[infoshare] Re: World's first talking TV

  • From: "Gus C" <gus.chalkias@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <infoshare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:53:47 -0400

will this be compatible with american systems?
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Eliza Cooper 
  To: infoshare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Cc: <infoshare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
  Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 9:55 PM
  Subject: [infoshare] Re: World's first talking TV


  Who has connections in the UK who wants to get us some? :)
  Eliza

  Sent from my phone

  On Jun 13, 2010, at 11:30 AM, "Lynne" <superlynne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


    Morning, All.
    Hope I copied and pasted all pertinent info.


    by Andy Sennitt 

    TVs that can talk to their owners are now a reality thanks to British 
high-tech company, Ocean Blue Software. Expected in UK stores by the end of the 
summer, the company’s low cost text-to-speech technology, dubbed “Talk@TV”, is 
being built into set top boxes from Korean company, Arion Technology, which 
will be branded and distributed by major retailers in the UK from August. 

    The new set top boxes are like regular Freeview or satellite boxes, but 
will be able to talk to their blind or partially-sighted owners – advising, via 
speech technology, the TV programming schedule, for example what’s on and when. 
Owners will be able to adjust the speed and verbosity of the voice to suit 
their needs, choose to enlarge or reduce font sizes and change background and 
text colours. A re-designed and easy to use remote control will also be 
included. 

    The technology has been developed in partnership with digital TV chip 
giant, STMicroelectronics, whose processors lie at the heart of most TVs and 
set top boxes. Phase two of the development will introduce voice activation 
technology to allow owners to talk back to their TV sets – “channel up”, 
“channel down”, “volume up”. 

    Ocean Blue’s Talk@TV will be available in different languages and dialects; 
the UK version supports both the Scottish Gaelic and Welsh language for 
example. The technology behind Talk@TV is a derivative of the pioneering work 
and development between the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and 
Ocean Blue over the last three years. The development won an IABM Award for 
Excellence in Design and Innovation, was nominated for a Royal Television 
Society award and shortlisted for an IMS TV Innovation award in the USA. 

    The Arion Talking set top box will be available in a number of UK retailers.


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