RE: Android Astro player can speed up audio books 6X
- From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:54:32 -0400
Although, to be fair guys, I really didn't start using synthetic speech, that
much, until around the age of oh 12 to 15.
I mean, yes I used a braille 'n speak, but not as fast as I listen to jaws.
Take care,
Sina
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ken Perry
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 7:39 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Android Astro player can speed up audio books 6X
Well they say if you're going to get to the speeds of Sina you have to lose
your site between 6 and 15 so you and me Bill we are out
of the ball game.
Ken
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don Marang
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 4:34 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Android Astro player can speed up audio books 6X
Is there a way to know if the speech-dispatcher in Natty can handle a sonic
enabled espeak? Should the version number of
speech-dispatcher just need to be higher than your patched version in the Vinux
lucid repository?
Don Marang
Vinux Software Development Coordinator - vinuxproject.org
<http://www.vinuxproject.org/>
There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of any real
substance, value, and content that I just try to make
sure that I am working on things that matter.
-- Dean Kamen
On 7/10/2011 2:39 PM, Bill Cox wrote:
Hi, Don. There's no fundamental limitation in Sonic, but there is in
human speech. At 6X speed up, voxin has either one or two "pitch
epochs" for most vowels, and it's amazing that Sina can still
understand words that change so fast. My own limitations keep me to
speeds below 4X. I read one article that said brain scans of blind
people who listen at super-high speeds show major activity in their
visual cortex. Mine's in use for vision processing, plus I'm an old
guy, which may explain my limitation.
To get higher speed from espeak, speech-dispatcher has to be modified
to convert the speed range (-100 to 100) selected by the user to
higher words per minute parameters to espeak. I patched the older
speech dispatcher. My understanding is that there are now parameters
in the latest version of speech-dispatcher that enable the higher
speed range, though I don't know if it made it into natty.
Bill
On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Don Marang <mailto:donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx>
<donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
They should have at least comp'ed you on the upgrades for life! I am glad
to see sonic continue to get incorporated everywhere. Is there new,
improved sonic code to get to 6x? I thought the max was 4x (not that my
ears are capable to understand at these speeds). I think at least 3x should
be a requirement for any audio book player.
Speaking of 'sonic everywhere', do you have any idea why the sonic code
incorporated into espeak refuses to function in Vinux 3.2 (Ubuntu 11.0.4
Natty)?
I have been tempted to get an Android device and start fighting
accessibility battles for Android. Having a good audio book reader makes it
even more tempting. Get Netflix working on more devices and allow playback
of NLS books and I am sold.
Don Marang
Vinux Software Development Coordinator - vinuxproject.org
There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of any real
substance, value, and content that I just try to make sure that I am working
on things that matter.
-- Dean Kamen
On 7/10/2011 10:54 AM, Bill Cox wrote:
Full disclosure: I wrote the speedup library, which is free software
described at http://dev.vinux-project.org/sonic.
I don't think Android is accessible enough for prime time use by the blind,
but for a low-vision geek like me, it's great. The best audio player is
arguably Astro Player Nova. It now can speed up audio books I make using
Voxin and/or Eloquence by up to 6 times faster, with any speed from half
speed up adjustable on the fly. That's faster than 99% in JAWs. Hopefully
the technology (which is free as in speech) will become pervasive in audio
book players. Astro Player Nova is free as in beer, unless you want the
cool upgrades like on the fly speed adjustment, in which case it costs $3.
Yeah, I wrote the library, licensed it LGPL, and now I have to pay to use
it! Oh, well... at least the developers thanked me.
Bill
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