Hello,
I, also have a similar history. I started with a Texas Instruments
TI-994a
computer with speech then went to an Apple II plus. What we have now is
amazing and a blessing. The computer and Bookport along with Bookshare
is
an unbelievable combination to provide access to printed material. I
can't
imagine what a difference this would have made for me in college in the
early 70's just after the invention of the cassette tape.
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Cy Selfridge
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 2:50 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: In defense of Double Talk
Hi folks,
Well, I gues I'll throw in my couple of cents worth here.
I concur with William and Crystal as I also have been around this
synthetic
speech game for a considerable amount of years.
A long time ago about the only thing which talked was some of the DEC
terminals which would hook up to some IBM mainframes. They did have very
good speech with a German accent and they also cost around $8,000.
My wife and I were elated to find the Voltrax Type and Talk synthesizer
for
the old Apple II+ because it was only $350 or so. While it was *very*
limited it was better than nothing.
Next I migrated up to an IBM compatible micro which was, I think, a 286
processor with a fantastic speed of about 4Khz.
On this wonderful piece of equipment I had a Symphonics 215 speech board
and
it was, at best, miserable but it also was a lot better than nothing.
What we have today with Eloquence, Double and Triple Talk along with the
SAPI voicesis a true blessing.
I use the USB Triple Talk on my 3GHZ XP Home computer because I can
listen
to JAWS and music independently of each other. When I request a "Read
All"
command I get the new SAPI voice through the computer's speakers. Now,
how
can you complain about this?
Cy, the Ancient Okie...
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of William Stephan
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:34 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: In defense of Double Talk
Crystal's right!
Some of us who've been doing this for a while can still remember when
synthetic speech sounded about like someone reading through a kazoo.
Since folks can apparently designate whatever speech engine they want to
use
on a file-by-file basis, I'm not sure why which synthesizer is used is
particularly significant in any case.
-----Original Message-----
.From: "Crystal French"<raincrow@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Sent: 3/15/07 9:25:01 AM
.To: "bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"<bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Subject: [bookport] In defense of Double Talk .
.For my two cents, I have no problem with Eloquence, or Double Talk.
.
.I have lived enough years to remember only too well a time when access
to
.printed material was very limited.
.
.So, Eloquence and Double Talk sound like normal people to me.
.
.In fact, Perfect Paul and I have a very nice relationship, thank you
very
.much, and I am happy to hear that he will be continued in BP II.
.
.Crystal
.
.
.
.
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