Speech Synthesizer Thoughts (TextAssist & ProVoice)
Ian Litterick
> If a PC can be configured to support more than one sound card, then
> I don't see a problem, but I see a big one if one expects it to deal with
> the screen reading as well as be available to run multimedia applications.
>
The TextAssist API has means of outputting wave files as well as speech, so long
as the wave files are in exactly the same format as the TA speech wave output.
I'm a bit surprised that nobody has mentioned the ProVoice programmers speech
toolkit from First Byte (which we distribute in Europe, to declare an interest).
This happily reads whilst wave files are being played with no apparent delays to
either set of sounds (at least on my Pentium 90), and no restriction on type of
wave file. TextHELP! (the tool for dyslexics and others which we distribute
worldwide, to declare another interest) uses ProVoice, as does Monologue, First
Byte's end-user product, which people may have come across bundled with
hardware.
The disability world tends to focus on TextAssist because it is the same as
DECTalk. TA is also nice because you get a variety of voices off the shelf, so
you can choose male, female, child etc. to suit. But it only works on
SoundBlaster brand sound cards (so not on notebooks yet).
Both TA and ProVoice have mechanisms for synchronising speech with other
computer activities (which could, of course, be wave output).
I tend to think that ProVoice is slightly more natural sounding than TA
(particularly in the new US male which has just been released), and other voices
are also available (US female, UK English, French, German, Spanish, Italian).
ProVoice works with any windows sound card, so is fine on laptops.
A forthcoming Windows 95 version of Monologue (and ProVoice) using the Microsoft
Speech API also promises to help with access issues, in conjunction with the
access hooks that are being built into Windows 95.
Ian Litterick
iANSYST Ltd
0044 1223 42 01 01 Fax 0044 1223 42 66 44
FREEPhone from UK only 0500 14 15 15
Web Page http://www.dyslexic.com
The above paragraphs have been added automatically using the abbreviation
facility of TextHELP!, which also gives speech feedback, word by word spell
check, automatic correction, word prediction and lots more to practically any
Windows application!
David Sweeney
the TextAssist. The problem is no one knows about it.
TextHELP! has only been offered in the US for the last couple of
months. It combines realtime spellchecking, text-to-speech,
magnification, word prediction, and abbreviations in an
application that integrates with any Windows program. A Win95
version should be released by April.
We use the TextHELP! beta 2.10 here at Texas A&M and it works
wonderfully. Lorien Systems has a university site license
program that allows unlimited distribution of the software to
any university associated person including students, staff,
faculty, computer labs, etc. The network version has been
really beneficial for our ATS lab.
The US TextHELP! representative is:
Chuck Harris
713-422-4199
The Lorien web page is at:
http://www.gpl.net/users/loriens/
David Sweeney
Coordinator-Adaptive Technology Services
Texas A&M University
da...@ats.tamu.edu
PS-I also typed part of this message with the TextHELP!
abbreviations feature.
-------------------------snip---------------------------
Eric Bohlman
: Martin McCormick wrote
: > If a PC can be configured to support more than one sound card, then
: > I don't see a problem, but I see a big one if one expects it to deal with
: > the screen reading as well as be available to run multimedia applications.
: >
: The TextAssist API has means of outputting wave files as well as speech, so long
: as the wave files are in exactly the same format as the TA speech wave output.
Unfortunately, that won't help because the other multimedia applications
are going to be outputting their sounds via direct calls to the
Windows-native multimedia API functions, not through TextAssist.
: I'm a bit surprised that nobody has mentioned the ProVoice programmers speech
: toolkit from First Byte (which we distribute in Europe, to declare an interest).
: This happily reads whilst wave files are being played with no apparent delays to
: either set of sounds (at least on my Pentium 90), and no restriction on type of
: wave file. TextHELP! (the tool for dyslexics and others which we distribute
: worldwide, to declare another interest) uses ProVoice, as does Monologue, First
: Byte's end-user product, which people may have come across bundled with
: hardware.
: The disability world tends to focus on TextAssist because it is the same as
: DECTalk. TA is also nice because you get a variety of voices off the shelf, so
: you can choose male, female, child etc. to suit. But it only works on
: SoundBlaster brand sound cards (so not on notebooks yet).
Another reason is that unless something has changed recently, use of
ProVoice requires payment of per-copy royalties and forbids distribution
of free demos (if I remember right, that's why ProTalk from Biolink
doesn't have a free demo), whereas using TextAssist doesn't (since you're
just linking to a DLL that came with the user's sound card, rather than
distributing their code with your program).
robert...@web.de
>
> > If a PC can be configured to support more than one sound card, then
> > I don't see a problem, but I see a big one if one expects it to deal with
> > the screen reading as well as be available to run multimedia applications.
> >
>
> The TextAssist API has means of outputting wave files as well as speech, so long
> as the wave files are in exactly the same format as the TA speech wave output.
>
> toolkit from First Byte (which we distribute in Europe, to declare an interest).
> This happily reads whilst wave files are being played with no apparent delays to
> either set of sounds (at least on my Pentium 90), and no restriction on type of
> wave file. TextHELP! (the tool for dyslexics and others which we distribute
> worldwide, to declare another interest) uses ProVoice, as does Monologue, First
> Byte's end-user product, which people may have come across bundled with
> hardware.
>
> The disability world tends to focus on TextAssist because it is the same as
> DECTalk. TA is also nice because you get a variety of voices off the shelf, so
> you can choose male, female, child etc. to suit. But it only works on
> SoundBlaster brand sound cards (so not on notebooks yet).
>
> computer activities (which could, of course, be wave output).
>
> I tend to think that ProVoice is slightly more natural sounding than TA
> (particularly in the new US male which has just been released), and other voices
> are also available (US female, UK English, French, German, Spanish, Italian).
> ProVoice works with any windows sound card, so is fine on laptops.
>
> A forthcoming Windows 95 version of Monologue (and ProVoice) using the Microsoft
> Speech API also promises to help with access issues, in conjunction with the
> access hooks that are being built into Windows 95.
>
> Ian Litterick
>
> iANSYST Ltd
> 0044 1223 42 01 01 Fax 0044 1223 42 66 44
> FREEPhone from UK only 0500 14 15 15
> Web Page http://www.dyslexic.com
> The above paragraphs have been added automatically using the abbreviation
> facility of TextHELP!, which also gives speech feedback, word by word spell
> check, automatic correction, word prediction and lots more to practically any
> Windows application!