Information on Loughborough
Loughborough Text to Speech
If you run a business or company and wish to be listed in the Text to Speech division then please contact the inLoughborough team. 'inLoughborough' is the busiest Loughborough 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
How to Avoid Robotic Voice Text to Speech Synthesis
In this day and age, more and more people use text-to-speech software to improve their reading efficiency and save time. As an significant component of the text-to-speech technology, voices, i.e. speech engines, are the soul of text-to-speech software. Because text-to-speech software must invoke them to synthetic speech.
However, the defaulting voices shipped with operating systems, for example, Microsoft Sam on Windows XP, are not especially natural-sounding. Actually, you need to put in more high-quality voices. Fortunately, there are numerous speech engines available on the Internet today, such as Microsoft additional voices, Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice and TTS3000, AT&T Natural Voices, Cepstral, IVONA, etc.. Most of these voices are better than the default on your system.
Here is a list of text-to-speech voices accessible on the Internet.
Microsoft Mike, Mary -
Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary are non-compulsory male and female voices respectively with better quality, available for download from the Microsoft website or other third party text-to-speech related websites.
The most obvious feature of these three is there are both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 versions of them. SAPI 5 versions are only available on Windows 2000 and later Windows NT-based operating systems. As an exception, the SAPI 5 versions of these voices cannot be installed on Windows Vista and Windows 7. The SAPI 4 versions are more well-suited. They can be installed and used on Windows 98 and all the later Windows operating systems.
Generally, the higher SAPI version, the better quality.
Microsoft Anna -
Microsoft Anna is the default English voice shipped with Windows Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft Anna is a SAPI 5-only speech engine and is designed to sound more natural than the previous system default voice Microsoft Sam.
This outstanding female voice for this text to speech service is base on the new Microsoft SAPI 5.3/5.4. So you cannot use it on Windows XP directly and also there is no separate installer of this voice on the Microsoft website. The only way to use this out of this world voice on Windows XP is by the Microsoft Streets & Trips. The Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 and later versions install the voice and the new Microsoft SAPI onto Windows XP computers for the voice-prompt direction feature.
Some 3rd party text-to-speech related websites supply smaller repacked Microsoft Anna installers for Windows XP users. However, it's incomplete and not working correctly on Windows XP because the SAPI version of Windows XP is 5.1.
Cepstral Voices -
These high quality voices take up less disk space (typically less than 50mb) than most premium voices, do not use as much processor power, and are very fast when creating audio files.
AT&T Natural Voices -
An award winning text to speech technology developed by AT&T Laboratories. Natural Voices is believed by many to be the most natural sounding TTS available, the "highly scalable" multi-threaded technology can automate and add tremendous interactive and humanistic value to a wide variety of applications and projects.
IVONA Voices -
Human voices for your PC - Use the most natural Text-To-Speech voices ever heard for fun and work.
CereProc Voices -
High-quality voices for computers running Microsoft Windows XP and Vista/7. It can replace the default American English Microsoft voices with a wide range of other accents and languages. CereProc's Windows voices are well-matched with Microsoft SAPI5, and all voices are 22khz for excellent clarity and naturalness.
Lernout & Hauspie Voices -
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a leading Belgium-based speech recognition technology company. This organisation released dozens of high-quality SAPI 4 voices across multiple languages, including 10 American English voices and 2 British English voices.
Furthermore, Lernout & Hauspie Michael and Michelle are also optional male and female voices licensed by Microsoft from Lernout & Hauspie, and obtainable through Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Reader.
The Very Convenient BlackBerry Text to Speech
From a survey it has been demonstrated that the driver who is SMSing while driving is known to cause the accidents 23.2 times more. Another research has shown that almost 2500 people get killed due to SMSing whilst driving . SMSing while driving exposes a person to dangerous driving. It can be fatal not only to the drivers' life but it can endanger the lives of others as well. So we as civilized people need to drive safely.
In an effort to find the solution for safe driving, many of the features have been introduced by mobile companies. Features like hands free, text to voice etc have been introduced and among them the greatest so far has been the Blackberry text to speech. It is a free application that allows you to listen to text message in your inbox. Along with the dazzling features of internet, email, video recorder it is the text to speech which has increased the value of Blackberry app. The hands free software in Blackberry reads the texts aloud to ensure that you understand it well. This hand held speech device does not require you to activate it while driving. It is an automatic response that has been installed in the application that starts reading out all SMS messages which your inbox receives. This way you will not have distracted driving issues as you won't have to lay your hands off the wheel to respond. By the use of this hand free device of Blackberry, you will have more responsive and alert life as you won't have to click around to reach the inbox and read text messages.
Likewise in addition to the text to speech, the device also remains very active as per the business emails you receive. Text to speech is a blessing for those who are hooked up with emails all the time. The read text messages and email to speech has made possible for the drivers to remain in touch without their eyes on screen. This feature of Blackberry has reduced unfocused driving and has made it the most favorite mobile phone for people of all ages. If you are young and cannot spend a single second without your mobile phone, Blackberry text to speech is an outstanding device for you as it keeps you connected with everyone all the time. Blackberry with its safe driving app. device not only provides you cool experience but also makes the road safer for you and others around. All you have to is buy a Blackberry text to speech and install all the free applications provided by this requisite device.
Tips on Using Text to Speech
When you are learning a new language such as English, the technique may not be an effortless one. Nevertheless since the expansion of the text to speech applications the process of learning has become easier for the teacher as well as the student.
Text to speech programs are applications that synthetically send the text of a story, book, magazine, newspaper, etc. orally to the computer. This enables the student to listen to the text as it should sound.
The text to speech programs are extensively used not just for those students that are interested in learning English grammar and language; they are also used for students who are visually impaired. The visually challenged students no longer have to stop for somebody to read to them. They can now study and learn at their own pace at whatsoever time they choose. There are more than a few text to speech programs that do not apply to the visually impaired student because they've some text that must be read on the computer.
Text to Speech technologies has it's own merits and demerits, but the merits without a doubt outweighs the merits.. A few of the advantages are:
· A TTS user can choose to convert almost any text. Ex: Text from RSS feed or Text from various kinds of documents.;
· Some services permit you to adjust the speed and pace of the audio generated.;
· A student can download the mp3 to their favorite mp3 player and listen to it on the go.
· You can figure out how to pronounce whichever one word or a block of words and build exercises to suit yourself.
· The EFL and ESL student may also structure short dialogues and regulate the run time to aid them learn conversation.
One of the constraints when using the text to speech programs is that they necessitate a fast computer. Although today's computers are equipped with new and faster machinery not all EFL and ESL student may have the means with which to have access to a newer and faster computer. Also, the