Text to Speech Translation

Ok the 'Speech' program under Control Panel in WinXP has to be the most entertaining and most hilarous invention yet. Maybe I am just easily ammused... Seems like he has trouble pronouncing "ch-" words like Chalupa though.

XP can talk?

Wow. I was unaware of that.

stphrz said:

XP can talk?

Wow. I was unaware of that.

I bet you'll try and torture it by making it pronounce your name. =P

I checked it out a few months ago, it was funny for a day or two. I specially liked putting in esco talk in it. =]

Oh it's great, specially because it's designed for blind people. It's continually telling you what's going on the desktop.

It doesn't make any sense for blind people to use graphic desktop environments like Windows.

I know, isn't it cute?

There are people out there who may be legally blind, but not totally blind (just really really bad eyesight). It might be for them, who can recognize icons but can't read the on-screen text. Heck, I could navigate my way around Windows without my glasses on, but I couldn't read a damn thing on the screen.

You also don't need a mouse to get around Windows; it's not that hard to navigate using only the keyboard. You'd just be hitting the Tab key alot.

Yeah, lot's of Tabs and Shift-Tabs, and each time you do it XP's narrator tells you what's the highlighted object.

Being blind sucks.

Although I'm sure i could conjure something up on my PC if i wend blind. But I would most definitely throw the mouse away and use text-only interfaces.

No doom either ;(

Cool. I had an Idea to make something like that. Every time I come up with an Idea, several months later somebody else has made it. :( Oh well someday...

I'm still waiting for one that doesn't sound like a robot. The closest I've heard is actually a keyboard instrument sample, each note was a different sound. They used in on the last Orgy CD. "She dreams in digital"... that was actually a keyboard. I want one.

Until then, I'll just have to amuse myself with a program that converts images to ascii:

                               ########X+-.                                           
                                 .;-x############X                                    
                                          =###########.         ,.                    
                                               =#########.       ##x                  
                    =#####################x        #########      ####                
               ################################+     .########     ####+              
           +###########x;            ;+###########-     ########    #####             
         ########=                           ;######      #######    #####.           
       #####+        .+##########                 ;##       #######   #####+          
     ###+        #############x-                             #######   #####-         
    ,#       ;##########X                                     =#####.   #####         
           #########X                                           #####   ######        
         ########+                                               ####    #####        
       ########                                                   ###    ######       
      #######                                                     .##    ######     ; 
    +######     +##                                                      ######     ##
   ######     ####                                                      =######    ###
  x#####    #####                                                       ######,   .###
  #####    #####                                                        ######    ###X
 #####   .#####                                                        ######    ####,
 ####    #####x                                                       ;#####=   ,#### 
x###    ######                                                        #####    -##### 
###     #####+                                                       #####    ######  
x##    =#####                                                       +###-    ######   
 #     ######                                                      x##     +######    
 .     ######     x                                                      ,#######     
       x#####    ;##                                                   ;#######       
        #####.   +###                                                ########=        
        ######    ####                                            X########-          
        x#####    #####                                       =##########       ###   
         ######    #####-                                =############      -####     
          #####-   #######                           ############-       x#####x      
           #####;   +######x      ####,                              +#######=        
            #####,    #######+     =########x-                -X###########           
             ;####,     ########      ,################################-              
               X###;      ########X       -#######################=                   
                 +###       x#########+          ;=++=--;.                            
                    X.         =###########=                                          
                                   +##############x-.                                 
                                          ,=+X###########;                            

Wow, that looks pretty cool in Links.

Wow, it looks pretty cool in graphical browsers too.

pickle965 said:

Ok the 'Speech' program under Control Panel in WinXP has to be the most entertaining and most hilarous invention yet. Maybe I am just easily ammused... Seems like he has trouble pronouncing "ch-" words like Chalupa though.

Reminds me of a program that came with my very first sound card (not pc speaker. It was a Sound Blaster).
It was a "computerized" psychiatrist (voice and text) asking questions that you could reply to (type in a sentence or a word and the program would say them).
Hehee, some of the conversations that you got out of it were pretty damn amusing - kinda like talking to username, only it was capable of speaking half-decent English as opposed to username's gibberish.
And it too, of course, had its pronounciation problems.

I hated that damn thing. He was alweys acting up, like he was better than me. I kept telling him I don't have a damn sex problem yet he wouldn't listen. Ignorent punk.

Hey! That is pretty kewl...making windows say stuff...like microsoft can suck a huge cock or bill gates the dickless gaywad...

It actually pronounces words fairly goodish...

deadnail said:

I'm still waiting for one that doesn't sound like a robot. The closest I've heard is actually a keyboard instrument sample, each note was a different sound. They used in on the last Orgy CD. "She dreams in digital"... that was actually a keyboard. I want one.

Until then, I'll just have to amuse myself with a program that converts images to ascii:

big ascii art here

Can you send us a link of this program?

hey pickle, does your speech program on XP include Spanish synthesis? I need to do my spansih oral presentation tomorrow at school and I was looking for a right example to make sure I would pronounce words correctly. Well, since the bell lab text-to-speech spanish translator is not working for now, any ideas could help? Any help would be appreciated.

999cop said:

hey pickle, does your speech program on XP include Spanish synthesis? I need to do my spansih oral presentation tomorrow at school and I was looking for a right example to make sure I would pronounce words correctly. Well, since the bell lab text-to-speech spanish translator is not working for now, any ideas could help? Any help would be appreciated.

No habla espanol, amigo. I'm sure there are other T2S translaters that speak spanish, but I really wouldn't know... good luck on the presentation.

I remember in second grade we used "Writing to Right", or whatever it was called. Thankfully, the voice didn't sound like a robot, but like an actual human being! It must have been prerecorded though. The highlighting speech option did sound like a robot, however.

http://go.to/ascgen

That's straight from the TXT.

Try to lighten the image and increase the contrast, it's the 2nd tab, it usually makes better results. Make sure the font is Courier New and choose a better ASCII set than the default.

For best results, use a rediculously high line count like 400 and then make the font size 4. =)

Thanks for the link.

I read on the news a few days ago that sombody had perfected an artificial lung and larynx that a computer could push air though to make a noise like a human voice. All they need is to figure out how to make an articulate tongue and the computer could really "speak".

They could use the same technology to help those with speach problems or mutes. Or I could have one implanted in my ass to scare people with...

deadnail said:

http://go.to/ascgen

woo, this means tons of hours of ascii pr0n!

http://doomers.org/~fraggle/stuffage/textdoom/

fraggle` said:

http://doomers.org/~fraggle/stuffage/textdoom/

Pretty neat.