Country Life6 min readCooking, Food & Wine
    Dragon with a Soft, Sweet Heart
    It was against the distant backdrop of the Drakensberg – the ‘mountains of the dragon’ – that I saw my first fruit of the same name. Dragon fruit. Or pitahaya, a member of the cactus family that originates in parts of South and Central America. Its
    SA Country Life7 min read
    Going for Galpin
    “It’s an insignificant stroll of one and a half hours to the hut. We won’t even break sweat,” snorts Richmond MacIntyre dismissively over the third bottle of wine, as we debate the following day’s outing. “Better start early and have a proper, full d

    Related Books & Audiobooks