!Speak Last update: 29.Jun.1997
There is now an improved open source, multi-platform and multi-language project available at: espeak.sourceforge.net, which includes a version which is compiled as a RiscOS module.
SPEAK is a software text to speech system for RiscOS (Acorn) computers. No additional hardware is needed.
The SPEAK system consists of:
SPEAK works on computers with RiscOS 3.0 or later (although those with ARM2 processors will need to run with low-resolution graphics).
The version 2 Speech Module now provides different voices and accents.
You can call it from your own programs by passing it an English text string either as a * command, or by an SWI call.
The speech module and its data files total about 250 kbytes of memory, which is far less than most PC systems.
The speech module applies suitable intonation and cadence over each clause, taking note of punctuation such as commas, brackets, quotes, and question marks to vary this.
Text can be edited (in a similar way to in !Edit) while it is being spoken, making it ideal for proof-reading. The cursor can follow the text as it speaks, and the window scrolls automatically. The speaking can be easily paused and continued at any point by simply pressing the escape key.
This is not a full word-processor, but you can use it to prepare text for a word processor, or to speak text from one. Or you can use it by itself if you don't need text layout features.
This makes it especially useful for people with spelling difficulties.
It also has a conventional "typo" option for suggesting words, which behaves similarly to the Impression spell-checker.
An additional feature is as a crossword puzzle solving aid. It can list the words which match a template of known and unknown letters.
Pronunciations can be specified either by giving a "Sounds like" word, or by using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The pronunciation editor has buttons for the various phonemes, each of which can speak its sound, with an example word.
18.April.1997
Different voices and accents.
Voice editor.
Some additions to help visually impaired users.
Many people think speech synthesis is of use only in primary education and for people with certain difficulties such as impaired vision or dyslexia.
This is certainly not the case.
!Speak is of use to everyone.
Missed out words, wrong words, duplicate words; these are errors that a Spelling Checker can't detect. You often miss them when looking through your text too! You read what you think is there, not what actually is.
How embarrassing it is when your mistakes are there in the newsgroup for everyone to see.
But when you hear your text being spoken, these errors stand out clearly.
!Speak allows you to make corrections to your text while it speaks it.
Talk-as-you-Type works by looking at the keyboard, so it will work with any application whether or not it supports speech.
Or do you want to read a file while you are doing some other job? Set the text speaking, and so long as your other activity doesn't take too much mental effort, you can listen at the same time.
Can't be bothered to read the ReadMe files and instructions? Just listen to them instead.
A restricted version of the SPEAK text to speech modulewas used by and supplied with the following talking word processors. This does not provide * commands or an SWI interface for other programs.