Information on Harborough
Harborough Text to Speech
If you run a organisation, business or company and wish to be shown in the Text to Speech listing then please contact the inHarborough team. 'inHarborough' is the busiest Harborough based website containing complete listings for all business and organisations including 'Text to Speech'. Basic listings in this (Text to Speech) and other categories is free.
Further Information on Text to Speech
Text to Speech - How Does It Work?
Text to speech is a fairly new technology that has been gaining a wide importance in the IT world. Helpful in fields such as education, disability services, computer interface, telecommunication, and consumer products, text-to-speech converts written text to digital audio read by human or human like voices.
How do these converters transpose written text into spoken work though?
A text to speech converter is based on the concatenation of diaphones. Thus, it takes a list of phonemes as input with prosodic information, that is to say the duration of phonemes and a piecewise linear description of the tone, and produces speech samples on 16-bit linear sampling frequencies from a database of diaphones. This is then put together by the software to form the spoken word based on the initial text input.
From an educational viewpoint, the technology of converting text to speech could be thought as an amazing opportunity to teach young children how to read. It could provide means for children to practice reading at home without the assistance of a human teacher. What is beneficial about this kind of technology is that it produces sounds analogous to human voice so that, ideally, you would not recognize any difference between the two. In addition to that text to speech converters can also help one learn a new language by having it read sentences so that one can hear the proper pronunciation of the phrase. This of course requires advanced language models; otherwise it can teach a completely wrong way of speaking a foreign language! This makes it possible to learn another language, or two, from the comfort of one's own home for relatively low cost compared to expensive language software.
As well as the above, text to speech systems assists people with disabilities by helping those who are visually impaired or blind, people who suffer from reading difficulties such as dyslexia, or people suffering from concentration problems. It also is quite handy to listen to books or similar while commuting or during household chores making ones day a bit more proficient.
Overall, text to speech software is extremely useful when it comes to educating the young, or helping the disabled, or simply for recreational purposes when you cannot look at written text. They often present a low-cost alternative to pre-produced language software or audio books. In addition, many text to speech converters are available online On-Demand, meaning you can get your text converted whenever you want in very little time, allowing you to convert your class outline into text so you can listen to it while driving for example.
Text to Speech Reading Programs and the Future
Currently there are a plethora of free speech to text downloads that you can get off the Internet from very dependable websites such as Microsoft Partners. These Free in downloads can certainly help those who are blind or partially sighted. The future of ease of use in personal computers is upon us and these new technologies will help unite the world and connect the unconnected. In fact it is now possible to go to a web site and have that web site read to you using text to speech technology.
Of course what they really need is a double click pause feature in case you are interrupted or the mobile phone rings. It would be needed in particular for those who use VoIP !!! Vonage; "who-who, who, who, who" and I tell you that those commercials are really getting to me with the Tag Line; stupid things people do! Here are the Download pages. You will have to ascertain what is best for you. Even if you do not have sight challenges it is still magnificent to have a web site read to you rather that you have to read it. I downloaded it myself so I can do two things at once.
It increases my efficiency and allows me to surf web sites while they read to me. I can be watching the weather channel, history channel, the news or working in a word processor program simultaneously. Technology is making our life easier but only if we know where to get it and how to use it. Please consider this in 2011.
Dyslexia Software - Four Pieces of Text to Speech Software to Avoid
Reading on the Internet
If you have dyslexia and you use the Internet regularly, in all likelihood you have some experience of text to speech software. This is because with the variety of actions that can be done using the Internet, the ability to read text remains an crucial skill in getting the most out of pages on the Internet. Basic reading skills are a challenge for people with dyslexia which is where text to speech equipment can play an important supporting role. This type of software for dyslexia enables text that is written on documents to be read out loud. The payback for a person with reading difficulties are very clear.
Four Pieces of Software to Avoid
At its best, text to speech software can be amazingly helpful but in this article I want to focus on the pieces of software that you do not want to waste your time using. They are; Microsoft Narrator, Opera Voice, Accessibar and FireVox.
1. Microsoft Narrator
Narrator is the text to speech software that is part of Windows XP, Vista and 7.
Pros- It is free and since it is already installed, the user can just start it up and use it.
Cons- It will not read text on a webpage because it only reads text as it is typed. You cannot select the text that you want it to read and it does not emphasize the text that it is reading!
2. Opera Voice
This is the text to speech software that is designed to be used inside the Opera web browser
Pros- It is free and downloading and installing it is a undemanding and quick process. Text that you want read out can be selected with the mouse. Text is read out within the web browser- there is no need to open up other software.
Cons- It only works in the Opera web browser. Text that is read out is not highlighted word for word. The quality of the voice could be enhanced and less robotic. The software can be fickle and suddenly stop working.
3. Accessibar for Firefox
Pros- It is free. It reads text from within the web browser. If the user hovers over text with the mouse, it will read out that paragraph.
Cons- It only works in the Firefox web browser. It is very complex to install. It has a very low quality voice. It does not stress the text that is read out.
4. FireVox
Pros- It is free and easy to install. It reads text from within the web browser. Text that you want read out can be selected with the mouse. Text that is read out can be highlighted word by word or as a sentence.
Cons- It is designed to run solely within the Firefox web browser. It is designed largely for people with visual impairments and so sometimes there are no visual clues about what text is being read out. This can bamboozle some sighted users.
And the software to never try is...
Microsoft Narrator. Just because it is already there and so very opportune do not be tempted to use it! There are other truly great and free pieces of text to speech software on the market that you must never waste you time on the above four.