「インタラクション，99」 平成11年3月

JapaneseText−tO−SpeechsystemwithnewAuditoryUserInterface
forMicrosoft（R）Windo☆s（R）
TakayukiWatanabelandTuneyoshiKamae
DepartmentOfPhysics，SchoQlofScience，UniversityofTbkyo
TbnlⅨ厄ri壬1afa
DepartmentofInformationSciences（fortheblind），TsukubaCo11egeofTbchnology

1 Introduc七iom

extension of Emacspeak to Microsoft Windows．

Meadow［4】isamultilingualEmacsfor32−bitWin−

Computers became friendly with the advent of

dowsandisbasedonEmacs20．
GraphicalUserInterface（GUI）；visual1yimpaired Vbice−Meadow does not use speech recognl−
users，however，CannOt benefitfrom GUI．Tla−tiona5aninputmethodbecauseacomputerex−
ditionaユ screen−readers areinef艶ctivefor com− pertcanuSeakeyboardregardlessofone

svisualabilityandakeyboardisthemoste瓜cientinput

plicated GUI because they do not care about
thecontextualstructureofthevisualoutputbut

methodforanexpert．
Thewayofrenderingthecontextualinforma−
In1994，Dr．Ramanbuilt up anew system，tionofthecontentsintoauditoryoutputistaken

Speakthedisplayedcharactersasaplaintext・櫛（AudioSystemforTEchnicalReadings）【1］・afterthatofEmacspeak．So，forexample，Vbice−

Originalcontent ofanapPlicationinto auditory

SearChingacalendar．Italso canplace outputs

櫛is a computing system that renders theMeadowo鮎rsaneffbctiveAUIforbrowslngand
SpaCeWith variousaudio−fbrmattingstyles．Rar
OfMeadow

maneXtendedthisapproachtomoregeneralcom−

sthreeftameS（windows）inthreedif・

ferent auditory−SpaCe，Whichenablestheuserto
swit．ch丘om oneframe toanOtherframeimme−

putingtasksandreleasedanewspeechinterface，

Emacspeak［2，恥asanEmacs subsystem・．In
diately andtobeabletohandlethreedifk！rentEmacspeak，uSerinter払．cesareseparatedfromthetasks．Tb citeanOtherexample，thetext11nder

COntenもSandtheyarrangethecontentssothattheeditedcanbeasslgnedtoamalevoicewithaboldinformationise鮎ctivelypresentedforthesenseVOiceforboldfonts，Whileotherinformationsuch
Ofhearlng．Inotherwords，Emac＄peak actsas
asthecurrentlinenumbercanbeasslgnedtoa

ane鮎ctiveAuditoryUserInterface（AUI）．These
femalevoice．
SyStemS，however，CannOttreatJapaneSeandcanAdditional funct．ions of Vbice＿Meadow arerunonlyonEmacs．
treatmentofmultilingualinputsandmul七ilingual

Thus，aneWauditoryrenderingsystembased

audiooutputs．SinceJapaneSeinputistreatedby

OnRaman，s workbut cantreatJapaneSeappli−
IMEindependentoftheapplication，auditoryren−CationsonMicrosoft（R）Windows（R）isstrongly
deringofIMEistreatedbyadedicatedseparate

requiredbyJapanesevisual1yimpairedusers．

q）plication，Vbice−IME（Fig．1）．Audioformat−
tinglSuSedtonoticethestatusofIMEtoauser，

i・e・WhetherheisinputtingJapaneSeCharacters

2 Developmeritofanewsys−

Or nOt．
TTSserver，aSpeeChserverofthecurrentsys−
tema占showninFig．1，uSeSDirectSound（R）astem

amultimediadeviceandis capableofhandling

2．1 Vbice−Meadow

Simultaneo11SlnputSand3−Doutput．kusesMi−

We are developlng aneW multilingualTbxt−

CrOSOft sTTSenglneWhenspeakingEnglishandto−Speech（TTS）systemwitha3−DAUI，Voice−ToshibasenginewhenspeakingJapaneSe．TTS
Meadow（Fig．1）．Voice−Meadowis a naturalfunctionsarerealizedwith11SeOfMicrosoftSpeech

1contactto：TakayukiWatanabe
address： 7−3−1Hongo，Bunkyo−ku，Tokyol13−0033
phone：（03）3鋸2−2111ext・7622
Fax：（03）5802−4362

API．
TTSclient，aninterfacebetweenMeadowand
TTSserver，CanbeusedoutsideMeadowatDOS
PrOmpt．When standard outputs ofemai1： Vatan＆beCphys．B．tl−tOkyo・＆C・3p−131−

dirorMeadow

TTS client

TTSserver

トーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーI

TTS system
Figurel：Con丘gurationofthecurrentTTSsystem．

type commandsareputintothestandardinput 3 Concluding remarks
OfTTSclientthroughapipe，TTSserverspeaks
thedirectoryinformationoracontentofthefile．

The current suit ofⅥ）ice system（Vbice−IME，
Vbice−Meadow，andVbice−WSH）isstillindevel−

OplngStagebutessentialpartShavebeenimplev

2．2 Vbice＿WSH

mented．The current system，basedon Emacs−
peak，isaTTSsystemmuchwiderthanthecur−
ren七1yavailablecommercialscreen−readerssuch鮎MeadowisnotaneaSyapPlication．There are，

Vbice−Meadowisintendedfor experts because

ProTALKER（TM）97and95Reader．TheheartOf

however，alotofvisual1yimpairedpersons who

thecurrentsystemisacontextsensiもiveinterac−arenotgoodatcomputers．Thus，aneWSyS七em
tiveAUI，WhichwasimplementedonlybyEmac−tbatwillbeanaturalextensionofVbice−Meadow
Speakotherthanthecurrentsystem．
touniversalWindowsapplicationsisrequired．
AuraloutputislikeanautO−SCrOuingdisplay
Vbice−WSH（Fig．1）isdesignedtofu1fillsuch
becauseitistemporal．Atthesametime，it＄eyeS−
demands．AsclearlyshowninEmacspeak，anin−
freeinteractionissuitAblefor血obilecb由p雨iI喧
use Microsoft VisualBasic（R）for ApplicationsThus，ifacomputerincorporatesindependentau−（VBA）andMicrosoft VisualBasic（R）Scripting ralandvisualinter払ces，itwillbreakanewworld．

telligentAUIisindispensabletothissystem．We

Edition（VBScript）withWindowsScriptingHost（WSH）asarenderinglanguageOftheAUI．VBA
References
isnotlSuppOrtedbyallapplicationsbutmajorap−
plications suchas Microso氏0氏ce．Since VBA

and VBScriptis asubset ofVisualBasic，they
areeasyand userscanCuStOmi21e AUIfortheir【1】T・Ⅴ・Raman：A祉d紬馳βねmノbr旅cゐ乃血g
Readin9S，CornellUmiversity（1994）．

【2】Emacspeakpackageisfoundat

OWnpurpOSeS・bttp：／／8imon．cs．cornell．e血／Info／

2．3 Applicationtootherfields

people／raman／emac8p朗止／．

ThecurrentTTSsystemcanaPplytootherwel−【3】T・Ⅴ・Raman：A祉d如叩偽er血ねIカceβ−

faresuchashelpingpeoplewhohavedi伍cultyin
reading・Italsocanapplytomobilecomputing

乃びα摘仇e 勘助た盲喝 Co叩視ね「，Kluwer
AcademicP11blishers（1997）．

SuChasmedicalroundsbydoctors，Wearablecom−
puters，andin−CaruSe（e・g・naVigationsystem）． 【4】Meadow，MultilingualenhanCementtOgnu

EmacswithADvantageSOverWindows，WaS
WrittenbyMiyashitaHisashiandeditedby

Theapplicationofthissystemtothesemarkets
Wi11inciudeaspeechrecognitionsystemoraded−icatedspeechdevice．

取血eyoriHara．

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