[bksvol-discuss] Re: about braille
- From: Guido Corona <guidoc@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 08:08:43 -0500
Hello Sara, I am glad you use the word 'tolerate' instead of 'enjoy' when
referring to a TTS, because that is the way I feel about all of them.
I tend to read using Kurzweil 1000 with Microsoft Mary (SAPI 4) and the
pitch lowered to 4.
This is because the SAPI 5 version is overemphatic for me, and the
default pitch puts me on edge. Pitch 4 yields a slightly gravelly voice
that, while not exactly pleasing, has less of itself in the foreground
and lets me concentrate on the message more than the other ones.
There are many reasons why I tend to prefer TTS over voice recording:
Searchability, dictionary lookups, but also the vagueries of the human
reader who often puts pauses at the end of lines instead of synchronizing
with punctuation marks, and finally the inconsistency of sound
engineering, where so many recordings are miked incorrectly, with the
reader sounding far and muffled.
I am also glad I am not the only one who suffers of virtual eye strain
when listening to a book. It is very weird, but very real.
How do I remember a book? A little like a movie, lots of visual, a
little audio, a little text.
Thinking about it, that perhaps describes better the way I read a
narration: I concentrate on the virtual representation of the message of
the author. The text comes into focus in odd passages, when there is
something unique about them, or when there is a misspelling. The
actually voice is blissfully in the background, until I encounter a
pronunciation problem.
This is very similar to the way I read and remembered books when I was
sighted, except for the TTS part, of course.
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
"Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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05/17/2004 10:01 PM
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[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
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> [bksvol-discuss] Re: about braille
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> You actually see the words while reading? Interesting. Sharon
>
>
>
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