Hi Sarah, In many cases, I too prefer listening to ViaVoice than a dry, monotone reader. Although, I wouldn't say that my absolute level of preference is as distinct as Guido's. One factor in this rationale is that I find myself mostly reading series, rather than stand alone books. And I must tell you, there's nothing more annoying than reading about the exact same characters, exact same environment, (i.e. language mannerisms, culture, scenery) but yet hearing distinct differences in pronunciations and intonations/emphasis, just the overall presentation of the written word, due to different narrators. When your mind is expecting a certain delivery and doesn't get it, you will tend to note these occurrences. Therefore, slightly distracting you from the flow of the story. The only drawback to using the ViaVoice TTS is that there isn't a convenient method of using it away from the computer. Sometimes, I just want to prove to myself that the pc and I are not permanently attached to each other. *grin* Just my humble perspective on the matter. ===== -- Rob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 11:01 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: about braille > Wow, You are the first person I have heard say they prefer reading by TTS to > tapes for a reason other than searchability and speed. Can you only > tollerate one synthesizer? When you remember reading a book, what form do > you remember it in? Is it visual or auditory? > > I did read about a woman who saw the words read aloud to her when listening > to a tape, but the only other detail the article provided was that she got > headaches as if it caused eye-strain. > > Sorry if I'm annoyingly nosy, refer to E-mail address, and anything having > to do with the human brain is especially fascinating to me. > > Sarah Van Oosterwijck > curious entity at earthlink dot net > > > ------ Original Message ----- > From: "Guido Corona" <guidoc@xxxxxxxxxx> > To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 4:29 PM > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: about braille > > > > Yes, and that is why I now find it rather strange to listen to a recorded > > book, unless the reader is spectacularly good: I often find the delivery > > more uncertain than that created by a TTS, so the mental image of the > > text I form is, well. . . distorted and vague. > > And of course, I currently have the same problem with concatenative TTS: > > the image is blurry. > > > > Guido > > > > > > Guido D. Corona > > IBM Accessibility Center, Austin Tx. > > IBM Research, > > Phone: (512) 838-9735 > > Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx > > > > Visit my weekly Accessibility WebLog at: > > http://www-3.ibm.com/able/weblog/corona_weblog.html > > > > > > > > > > > > "Sharon" <sharon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > Sent by: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > 05/17/2004 04:03 PM > > Please respond to > > bksvol-discuss > > > > > > To > > <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > cc > > > > Subject > > [bksvol-discuss] Re: about braille > > > > > > > > > > > > > > You actually see the words while reading? Interesting. Sharon > > > > > > > > >