ADVANCED SYNTHESIZER TECHNOLOGY FROM DOLPHIN
Presenter(s)
John Rye
Dolphin Computer Access
Technology House
Worcester, Worcestershire WR3 8TJ
United Kingdom
Day Phone: +44 (0)1905 751540
Fax: +44 (0) 1905 754879
Email: john.rye@dolphinoceanic.com
This paper reviews some recent developments in
Text to Speech synthesis at Dolphin. It will be of interest to those
concerned with improving the experience, at work, and at home, for people who
use speech as part of their primary access tool. The latest Orpheus
version 2, speech synthesizer includes the ability to speak with more natural
sounding, concatenative voices, alongside the
familiar synthetic voices; Orpheus is unique in including both types of voice
in the same engine. Concatenative voices are
suitable for many applications beyond use by blind and visually impaired
computer users. They are often deemed easier to listen to, especially by
intermittent users of speech. The synthetic voices on the other hand, use
little memory, are responsive and are intelligible at the fast talking rates
often used by blind and visually impaired computer users.
Their use can aid efficiency in many tasks for
instance, in response to the demand for speech on portable devices; Dolphin has
ported the Orpheus version 2 to Windows CE. Orpheus for Windows CE is now
available from Dolphin as an SDK, and will be demonstrated on industry standard
PDAs running Windows
About the company
Dolphin has a simple goal: to create software
products that allow people with a vision impairment to
use mainstream information technology. With proven expertise in screen
reading with speech and Braille, screen magnification and products in many
languages, Dolphin is constantly developing new technologies. Founded in 1986
in the
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