Idea: Phonetics added to RadipEPG

[Max Zettel]

Hello RadioEPG developer group,

 

I'm just thinking of "new" technologies and how devices are and will be used now and in the future.

More and more devices support speech recognition to change services.

 

Wouldn't it be helpful for future device to support phonetics in the RadioEPG XSI file.

To be able to tune to available stations were the station name is not exactly clear (scrolling PS, or short cuts, ...) a phonetic can help!

 

Thanks a lot

best regards

Max

[Robin Cooksey]

Hi,

 

Another possible use-case here is for receivers that support text to speech (e.g. for accessibility, or if they have no display). 

 

I think text to speech engines these days can usually do quite a good job of handling arbitrary names, but they’re still not perfect.  Also, within the constraints of a small low-cost embedded radio, more sophisticated text to speech engines may not be feasible.

 

Another complexity is the abbreviations that some stations use to convey their full station name in the limited 8 or 16 characters available.  Obviously this would be mitigated against to some extent by using the existing epg:longName element – but I imagine that in some cases, stations still have a preferred pronunciation for the name of the station.

 

What approach would you suggest for adding phonetics to the RadioEPG XSI file?  Are there any applicable standards that would be relevant?

 

Best regards,

Robin

 

 

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[James Harrison]

On 04/07/13 09:50, Robin Cooksey wrote:
>
> I think text to speech engines these days can usually do quite a good

> job of handling arbitrary names, but they�re still not perfect. Also,

> within the constraints of a small low-cost embedded radio, more
> sophisticated text to speech engines may not be feasible.
>
>

As a counter to this - RadioEPG clients on smartphones and computers
will typically have access to a very good TTS engine, as typically one
is made available at the OS level (at least on Android/Windows/Mac).

>
> Another complexity is the abbreviations that some stations use to convey
> their full station name in the limited 8 or 16 characters available.
> Obviously this would be mitigated against to some extent by using the

> existing epg:longName element � but I imagine that in some cases,

> stations still have a preferred pronunciation for the name of the station.
>
>
>
> What approach would you suggest for adding phonetics to the RadioEPG XSI
> file? Are there any applicable standards that would be relevant?
>
>

This is really the crucial question, I think - if there's a
straightforward way to include a standardized phonetic name, then this
sounds entirely reasonable as an addition - low-cost embedded platforms
may not use it, but it'd potentially be a useful thing to enhance
accessibility tools on more sophisticated platforms.

--
Cheers,
James Harrison

[Robin Cooksey]

> > I think text to speech engines these days can usually do quite a good

> > job of handling arbitrary names, but they're still not perfect. Also,

> > within the constraints of a small low-cost embedded radio, more
> > sophisticated text to speech engines may not be feasible.
> >
> >
>
> As a counter to this - RadioEPG clients on smartphones and computers will
> typically have access to a very good TTS engine, as typically one is made
> available at the OS level (at least on Android/Windows/Mac).

Just to be clear - what I meant is that small low-cost embedded radios may only be able to support a lower foot print TTS engine, which may not do such a good job of handling the station names. Hence, adding phonetics to the EPG may be extremely useful, particularly for more constrained devices that do support TTS.

Robin

[James Harrison]

Ah, I misunderstood, sorry. Makes sense! I was thinking the phonetics
may require a more complex engine to process, especially if something
like X-SAMPA were used as the specification for encoding the phonetics.

--
Cheers,
James Harrison

[Nick Piggott]

Hello all,

On a radio with voice-control (as is likely in the car, or with Google Glasses), would having a phonetic representation make recognition of the station name much more accurate? I think this may have been part of Max's original thinking.

Nick