Messages

586

Ultra Hal 7.0 / AT&T Natural Voices

« on: September 10, 2003, 03:08:36 am »

MSPamela,
Sounds like the AT&T voices have some advantages. Does the Dragon Speaking Naturally install the AT&T Natural Voices and engine? Do you know if the engine and voices are available separately?

Thanks,

vonsmith

587

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Better voices and TTS engines for Hal.

« on: September 09, 2003, 02:13:06 pm »

Does anyone know of any better TTS engines or voices for use with Hal than the one's listed below?

L&H British English - lhttseng.exe
Truvoice American English - tv_enua.exe
Mary Voices - msttsa22L.exe
Microsoft Sam and Mary
Cepstral - Frank, Emily, Duncan, Linda, Robin, Walter

I've been researching CoolSpeech, Fonix and other potential products. I've found that product info is sketchy and seems most often to focus on high-dollar corporate applications; automated phone centers, embedded applications, etc.

I've done a little research on Speechify, RealSpeak, Flexvoice and Elan. I'm not sure any of these are suitable for home MSagent use. Some of the professional application voices sound nearly human. The addition of controls for inflection, emphasis, pitch and other characteristics make all the difference in the voice quality.

My part time project is to modify Hal to read and comment on fables, fairy tales, children's stories, etc. I'm thinking something like an interactive story-teller. Ideally I'd like to find a British child's voice to read the stories. Stories read out loud seem to sound so much better with a British accent. Imagine hearing "Alice in Wonderland" read and critiqued by Alice herself. Harry Potter is still copyrighted, I guess I'll have to wait another 75 years or so to give that a go.

Any comments, ideas or

588

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Can Hal tell/read stories?

« on: September 03, 2003, 02:58:01 pm »

I started using the free Hal 4.5 about two weeks ago. I think it's a pretty cool product for free. Congrats to Zabaware for the wisdom to let users try their product with confidence. It's a good product that is reasonably priced so I purchased the Advanced version this week.

= RANT =
Anyway, I worked on Hal on and off for more than a week. I tried the learning from text files option and all that. I was just getting a little frustrated trying to teach Hal the simplest things. Finally Hal started 'getting' it. It was amazing! Hal started making connections between subjects and such. I found that Hal sorta' hints when he 'senses' a need to clarify a subject. Sometimes the hint is a little subtle. I answered his subtle inquiries and voila all of a sudden Hal says he's got it! Very cool. For people just starting out, please be patient. After all you didn't learn overnight. Hal will eventual 'get' it. I'm a convert! = END RANT =

= QUESTION =
I want to use Hal to read fables, fairy tales and stories. Can I point him somehow to books in .txt format for him to read out loud? If so, can he learn from the reading?

= WISHLIST =
1. Ideally Hal could read a story out loud and occasionally pause to comment brilliantly on something he recognizes. Maybe he could even occasionally pause to ask for clarification of something he doesn't understand. This would be interactive learning.

2. I saw a post somewhere in the forum wishing that Hal could speak out when he 'feels' like it. He just sits there and stares. Cyberbuddy is interesting in that it can take the initiative to speak. Of course you would want to teach Hal to be quiet some times or more talkative when you want him to. (I wish I could teach my wife that ;-)

3. Is there a way to correct Hal immediately when he makes an error? Sometimes I do a typo and don't realize it until Hal remembers it and replies with an erroneous response.

4. Do any of the window skins allow you to see the previous input/response, not just the current input/response? Sometimes I can't remember exactly what I typed just previously. This would help me in debugging my inputs.

Thx for any info the forum denizens can provide. AND THANKS ZABAWARE!

= vonsmith =

PS - Yes I read about programming in VBS. Maybe when I get time. I've got a full plate now.