I've had the same problem. Tried it with Firefox which told me I needed a plug in. Installed that fine and restarted it but then told me I needed one again, I'll have another go later!
At 19:24 16/05/2008, you wrote:
I haven't gone to the site yet but will do so. ----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:w.sharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>Wendy Sharpe To: <mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 7:14 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: The Blizard Challenge 2008Well, I've registered, which was easy, and when I got to the first study section I discovered that they have not given each of the speech sections links. It just seems to be plain text, and pressing enter or using JAWS cursor and clicking does nothing.I have sent them an e-mail about this. I have Flash and Java, so can't see why it doesn't work. I also have various playback software on my PC, so something should happen.Wendy ----------From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter BeasleySent: 16 May 2008 16:48 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] The Blizard Challenge 2008I am sure some of you will find the article below of interest. I wonder though, why they are afraid to use the word blind and prefer partialy sighted.The Blizzard Challenge 2008 Author: Gareth Halfacree Published: 16th May 2008Caption: The entrants in the Blizzard Challenge have all finished their engines,so it's up to us to decide if they've succeeded.If you're interested in helping advance the science of text-to-speech synthesis,you're needed aspart of the Blizzard Challenge. The Challenge is an annual event hosted by the UniversityofEdinburgh's Centre for Speech Technology Research in which programmers are given10,000sentence-length recordings of a person from which they must create a working speechsynthesisengine. Once each team has completed their engine, the results are uploaded for peoplelike us to listen to and rate.Speech synthesis is an important technology, and one which gets criminally overlookedin these daysof multi-gigabyte storage and the ability to record voiceover artists in high-fidelity.Not only arethe text-to-speech engines vital for partially sighted people using screen-readersoftware that alltoo often sounds like a cross between Stephen Hawking and a Dalek, but an enginewhich is asflexible as a real human voice holds the promise of massively improved immersionin games with vastswathes of text being transformed into realistic speech without the need to hireactors and expensive studios.In order to make things easier for the teams involved, the Blizzard Challenge hastraditionally useda neutral voice for the basis of the engines - one without a particularly strongaccent and asemotion free as possible. This time round, however, the Challenge is to create aworking engine froma voice sample which has a lot more personality than usual. While this makes thingsa lot harder forthe programmers, it holds the promise of an engine capable of producing a voice thatdoesn't sound permanently bored.If your last experience of text-to-voice synthesis was with the Say program on yourAmiga 500Workbench floppy, then you'll be pleasantly surprised by how advanced some of thisyears entriesare. If you want to participate, you can sign up on the project homepage. It'll onlytake about an hour of your time, and it's well worth it.Do we have any partially sighted visitors relying on screen readers, or are we alljust lookingforward to seeing the technology to a point where it can be used to put more speechinto games like Oblivion? Share your thoughts over in the forums. LINK: Blizzard Challenge 2008 Volunteer Listener Registration <http://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/blizzard/blizzard2008/english/register-ER.html>http://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/blizzard/blizzard2008/english/register-ER.html SOURCE URL FOR THIS ARTICLE <http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/16/the-blizzard-challenge-2008/1>http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/16/the-blizzard-challenge-2008/1Get your FREE SECURE email account from <http://www.topmail.co.uk>www.topmail.co.ukGet your FREE SECURE email account from <http://www.topmail.co.uk>www.topmail.co.ukNo virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG.Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.16/1446 - Release Date: 5/16/2008 7:42 AM