> >IIRC, you just open up a 300 bps connection to it,
JUST open a 300bps connection??!?!
Did you know that there is at least one documented fatality from the
frustrations of RS232 interfacing?
ALthough SOME models of the Votraxen might not have been totally demented,
... Once the Radio Shack Computer Center called me, and paid me to come to
them and connect a Votrax to a model 2, for a blind customer. That model
Votrax required a handshake on an unexpected pin (11? 12?). Without the
manual for the Votrax, I don't think that anyone here other than Tony
could have succeeded! I don't remember what I charged them (a few hours,
travel, and a little extra for field soldering), but I do remember that
they gave me as a tip a copy of the Model 2 Technical Reference Manual.
> > and send data as ASCII for
> >it to speak. There was an ad for the Votrax which had a Commodore 64 program
> >on the 'screen' driving it, and I think that's all there was to it.
On Sat, 17 Nov 2001, Chuck McManis wrote:
> Depends on if it is just the allophone generator or both the allophone/text
> to speech processor.
Any idea what model it is?
Most of the phoneme based ones chose characters for the phonemes based on
mnemonic similarities to English. Thus, if you send ASCII text to it, you
WILL get speech, just really LOUSY, since most English words are not close
enough to phonetic for decent quality. But sending plain ASCII text will
produce something that is recognizable as being speech, and you'll be able
to pick out occasional words (and you'll get a chance to feel what it's
like to be hard of hearing!)
"HELLO" will be marginally recognizable, but try something like "H38L8^U"
Most of them, at their best, were pretty bad. Debbee Norling described
the Vortrax as sounding "like a Martian in a tin can". But blind folk who
used them regularly would get used to the weird sound, and it would be
"like a friend with a heavy accent."
BTW, since speech is so agonizingly slow to get through long program
listings, etc, most blind folk would run the text through at MUCH faster
rates than normal speech.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
NOTE: My ISP is having some problems. If you have difficulty reaching me
at this e-mail address, you can leave a message at:
fcisin_at_merritt.edu
cisin_at_info.sims.berkeley.edu
Received on Sat Nov 17 2001 - 16:33:54 GMT