From: ppaglia@bnr.ca (Peter Paglia P925)
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom
Subject: Talking Desktop Library
Keywords: speech soundblaster text cd-rom
Date: 26 Aug 92 18:52:51 GMT
Followup-To: Desktop Library
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, BNR-RTP

I too just recieved my Desktop Library from Walnut Creek, nice job 
guys! Since a review has already been posted, I would just like to
add my thoughts, for the group to digest:

1) I know that many of these works were transcribed by volenteers
on there own time. It would be a nice tribute to them if they 
received credit for their efforts somewhere on the disk. ( If
its there and I missed it, great! )

2) For kicks I fed the text from Poes' THE MAN into my SoundBlasters
text-to-speech synth. (SB-Talker). Not half bad, especially if you
echo the text to the screen. 
This got me thinking, about how nice it would be to actually be able 
to read these books onto audio cassette via a speech synth program.
(Or, as long as were dreaming, a DATA DISKMAN with VOICE output)
I mean, I like to play books-on-tape in the car (long commute, :)
but they are   
     a) expensive
     b) elusive
     c) useless as reference material
     d) often 'condensed' or abridged
     e) you cannot choose the narrator.

But a computer speech synth in software could overcome all of these
faults. Anyone remenber the talking software that was popular on the
C-64 computer a few years back? The user could adjust timbre, speed,
sex, and even (I think) and accent, all via software. 
I don't think anything like this exists on the PC platform (yet), 
but with the huge volume of texts that now exist in ascii format,
I can see a real need. 

"Hello, Walnut Creek? I would like to order your 'Great American 
Westerns' CD-ROM, and also the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood 
voice modules, do you have the Ronald R......" 

What is missing from the SB-Talker application is a intermediate 
processor, in between the raw ascii and the speech algorithm,
that contains data on grammar and whole word phonics. This would 
help to eliminate the monotone/monosylabic sound of current 
text-to-speech systems, and keep the original ascii text intact.
( a CD could only hold a few hours of recorded speech w/compression,
but literally thousands of hours  of speech as ascii text, and 
still retain its function as a reference)

The actual speech software would then only need data on the 
qualities of the selected voice. It might even be possible to
use a sampled voice to then generate an entire vocabulary.
(Like a .MOD file does for music) Perhaps in the 
future, authors would actually specify the vocal parameters
of thier characters, and of multiple characters. A new book
(on CD-ROM) would also be an instant 'radio show'.......

-------So What's Your Point?-------

Well, I have this idea, and I'm not sure where to go with it.
I have searched the SIMTEL CD for text-to-speech synths, but 
none of the ones I've found can be "built on to". 
I want to get a dialog going, with like-minded people. 
Speech Synth is a TOTALY new area for me- I could sure
use some pointers!

Thanks for your time, 
Pete.

DISCLAIMER: The trouble with artificial intelegence is the 
sneeky things it's apt to do when you forget to unplug your PC.
Opinions and spelling errors are ELIZA III's.
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware