Nan, your arguments are, as expected, thoughtful ones. However, I'm not sure that Nuance is actively working on the Kindle TTS feature. Nuance sold the product code to Amazon, but Amazon controls the application code. This product code, for instance, allows markups to be used when fine-tuning the speech engine if Amazon will availe itself of these features. In other words, I very much doubt that Nuance feels it has the on-going responsibility for improving the TTS feature.
What do you think the primary focus of efforts should be? To gain more readers of the Kindle by advocating for more titles to be available?
Craig On 6/23/2012 3:08 PM, (Nan Hawthorne <hawthorne%nanhawthorne.com>) wrote:
I just wanted to go on the record with my thoughts on advocating with Amazon Kindle to improve the text to speech on the Kindle Keyboard.I am overwhelmed lately that so many print impaired people have found and love and use the Kindle. Just a couple years ago I was trying to tell people about it and getting shouted down because the Kindle was not fully accessible.Now I am watching so many people getting with the program and discovering the benefits.I am not at all interested in trying to get Amazon to improve the Test to speech. Why? Because:1. They don't make the text to speech dictionary. They contract for it.2. They would have to either make the contractor improve their dictionary or fire them and hire another company.3. One way or another that will be a hassle and expense for Amazon.4. i don't want to risk losing the text to speech altogether . The TTS is pretty good and in my experience, such as with Zoomtext, when they get new speech software it's to a less desirable product.i want to wait until we are a substantial piece of the market before we rock the boat.nan
