[sugar] [OLPC India] xbook : pdf viewer in $100 laptop

[Bert Freudenberg]

On Apr 20, 2007, at 8:28 , Ka-Ping Yee wrote:

> On Thu, 19 Apr 2007, Don Hopkins wrote:
>> I agree, it would be great to have a voice synthesizer read the  
>> text out
>> loud!
>
> I think it would be even better to empower the users of these laptops
> to make their own audiobooks.  Add recording and sharing functionality
> to the e-book reader (and to the writing activity, so they can create
> and share their own personal stories); leverage their enthusiasm,
> their creativity, their numbers, and their sense of personal  
> ownership.
> When parents and older kids take pride in creating content that will
> help younger kids learn to read, everybody benefits.

Indeed.

Note that you have voice recording/playback (including Ogg Speex  
compression) in the Etoys activity.

For example, it is being integrated with the "Event Theater", which  
allows you to record and playback an interactive session with voice- 
over. This is primarily meant for creating tutorials, but you could  
as well tell stories with it.

> My parents read to me when I was little; let them read to each other,
> not only read at by a distant stranger (or a speech synthesis  
> algorithm).

There also is a Klatt-style speech synthesizer for Squeak, with  
matching facial animation of cartoon figures. Very entertaining, but  
I wouldn't have any kid learn English from that ;)

- Bert -