Here is a text-to-speech demo

February 26, 2002 11:44 AM

Here is a text-to-speech demo from AT&T that's fun to play with.Spanish and German versions due in March. It will say anything you type, apparently.Yes, those words too.Go crazy.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet (23 comments total)

Does this offer anything that the built in Macintosh text to speech function does not? I believe the same functionality has been available to apple computer owners for at least the last 7 years.
posted by hulette at 11:52 AM on February 26, 2002

Doesn't this have something to do with the e-mail text to voice service over the phone that has been advertised recently?
posted by xyzzy at 11:59 AM on February 26, 2002

I saw this months ago! The web site I saw this on was AT@T as well, but the web site looked a lot nicer than this.
posted by banished at 12:11 PM on February 26, 2002

Fun? Yes. Original? No.
posted by pardonyou? at 12:11 PM on February 26, 2002

Well, it's more original than your annoying link policing.

"Pardonyou", indeed.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 12:21 PM on February 26, 2002

not really.
posted by howa2396 at 12:31 PM on February 26, 2002

it can't even say 'weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!' right. How do they expect this to be a worth while product?
posted by howa2396 at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2002

bagel, and - while parsing the page itself - audio

The sentence phrasing is pretty decent though, I think that's where it sounds better than the Mac stuff.
posted by phoenix enflamed at 12:37 PM on February 26, 2002

"Well, it's more original than your annoying link policing."

I don't even know what that means. It's "more original"?
posted by pardonyou? at 12:38 PM on February 26, 2002

Well, it's more original than your annoying link policing.

"Pardonyou", indeed.

come off it, barney. it was your bad.
posted by mcsweetie at 12:39 PM on February 26, 2002

haha. you mac people have some sort self esteem problems. Or maybe identity problems.

"Blah blah blah, blah blah blah... the mac could do that in the Dark Ages! GO ME I RULE!"

Basically, nobody cares. Whoopdeedoo. Shaddup.
posted by Satapher at 12:40 PM on February 26, 2002

bagel, and - while parsing the page itself - audio

The sentence phrasing is pretty decent though, I think that's where it sounds better than the Mac stuff.
posted by phoenix enflamed at 12:41 PM on February 26, 2002

Though this has probably been said in the previous round (I'm too lazy to look):

Macs have this built into their Simpletext editor. Anything one types in Simpletext can be selected with the cursor then spoken (command + H). Although the mac speech engine is dated, it still is pretty cool. It has a control panel which alllows you to choose from 22 different voices (ranging from male to female, robots, and a strange laughing-while-talking-voice, among others). You can also adjust the speed at which the phrases are spoken which does add to the clarity. It even seems to recognize commas as points to pause upon as well as exclamation points.

I have made some interesting answering machine messages using the robot voice. There's something wack-wack-wacky about knowing a robot is telling callers that I'm so drunk I can't get to the phone followed up by an enthusiastic "JESUS LOVES YOU!"

You can imagine the hilarity that ensues...
posted by sharksandwich at 12:52 PM on February 26, 2002

ouch. Satapher got me on that one. The nerve of me posting a relevent comment to this topic. For shame.
posted by hulette at 1:03 PM on February 26, 2002

The Mac's stuff is good, but it's not nearly as good as AT&T's stuff. The AT&T stuff might actually fool you occasionally into thinking it's a human being for a few words at a stretch.
posted by kindall at 1:04 PM on February 26, 2002

Old news man.
posted by McBain at 1:32 PM on February 26, 2002

Hmmm, well, maybe I should of done a better search of the archives than I did.

I forgot that if a tech link isn't brand spanking new, some people complain or least think it's boring.

Then, of course, there are always the snooty Link Police types...geez...learn some manners already.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 2:31 PM on February 26, 2002

You want fun? Try Shit talker­ 1.2®
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 3:09 PM on February 26, 2002

Yes, Macs have had this for awhile (it's usually one of the first things I demo to a new computer user... you'd be amazed at how easily they impress.) I'll be the first to admit though, it's incredibly dated and sad that Apple hasn't innovated much in the Text-to-Speech arena during the last 5 years or so. The three "high quality" Macintalk Pro voices are good, but nowhere NEAR as good as the AT&T Labs demo. They still sound like a computer... whereas AT&T Labs sounds remarkably human.

(Here's hoping that Apple makes some strides in this arena when OS X settles down. Maybe they can license AT&T Labs' work.)

That being said, check out this product I discovered today: TextAloud uses the AT&T Labs speech synthesis engine to automatically read text aloud and record it as an MP3 file. Of course, PC only...
posted by Fofer at 3:23 PM on February 26, 2002

Macs may have been able to do this forever, but generating a wav file remotely and sending it across it the internet is a bit more complex than fiddleing around with Simpletext in your dorm room.

After reading through the FAQs, ATT's system also looks more robust. Different pronunciation algorithims for Proper Nouns? Nice. You have to fool Simpletext into speaking correctly by spelling words phonetically most of the time.

The last thing I remember coming out of ATT's research labs was VNC. Great technology. They're working on some really useful stuff. Thanks for the link BarneyFifesBullet.
posted by jeffhoward at 3:25 PM on February 26, 2002

Bah. I was getting in trouble for inappropriate use of the Amiga’s “say” command a long time ago.
posted by Gary at 3:31 PM on February 26, 2002

A couple of Windows apps do it too, including the Narrator, from the Accessibility program folder under Accessories. Not sure if you can save the sound though.
posted by riffola at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2002

But the AT&T one sounds better.
posted by riffola at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2002