「インタラクション2000」平成12年2月

VoiceWindows−VoicifiedScript−basedWin98Platfbrm
払rtheVisuallyDisabled
TuNEYOSHIKAMAE）†1TAKAYUKIWATANABE，†3FuJIO KoIDE，†6
TooRU KukIHARA，†2HIROHIKOHoNDA，†4SHINICHIROU UNO†5and SAWAKO TAJIMA†7
Wearedevelopingtwosets（platformS）ofutihtysoftwareswithwhichthevisual1ydisabled
CaneXploitWin98asmuchasthesighteddobyusingscriptlanguages（theVoiceWindowsproject）・OneplatformisanextensionofWindowsScriptingHost（WSH）withAuralUser
Interfaces（AUIs）andlarge−formatGUIs（VoiceWSH），andtheother，aneXtenSionofMulti−

LingualEmacs（Mule）onWin98withAUIs（VoiceMeadow）・Theformer（VoiceWSH）enables
toaccessstandardWindows98utilitiesandapplicationsthroughscriptlanguages．Thelatter（VoiceMeadow）supportsstandardUNIXutilitiesincludingMule，MEW，andothers．

the most basic application，the word processor，

1．Introduction

hasbeenupgraded tobeequlppedwith propor−

tionalfonts・Formatteddocumentsnowoccupya

Personalcomputershavelongbeenusedbyvi−
Suallydisabledprofbssionalsandstudents．Inthelarge壬IactionofInternettra用−C，makingthebar−
age ofthe Disk Operating System（DOS），I／0 rierhigherfbrthesightdisabledtoparticipatein

0Perationswereprocessedbycharacter−basedin−theinformation revolution．
terfaces・Text reading with a voice synthesizerThe Voice Windows project aims at lowering

and／orpチeSentationonabrai11edisplaywererel−
these barrier by supplying a set of AUIs andativelystraightforward．

large−format GUIs accessible丘om script−based

T・V・Raman，a Visually disabled graduate
Student at CornellUniversity，developed Emac−

Platforms availablein thestandardWindowsen−

Vironment・Theyinclude Windows Scripting

SPeak☆，aSPeeCh−enabled Emacs，and opened aHostbyMicrosoft3）andMulefbrWindows95／98（Meadow）byMiyashita5）．

path fbr the visually disabled to become pro−fbssionalprogrammerl）・InJapan，MasaoSaito WindowsScriptingHost（WSH）supportssev−Wholost sight at pre−SChoolage wrote awidely

eralscriptlanguages：including VisualBasic
usedJapanese text reader（VDMlOO）that hasScript（VBScript）．MeadowrunS On Publicly
an e用．cient KanavKanjitranslator and a homoq

archived Emacs−Lisp source codes：theirlong−phonicKanjiidentifier2）．usefu1nessofpersonal− termstabilityisassured．
ThepresentworkhasbeeniIIspiredbythefbr−

izedcomputershadbecamewidelyrecognizedby
thevisuallydisabledthroughtheseassistivepro−

matshr audio presentation describedin T．V．
Raman svoice−basedsystem，椰（AudioSys−grams7）・

temforTEchnicalReadings）1）．AccordingtotheAs Microsoft Windows95becamethe dominantWriting，atableshouldbereformatedinserialau−OSfbrpersonalcomputers，thesituationchanged．

TheMS−DOSonits DOSwindowbecameincom−diorenderingsothatcorrelationamongdatacan
Patible with many then−eXisting screen readersandvisuallylmPairedusers begantobe dissoci−atedfromthepersonalcomputerevolution．Even

be undel・StOOd．

User−＆iendlyauralinterfacesfortheWSHplat一払rmandtheMeadowplatfbrmneedahighqual−

itymulti−1ingualtext−tO−SpeeCh（TTS）withmulti−†1Department OfPhysics，SchoolofScience，University
taskingcapability．Thespeechsystemhastosup−of Tokyo†2DepartmentofInformationSciences，Tst止ubaCollege POrt Kana−Kanjitranslation by unlquelyidenti−
of Technology
fingKanjicharacters，keyboardechoingandcon−†3ⅠIl払rmationScience，ShonanInstituteofTeclm0logy
firmation，and articulation ofspecialcharacters，†4InstituteofSpaceandAstronauticalSciences

十5Faculty of Social andInLormation Sciences，Nihon

Fukushi University

十6CreateSystemDevelopment†7ITRC☆ママV．CS．COrne11．edu／Info／People／raLman／emacspeak／．

ー33−

allconcurrentlywiththetextreading・Thespeech
SyStempreSentedhereisthefirstthatmeetstheserequirements．
Thepresentpaperdescribestheoverallprojectandits basic fbatures．

4．Voicification of Mule for Win98：2・Multitasking，multimodal，andmulti−

1ingualText−tO−SpeechSystem

Voice Meadow
InVoiceMeadowweuse

hook，andadvice，fta＿Microsoft s Windows98is a multitasking OS turesofEmacsLisptoaugmentauralinterfaces
and the TTS system are required to mix con−Current VOice outputs from multiple tasks to bemosteffective．SuchconcurrencylSCruCialinthe
fbllowlng CaSeS：Key echo and system messages

toexistingEmacsLispfunctions．Thatisseveral
TTS commandsareaddedwhenstandard Emacs
Lispfunctions are called．TheTTS englneS are

the same SAPIenglneS uSedin the WSIトbasedWhilelistenlng tO a teXt；Dialog with a Kana− platfbrm．
Kaqjitranslator during the textinput；Sharing
Atpresent，basiceditorfunctionsofMule，thetheaudiodevicewithbackgroundjobs．Suchmul−
mailapplication，MEW，andsomeInternetutility
titaskingfunctionhasnotbeenusedintheauralinterface untilnow．
The TTS englneS are aSSumed to confbrm tothebasicspeciAcationsofMicrosoftSpeechSDK

programshavetheirauralinterfaces．

5・Future Prospects
Webelievethetwoplatoforms（SpeechTEnabledforWin32applications（SAPI）．SeveralJapaneseWindows Scripting Host and Meadow）of theVoice Windows project o鮎r an exciting possi−

TTS engines now meet SAPI specifications at

Varylng degree． Among them are Toshiba，sbility fbr the visually disabled to reach an ad−

VanCedlevelofWin95／98use and write appli−
OPment s TTS englne developedfor the Voice Cation programs withstandard AUIs andlarge一JapaneseTTSenglne and CreateSystemDevel−

Windows project・We use the English TTS en−glne Microsoft distributes withits SAPIas theEnglishspeechenglne．

払rmat GUIs．
FortheMeadow（Emacs）platform，thea眉SetaC−

CumulatedinEmacspeakisenormous．Itismost
desirable that aninterface be writt．en to convert
the AUIpart of Emacspeakfor DEC Talkfor

3・VoiceWindowsScriptingHost

Acollectionofutilityprogramshavebeenwrit−
SAPI−basedTTSenglneSOnWin980rOnLinux．
tenmostlyinVisualBasicV．6．Theyhaveastan− Acknowledgments Thisworkwassupported

dardgraphicuserinterface（GUI）foruserswith
inpartbyInternetTechnicalResearchCommittee

lowvision andastandard auralinterface（AUI） （ITRC）andbyResearchfortheFutureProgram
払ruserswithoutvision．MultiplechoicesofGUIOfJapanSocietyforthePromotionofScienceun−dertheProject IntegratedNetworkArchitecture

areprepared：SeVeralbackgroundandfbntcolor

COmbinations；andseveralformat（font）sizes．Forfor Advanced MultimediaApplication Systems
AUI，We have prepared2levels of auralguid−（JSPS−RFTF97R16301）．

ance：theintroductoryleveland the advanced

level・Userscansetthevoicespeedatslow（theReferencesl）Raman，T．V．：AudioSystemforTbchT3icalRead−normalspeed），medium（1・5times thenormal），
ings，PhD Thesis，CornellUniversity（1994）；
andfast（twicethenormal）．Theutilityprograms
A鋸d料わry仇er九feげαCeβ一丁O址′αr（ブ兢e5わeαたよ柁gincludetheVoiceWindowsversionofbasicI／0
functions．
AllutilityprogramscanbecalledfromMS−DOSand WSH．There are two ways to use themin

Computer−，KluwerAcademicPublishers（1997）．

2）Saito，M．：SoftwareProductionfortheVisual1y
Impaired，JourrもαlqfIPSJ，Vol．36，No．12，pp．

1116−1121（1995）（inJapanese）．

WSH：OneaSinMS−DOSthroughtheWSHshell 3）WindowsScriptingHostbyMicrosoft．
andtheotheras objects similartotheobjects 4）MultilingualEnhancementforGNUEmacsde−

inVisualBasic・Theseobjects（functionsandsub−

Veloped by KenichiHanda Mikiko Nishikimi，SatoruTbm11ra and Naoto Takahashi；5）Meadow，MultilingualenhancemeIlt tO gnuroutines）havepropertiesandmethodswithwhich
PrOgramlngbecomessimpleandstraightforward．
VoiceWindowsincludeaspeech−enabledscript

languageeditor：aneditorthat assistsprogram−mlnginVBScriptandVBA．

−34−

Ema・CS With ADvantages Over Windows，byMiyashita．HisashiandeditedbyTakeyoriHara．