Text-To-Speech BEFORE
For many centuries, the thought of designing a machine that could talk naturally has been a challenge to scientists, engineers and developers. Homer Dudley of Bell Laboratories proposed a system model for speech analysis and synthesis at the start of the 19th Century.
The real issue with automatic speech recognition (text to speech) has been approached progressively, from a simple machine that responds to a small set of sounds to a sophisticated system that responds fluently.
Although Concatenated Word systems are not really synthesizers, they are one of the most commonly used text-to-speech systems around. In a concatenated word engine, the application designer provides recordings for phrases and individual words. The engine pastes the recordings together to speak out a sentence or phrase. If you use voice-mail then you’ve heard one of these engines speaking, “[You have] [four] [new messages].” The engine has recordings for “You have”, all of the digits, and “new messages”.
A text-to-speech engine that uses synthesis generates sounds similar to those created by the human vocal cords and applies various filters to simulate throat length, mouth cavity, lip shape, and tongue position. The voice produced by synthesis technology tends to sound less human than a voice produced by diphone concatenation, but it is possible to obtain different qualities of voice by changing a few parameters.
Spoken natural language takes into account the varying statistics of the language in which the speech is produced. Based on major advances in statistical modelling of speech in the 1980s, text to speech systems today find widespread application in tasks that require a human-machine interface, such as automatic call processing in the telephone network and query-based information systems that do things like provide updated travel information, stock price quotations, weather reports and so on.
Text-To-Speech NOW
The story is completely different; the world has moved on from that difficulty. Text to speech has become a sort of utility and just about everyone uses it.
Using the text to speech functionality of your computer can save you a lot of time if you need to study for tests, read books, review reports, or if you are just too busy to sit down and read something. While the voice may sound computer generated, there is always the option of downloading new SAPI compatible voice profiles from various sites on the Internet
Text to Speech (TTS) applications allow you to have text read aloud to you. This is useful for struggling readers and for writers, when editing and revising their work. You can also convert eBooks to audiobooks so you can listen to them on long drives.
Speech recognition and speech-to-text programs have a number of applications for users with and without disabilities. Speech-to-text has been used to help struggling writers boost their writing production and to provide alternate access to a computer for individuals with physical impairments Other applications include speech recognition for foreign language learning, voice activated products for the blind, and many familiar mainstream technologies. The text to speech apps have become really flexible and are available on different platforms.
Below are some of its amazing uses:
Proofreading
Conserve Memory
Helps in reading dynamic texts
Can be used easily as a notifier
Providing audible feedback
And so many more.
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