[sword-devel] Speech synthesis voices?

[Andrew Thule]

That doesn't seem to imply it's not needed.  Rather, doesn't it seem to
imply the implementation should be generic, modular and bind to a variety
text to voice interfaces.

I know of a blind network admin.  He highlights nothing, rather festival
reads everything to him (far more quickly than I can hear what is being
said), and he has a 'Braille screen' (which more looks like a special
keyboard than a screen).

The nice thing about the suggestion for Sword to support the IVONA text to
speech engine more directly is IVONA's emphasis on Android devices, which
are making in-roads in the visually impaired community, as an accessibility
device.

Pondering it, perhaps this feature recommendation should be more geared to
the folks who work on Andbible.


On Saturday, August 18, 2012, DM Smith wrote:

> Not sure it is needed. On the Mac one can highlight text and have it read
> in a voice of their choice. And yes it reads punctuation as that is
> assistive to the blind.
>
> Linux can read text (festival?) but I've never bothered to look into it.
> Xiphos builds it in.
>
> It can be done in Java, see:
> http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/04/13/vocal-java.html
>
> In Him,
> DM
> Cent from my fone so theer mite be tipos. ;)
>
> On Aug 18, 2012, at 10:31 AM, David Haslam <dfhmch at googlemail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > I've just added this idea "* Per module assignment of speech synthesis
> > voices, or none." in
> > http://crosswire.org/wiki/Frontends:FeatureList#General_UI_features
> > http://crosswire.org/wiki/Frontends:FeatureList#General_UI_features
> >
> > My suggestion is prompted by learning about the  http://www.ivona.com/IVONA
> > *TTS Engine* for Android, and the choice of voices available for various
> > languages.
> >
> > Some languages already have more than one voice. e.g. Geraint or Gwyneth
> for
> > Welsh.
> >
> > "Geraint and Gwyneth, first natural sounding Welsh voices are now
> available,
> > for individuals and non-commercial entities in the UK for free, as a
> result
> > of partnership between the Welsh Government, the Royal National
> Institute of
> > Blind People and IVONA. "
> >
> > Arfon Jones just installed this with his Android phone, and has used it
> > successfully with *and-bible* to read passages from the WelBeiblNet
> module.
> > He's very pleased with it. Minor quirks are the occasional reading out of
> > the word "comma" when the punctuation is present.
> >
> > btw.  IVONA is still in Beta, and is free of charge until the end of the
> > Beta period.
> > /I'm merely using this as an example, not seeking to advertise on their
> > behalf./
> >
> > This is something for front-end developers to consider, in as much as it
> > relates to the UI and the platform, as well as any preloaded TTS engine
> > and/or installed TTS application.
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > View this message in context:
> http://sword-dev.350566.n4.nabble.com/Speech-synthesis-voices-tp4650893.html
> > Sent from the SWORD Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org <javascript:;>
> > http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
> > Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>
> _______________________________________________
> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org <javascript:;>
> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.crosswire.org/pipermail/sword-devel/attachments/20120818/b10abd0f/attachment.html>