[laptop-accessibility] Considering closing down the mailing list accessibility at lists.laptop.org
Gary Kline
kline at thought.org
Thu Aug 22 01:19:20 EDT 2013
Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986.
Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community.
On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 10:56:34AM +0800, Allan E. Registos wrote:
> Hi Gary,
>
> Successfully compiled your TTS software.
> Very cool, however with one caveat: it failed to set the voice to female, it will always return to male.
> Suggestion: We may need to put a stop playing function.
yes, among many many other thing.
>
> Regards,
> Allan
>
darn, I thought I had that figured out. this part is based
on another espeak utility that was/is written in python. I
rewrote in C and tested everything: volume, Delay, Speed [WPM],
pitch, and, along the top of the "Options": Male[], Female[]
.....
when you type ./vbc, and the almost-square pops up, you'll
see along the top menu:
"File" "Options" "Help"
clicking on Help brings a dropdown with
"About
How to use
Using Gvim"
I only got to 0.29 before I quit working on this last april.
you can mess around with the others dropdown menus in the Top
{Help} button.
vbc looks simple, and if not for the guys who lent their
insights, I would be out in the garage, on my knees, breaking up
the concrete with my head. << bad joke, I know >>
OH wait, somewhere in the file .Config are the numbers
0 17 175 100 3 and IIRC, to get espeak to speak with a
female voice, edit the "0" to a "1" and continue with your
testing. This is one place where vbc needs help.
gary
PS: I would ramble on but my shoulder is starting to give out.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gary Kline" <kline at thought.org>
> To: "Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC" <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:19:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] Considering closing down the mailing list accessibility at lists.laptop.org
>
> Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986.
> Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community.
>
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 02:57:01PM -0700, Samuel Sennott wrote:
> > I too would like to find another outlet for the conversation around OLPC
> > accessibility. Hearing questions about how to create low-cost text to
> > speech and communication solutions and the OLPC project is something I
> > would like to get more into this year.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Samuel Sennott
> >
>
>
> Something occurred to me awhile back--namely, that there
> are N types of Linux and there is some kernel {??}
> or other difference that differentiates the distributions.
> E.g.: are Debian and Ubuntu Linux equivalent?
>
> I've spent most of my years hacking on the "BSD" open-Unix;
> thus my uncertainty.... ---FWIW, My new mini-keyboard
> arrived and is much easier to use---. Anyhow, as far as *my*
> version of free+open TTS is concerned, all you need to do on
> your 12.04 Ubuntu is create a user account named "kline,"
> drop in the SHAR I posted on 01 jun 13, install espeak, gvim,
> and type "make." vbc will be your voice in any 8859-[12]
> tongue.
>
>
> > On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote:
> >
> > > Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986.
> > > Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community.
> > >
> > > On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 10:42:14AM -0700, Peter Korn wrote:
> > > > Hi Gary,
> > > >
> > > > There are three developments coming out of the AEGIS Project
> > > > <http://www.aegis-project.eu> that might be of interest. Take a
> > > > look at Dasher for Android
> > > > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dasher.android>,
> > > > Tecla Access for Android
> > > > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.idi.tekla> (that
> > > > provides tremendous control functionality as well), and
> > > > CCF-SymbolDroid <http://dev.androtech.se/ooo/content.html>(which is
> > > > compatible with TTS, but more focused on people with
> > > > language/cognitive impairments, yet still may be a useful choice).
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > thanks, peter, but none of your URL;'S did what by program does.
> > > you would have known that if you have done some minor hacking and
> > > exec's vbc.
> > >
> > > overworking {by putting in from 9- to 13-hour days} for nearly
> > > three years caused my shoulder to subluximate. voila! from
> > > severely disabled to damn-near Totally disabled. out of a job.
> > >
> > > I do not have android; I know the berkeley distro's at the
> > > kernel level ...... well, that's if you go back to the
> > > end-of-lawsuit. ihave slipped a bit. besides writing a slew
> > > of freeware, I spent 7 or 8 years earning my MA in philosophy.
> > > and because my shoulder is giving my grief, I have decided to
> > > hand off vbc to whomever wants to finish it.
> > >
> > > the only shortcoming I see is that t o learn vbc requires the
> > > use to learn a min of the "vim" text editor. this is neither
> > > good nor evil//easy nor hard. but it gives the speech-impaired
> > > user the flexibility of mapping abbrevs: "thr" becomes
> > > "there"; "i" maps to "I"; and "ths" becomes "this" or "those"
> > > depending on the user's desire.
> > >
> > > gary
> > >
> > > ps: vbc uses the GUI version of vim: gvim; espeak voices
> > > whatever is typed when the window is closed.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Peter
> > > > (former AEGIS Technical Manager)
> > > >
> > > > On 8/21/2013 10:34 AM, Gary Kline wrote:
> > > > >Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986.
> > > > >Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community.
> > > > >
> > > > >On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 12:34:14PM -0400, gabey8 at aol.com wrote:
> > > > >>Before this list goes away, I think it would be worthwhile to visit
> > > the accessibility of the recently-released XO Tablet. It's running Android
> > > 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a lot of XO-specific software installed.
> > > > >>
> > > > >>What accessibility features in Android would allow disabled users to
> > > make the best use of this tablet?
> > > > >>
> > > > >>I have, in particular, an interest in text-to-speech capabilities in
> > > Android. I know someone whose speech has been severely impaired by
> > > Parkinson's Disease, and if Android offers an affordable communication
> > > solution, I would recommend her purchase of this tablet in a heartbeat. I
> > > know that the iPad offers such apps, and that there are ruggedized/bump
> > > cases for it; however, we are talking about someone who is on a fixed
> > > income; if Android can offer the same capabilities for less money, I'd be
> > > willing to suggest the XO Tablet to her instead.
> > > > >>
> > > > >>_______________________________________________
> > > > >>accessibility mailing list
> > > > >>accessibility at lists.laptop.org
> > > > >>http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
> > > > > hello to everyone of the accessibility list,
> > > > >
> > > > > I have dropped out of working on my "Voice By Computer"
> > > > > program some months back even though "VBC|vbc" works
> > > > > well on my Ubuntu linux desktop. I was the first severely
> > > > > disabled EE to graduate as a computer programmer in 1982
> > > > > and have written several open source programs over the
> > > > > years. "vbc" is my text-to-speech effort that was and
> > > > > remains intended for people like myself with a speech
> > > > > impairment.
> > > > >
> > > > > some very old data is available at http://www.thought.org/vbc
> > > > > with a "src" link that will display a shar "List"; I put this
> > > > > up late last spring informed OLPC. Several minor hacks need
> > > > > to be made to store static data. ~/.config/inkscape/* is an
> > > > > example. What I have in /home/kline/.VBC should be moved to
> > > > > /home/kline/.config/.VBC/*. this is one example.
> > > > >
> > > > > vbc is written in C and GTK+. interested? have at it!
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Oracle <http://www.oracle.com>
> > > > Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
> > > > Phone: +1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
> > > > 500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94064
> > > > Green Oracle <http://www.oracle.com/commitment> Oracle is committed
> > > > to developing practices and products that help protect the
> > > > environment
> > >
> > > --
> > > Gary Kline kline at thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service
> > > Unix
> > > Twenty-seven years of service to the Unix community.
> > > http://www.thought.org/HOPE
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > accessibility mailing list
> > > accessibility at lists.laptop.org
> > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
> > >
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > accessibility mailing list
> > accessibility at lists.laptop.org
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
>
>
> --
> Gary Kline kline at thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix
> Twenty-seven years of service to the Unix community.
> http://www.thought.org/HOPE
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> accessibility mailing list
> accessibility at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
> _______________________________________________
> accessibility mailing list
> accessibility at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
--
Gary Kline kline at thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix
Twenty-seven years of service to the Unix community.
http://www.thought.org/HOPE
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