era@era.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold) (12/20/89)
We're using a couple of Commodore 64s in a special ed class for
physically handicapped kids in the local school system. The teacher
would like to be able to have the C64 speak a choice made by a child,
when the child presses one of several Zygo switches that are hooked to
the machine through a joystick replacer box.
The question is, what's the best hardware and/or software to use for
this purpose that doesn't cost more than about $100? I've talked to Don
Peterson of the Computer Foundation for Handicapped Children (Tempe,
AZ) who claims that the "SAM/RECITER" program which the Foundation got
from some defunct company, gives about as good speech quality as any
add-on hardware product he's seen. He claims it can be programmed
easily in BASIC, the only disadvantage being that it eats a lot of
RAM.
Have also heard of a couple of hardware devices that have been used
with C64s. One, the "64 Talker" from a company "Talktronics" (which I
assume is defunct), is mentioned in the book, "Using Computers & Speech
Synthesis to Facilitate Communicative Interaction with Young and/or
Severely Handicapped Children", by Linda Burkhart of College Park MD.
Don Peterson also claims that he talked to a blind man in New Hampshire
who had hooked the popular "Echo" speech synthesizer to a C64.
Would appreciate suggestions on the relative speech quality of
SAM/RECITER, vs. the 64 Talker, Echo, or any others. Also, if one of
the hardware products gives better speech quality, where can I find a
used one, since computer stores don't sell them anymore?
Please e-mail me directly on this, since I don't read this group
regularly; will post a summary if I receive any positive responses.
Thanks in advance for your assistance ...
__________
Ed Arnold * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research) * Mesa Lab
PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(w) * era@ncario.bitnet
era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * {ames,gatech,noao,uunet,...}!ncar!erascott@max.u.washington.edu (12/20/89)
In article <5735@ncar.ucar.edu>, era@era.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold) writes: > We're using a couple of Commodore 64s in a special ed class for > physically handicapped kids in the local school system. The teacher > would like to be able to have the C64 speak a choice made by a child, > when the child presses one of several Zygo switches that are hooked to > the machine through a joystick replacer box. > > The question is, what's the best hardware and/or software to use for > this purpose that doesn't cost more than about $100? I've talked to Don > Peterson of the Computer Foundation for Handicapped Children (Tempe, > AZ) who claims that the "SAM/RECITER" program which the Foundation got > from some defunct company, gives about as good speech quality as any > add-on hardware product he's seen. He claims it can be programmed > easily in BASIC, the only disadvantage being that it eats a lot of > RAM. > > Have also heard of a couple of hardware devices that have been used > with C64s. One, the "64 Talker" from a company "Talktronics" (which I > assume is defunct), is mentioned in the book, "Using Computers & Speech > Synthesis to Facilitate Communicative Interaction with Young and/or > Severely Handicapped Children", by Linda Burkhart of College Park MD. > Don Peterson also claims that he talked to a blind man in New Hampshire > who had hooked the popular "Echo" speech synthesizer to a C64. > > Would appreciate suggestions on the relative speech quality of > SAM/RECITER, vs. the 64 Talker, Echo, or any others. Also, if one of > the hardware products gives better speech quality, where can I find a > used one, since computer stores don't sell them anymore? > > Please e-mail me directly on this, since I don't read this group > regularly; will post a summary if I receive any positive responses. > > Thanks in advance for your assistance ... > __________ > Ed Arnold * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research) * Mesa Lab > PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(w) * era@ncario.bitnet > era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * {ames,gatech,noao,uunet,...}!ncar!era As mentioned above, the problem with Software-base speech synthesizers is that it takes alot of memory leaving a short space for BASIC programing. If your programing isn't that long, a program like SAM will be adaquate. However, still a hardware-based speech synthesizer offer some benefits over the software-based. One is that you don't have to spend any time waiting for the loading of the program, and they don't take a lot memory space (if any) from BASIC programming. Hardware-based speech synthesizer operates very much like software-based ones, in that they both adds new commands to the BASIC command-list, and you can used them as regular BASIC commands in your programming. Depending on the complexity of the hardware, some will allows you to control also the pitch of the synthesized voice, speed, and other variables....with some careful setting of this variable (usually by trial and error) you can produce either female or male sounding voices. Other synthesizer has only two level of pitches, high and low, and limited control of other variables. I know of one other voice sysnthesizer that wasn't mentioned above. It is called HEARSAY 1000 for the C64/C128 and it cost around $65 and can be bought from a number of mail order companies, one being: COMPUTER DIRECT (312)382-2882 I don't personally own this voice synthesizer, but had the pleasure of using one for a week, and I was very impress. As usual, the hardware connects in the expansion port of the computer and some other very simple connections with the monitor (if monitor is what you are using instead of a TV). Hearsay 1000 allows great deal of control in the sounding of the voice as mentioned above, and thus I manage to produce a female sounding voice (or at least that is what I thought. It is hard to tell when you are lisening to the same voice again and again) :) The quality of the voice is adaquate, but then this question is hard to answer straight foward, because as you become more acquainted with the speaking characteristic of the synthesizer, it becomes more and more understandable. One other major thing that sets this voice synthesizer above most other synthesizers is that it can also understand and obey human voice commands. HEARSAY 1000 comes with a microphone. You can teach HEARSAY to recognize and obey upto 60 commands (if I remember it right). The teaching of the commands involves two steps: 1) telling HEARSAY the command (you speak the command twice) so that it will recognize your speech pattern 2) telling HEARSAY what to do when this command is issued. For example you can have a command "print" which inputs the word PRINT to the computer (as though it were coming from keyboard), or the command "up", "down", "left", "right" to control the cursor, or the command "return" for carrige return. In essence with HEARSAY (and the right teaching of the commands) you can program and entire BASIC program solely by voice input. From what I saw during the time I used it I was very impressed. So check this one out too before you make your decision. Aside: And also, if you are handy with electronics you can construct a voice synthesizer utilizing digitized-human-voice words in a chip. The advantages of this voice sysnthesizer is the voice produced is almost human-like, but it has very limited vocabulary, around 255 words....if interested you can buy this chip (DT1050) from JAMECO :-) I hope this was of help.. Sincerely, Scott K. Stephen