Messages

1

General Discussion / Ultra Hal TTS messes up short strings ...

« on: April 02, 2005, 11:03:15 pm »

If I put several lines of text onto the clipboard, then Ultra Hal works just
GREAT for it. However, if I just put just a few words or a short sentence onto the clipboard, then it may say nothing at all, or it may just blurt out a few sylables from within the selection.

This may be great for use by the visually impaired, but this isn't any good at all for AI applications where the responses are typically terse questions.

This would seem to me to be a really fatal flaw for AI use. Am I the only one noticing this? Mine is a 2 GHz system, but there are lots of other apps running at the same time if that makes any difference.

Is there some workaround for this, e.g. padding the string?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

Steve

2

General Discussion / Orange Alert from Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 09:21:12 pm »

OK, I put in code to "Guiver" Ultra Hal to select the desired voices using SendKeys controlled by a table that users can hopefully fiddle into operation. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it turns the Task Bar tile for Ultra Hal a pretty shade of Orange without changing the speaker, all without ANY indications as to what Ultra Hal might be complaining about! Is there some sort of hidden error log somewhere, or maybe a short list of what can turn it orange? Code in Ultra Hal obviously recognizes the presence of a problem to decide that orange is its color, but just doesn't seem to want to give me a clue as to what its problem is.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Steve

3

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 09:14:09 pm »

Dr. Eliza. For an overview of Dr. Eliza, take a look at <http://www.smart-life.net/DrEliza/DrEliza%20Project.doc>

Steve

quote:Originally posted by Art

What AI app are you using in conjunction with Ultra Hal, if I may ask?

4

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 12:44:27 pm »

OK, I tried HapSapiSetup.exe, and saw just what I saw in the listbox in the Hal Reader *EXCEPT* that the listbox in the Hal Reader had BOTH "Sam" and "Microsoft Sam" in addition to 15 other entries that were the same in both environments. Any thoughts about why this small difference?

I don't (yet) see how this might help me to control the listbox under program control on different computers having different voices. Hopefully you see something that I missed.

Steve

quote:Originally posted by dataless

quote:Originally posted by Art

Steve,

You can try the HapSapiSetup.exe file from Haptek.
Also check out the Windows Control Panel for SPEECH,
then TTS Voices. It should like those that are installed
on your computer.

If you still have problems let us know.

5

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 12:24:50 pm »

Sorry for the duplicate and empty postings. This is definitetely not the easiest to use forum I have been in. Problem by problem I will get the hang of this.

Continuing ...

quote:Originally posted by Art

Steve,

You can try the HapSapiSetup.exe file from Haptek.

**I will check this out.**

Also check out the Windows Control Panel for SPEECH,
then TTS Voices. It should like those that are installed
on your computer.

**Yup. It ONLY shows "Microsoft Sam", with no evidence of Mike or Mary. Any idea where Mike and Mary went?**

If you still have problems let us know.

6

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 12:19:15 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Art

Steve,

You can try the HapSapiSetup.exe file from Haptek.
Also check out the Windows Control Panel for SPEECH,
then TTS Voices. It should like those that are installed
on your computer.

If you still have problems let us know.

7

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 12:17:50 pm »

quote:Originally posted by KnyteTrypper

There's a Voice tab in Hal's Options interface. It should list all the voices available on your computer(s), and allow you to select your preference.

Mine has two tabs, one titled "Advanced Speech Options for Current Voice ..." and one titled "Pronounciation Settings for Current Voice ...". Unfortunately, both of these are brain dead (do nothing when clicked).

Perhaps the brain deadedness is at the heart of my difficulties?

Steve

8

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 08:18:12 am »

I have an AI app that I was using Ultra Hal with. There didn't seem to be any method of directly controlling the voice, so I just used SendKeys. I sent the first character of my desired entry to the listbox, then used {DOWN} to get down to the particular entry. Of course, there was NO WAY of controlling the slide bars for volume, pitch, and speed.

THEN I tried it on a different computer. There were DIFFERENT voices displayed, perhaps because of other products that had been installed on the two computers or . Anyway, the same blind operation of the listbox got me to DIFFERENT voices  8-(

Is there SOME way of reliably controlling Ultra Hal TTS so that I can get the voice of my choice?

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.

Steve

9

General Discussion / Controlling Ultra Hal TTS?

« on: April 02, 2005, 08:16:37 am »

I have an AI app that I was using Ultra Hal with. There didn't seem to be any method of directly controlling the voice, so I just used SendKeys. I sent the first character of my desired entry to the listbox, then used {DOWN} to get down to the particular entry. Of course, there was NO WAY of controlling the slide bars for volume, pitch, and speed.

THEN I tried it on a different computer. There were DIFFERENT voices displayed, perhaps because of other products that had been installed on the two computers or . Anyway, the same blind operation of the listbox got me to DIFFERENT voices  8-(

Is there SOME way of reliably controlling Ultra Hal TTS so that I can get the voice of my choice?

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.

Steve