[Dtb-talk] Correction

[David B Andrews]

I want to correct some slightly wrong information I put up on
Friday, when writing about the Humanware Victor Reader Stream.  I
said that I had been told previously that it would have Eloquence
text to speech in it.  In fact it has a TTS engine called Vocalizer.
 It is from Nuance, who I believe also owns Eloquence, so is
probably just a TTS that runs in an environment with less
resources.

Now, what a person likes in TTS is very subjective, what sounds
great to one person may sound like a tin can to the next guy.  I
learned this in my years as Director of the International Braille
and Technology Center, where I played different synthesizers to
literally thousands of persons, and watched their reactions.  So,
what I like or hate you might hate or like.  Anyway, to me the
Vocalizer speech isn't bad.  It isn't great either, I prefer
Eloquence, but I can live with it.  I had to up the tone all the way
up, to get it from being muddy.  I thought it was better than Double
Talk, like in the Book Port, but not great.

Anyway, that is what  I know and think on that opic, for what it is
worth.

Dave



David Andrews
Chief Technology Officer
Minnesota State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave. W., #240
St. Paul, MN  55114-1840
(651) 642-0513  Office
(612) 730-7931  Cell
(651) 649-5927  Fax