Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!haven!umd5!feldman
From: feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Wouldn't it be neat?
Message-ID: <4472@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 89 14:52:06 GMT
References: <174@usl-pc.usl.edu> <680007@hpcuhc.HP.COM> <19486@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 38

In article <19486@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes:
>
>As one who had to learn English as a foreign language, it would be
>really neat if NeXT's Webster's dictionary could SPEAK OUT words
>via its 16bit DACs.  No, it doesn't have to be in stereo :-).
>But, it should be by someone's real voice, not by silly sounding
>text-to-speech synthesis.
>
>Perhaps, someone can make a lot of money compiling the voice data
>base.
>
>As to the speaker, I will let that be fought out by  New Englanders,
>Texans,  Mid-westerners, and Californians.
>
>Izumi Ohzawa

Actually, pronouncing words from the dictionary would be a perfect
application for text-to-speach conversion.  The NeXT can output concatenated
sounds (phonemes, in this application) in a smooth, seamless manner.  The
dictionary entries contain the pronunciation symbols necessary to produce
the ``correct'' pronunciation.  

It seems to me that a good set of tools for phoneme generation,
manipulation, and English to phoneme translation would do well in the NeXT
environment.  The possibilities -- linguistic studies, speach in programs
without being forced to digitize megabytes, support for the disabled -- are
endless. 

It's the kind of tool that should be a part of the base NeXT system.  The
NeXT philosophy of providing a powerful base system (68030, FP, DSP) allows
applications to be written so that the availability of an optional floating
point or DSP coprocessor is not a worry.  If voice output facilities are
provided, people will use them.  If it is an option, something that NeXT
leaves to third party developers, it may not be properly integrated and
standerdized and it may not be used.  Surely voice output is as important to
most people as the music/MIDI support that NeXT is providing.

	Mark Feldman