Another neat toy, educational, and fun

[ibewgypsie]

I bought a 256mb mp3 player off ebay for $25, and shipping.. I bought a excellent Text to speech program using AT&T voices for $40. It can store in MP3 format.

Simple to put onto a cdrom in mp3, or into the player to wear at work..

THEN, the free books in text online, THOUSANDS Of them. I downloaded the Grims fairy tales, Edgar allen Poes works, Shakespear, tech manuals, King James bible and.. still finding things.

ANything in plain text can be converted into a understandable speech. The text to speech/mp3 player I got came with At&T voices which are much better than the microsoft ones..

Have anyone laid up in a hospital? this'd cheer them up.. It works with Ipods too.

[Smokedaddy]

I have a cousin in the hospital with Guillain Barre Syndrom. She's paralized from the neck down. I'm not sure I understand WHAT you're talking about. Mind explaining it a touch better. How you'd use or do it?

Hey, so I freaking stupid,
-SD:

[ibewgypsie]

Hi.. Sorry for her.. I really dread when I get older. I been rough on myself.

Ok.. You take a mp3 player, ipod, or music player, It has a usb port made right onto it. Hook a cable up to your computer, load software, plug in player, ipod or cheapie mp3 like I have.

Take the software Naturalreader, with AT&T voices, install the MSN speech driver (free) then once software is enabled you simply convert any text into a spoken mp3 file. You can burn that on a cdrom any mp3 player for a auto, or put it onto your small ipod, mp3 player to listen to.

Books, on the German site are free. I downloaded about six or seven. Player will only hold a couple hours of speech so not sure how to break the books up yet. I downloaded the King James bible, but as of yet my paid for "better AT&T" voices have not been activated. I just paid for them a few hours ago.

The voices that come with the free software are not that great, you can understand them, but remind me of the old cylons off battlestar galactica.. play with the At&T voices..

www.naturalreaders.com is the text to mp3 conversion programs.. listen to the voices and pick out one she'll like.. If you want to burn a cdrom, purchase a mp3 cdrom player (still kinda pricy) or just purchase a ipod or mp3 player.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1
This is the usb-pen-drive-mp3 player I bought. It takes ONE AAA battery that lasts about 10 hours. I think.. just estimating it can hold about two hours of mp3s (music files)

Library online.. check this out..
http://www.gutenberg.org/

They also have spoken word stories people have read into a microphone.. you can burn the wav (wave) files onto a cd for a computer to read, or just hook a recorder up in front of your pc speakers..

If you need more explanation I'll try my best. Communication is my poor skill.

------------------
David Cofer, Of:
Tunnel Hill, North Georgia

[ibewgypsie]

It will speak any text, be it on a computer screen, or off notepad, or... just high light the text and CNtrl-C and it starts talking..

Webpages can be spoken in voice, or email.. or.. See? Tech manuals?

I enjoyed the grim brothers fairy tales.. I downloaded them for my kid.. I am a big kid I guess.

Speech recognition, now.. with me with no teeth and southern slang accents it don't stand a chance in hades of recognizing what I say..

If ya was closer, I'd give ya the nickel tour.. a Lookie-lou... HA..

Have a good one.. I am off to bed.. finally sleepy.. (tranqulizer and two beers)

[This message has been edited by ibewgypsie (edited 07-01-2005).]

[ibewgypsie]

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/2
Computer spoken here..

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1
these are in plain HUMAN english, no conversion needed, just a cd or hard drive to store them onto..

[Evan]

I have yet to see a text to speech algorithym that can properly pronounce the word "longevity".

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 07-01-2005).]

[ibewgypsie]

Phonetic change it.. simple to do.. thou I have not tried with "that " word..

I just downloaded Edisons phono-graph tin-type music and some other neato recordings from 1800-1920.. some old stuff.. neat..

[Norman Atkinson]

David,

Have loaded the freebie- Naturalreader.

Does it work when you are deaf?

It's the Brune- told yer.First signs.

Norman

[Evan]

David,

You gotta check out this video. It's worth it! Scroll down and click "download".

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/48/

[hammerhead74000]

Re: speaking longevity

Well, I just tried it on my PowerBook.... and it pronounced it quite correctly (and intelligibly, too).

Just using the built in speech synth in OS X....

[Evan]

Well, it seems that they (whoever "they" are) have finally made a special exception to the phoneme translator...

[Norman Atkinson]

Evan

How long did it take to pronounce on such things?

Norman

[ricksplace]

David -great idea.

Check out a freebie program called "readplease". It reads anything in your computer to you in a human voice. One of my fellow profs at work wrote the program for his Dad who loved to read and developed glaucoma. His name is Rob McCormack, and engineer and a real chiphead.

Rob is one of those guys (and we all know at least one) who is so smart he is a little "off centre" without being eccentric.

[ibewgypsie]

NO MP3 PLAYER NEEDED for some books. A child can do this with a tape player in front of the computer speakers..

FOR BEDRIDDEN people.. Go to the GLUTEN library link posted above. Go to English, or your preference language, GO to HUMAN read books, put your mouse on it, right click, save it as "whatever you want filename".wav on your computer.

It talks through your windows media in a human voice. They have from Sherlock holmes to Edgar allen Poe poetry, to...

I downloaded Edisons old tube records last night and put them onto my mp3 player to take to work. The world was a simpler place then.

Yes Norman, I downloaded the paid for program and two voices I liked. I enjoy it, my daughter will enjoy it, My friends kids will enjoy it when I make them a cdrom of the stories.

------------------
David Cofer, Of:
Tunnel Hill, North Georgia

[ibewgypsie]

Rick:

They tell me I am odd and eccentric. Something about a 300lb man with over six square feet of colored pictures, a grey beard over eight inches long and a shaved head.

I just live/act/learn/play in a manner that makes me happy. I used to be really high strung, now I am learning to be more low key.

David