Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Sorry this is OT but I thought some might find it interesting.
Nuance Talks software for cell phones converts text to speech,
including caller ID, web browser, text messages, help files,
contact directories, and other screen content.

http://www.nuance.com/talks/

It only works on phones that use symbian series 60 or 80
operating system, list of compatible phones here:

http://www.nuance.com/talks/phones.asp

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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<rant>
And all for the incredibly low price of only $295.  So in order to have
a phone I can actually do more than just dial numbers on, not only do I
have to get one of the most expensive phones in the store, but I then
have to pay an additional $295.  But the rest of the world gets their
phones for as little as ... ehhem ... free.  Did somebody say ripoff?
Give me an open source screen reader for my phone.  I mean someone is
actually developing a free open source screen reader for Winblows now.
Is it so hard to do it for the phone too?  Hmm.  Maybe I could get one
of those new Linux-powered phones.  Maybe Speakup can work with it.
That would be very nice.  I would have to get a more expensive phone,
but I would support free and open source software in the process.
</rant>
- -- 
I've always found anomalies to be very relaxing. It's a curse.
- --Jadzia Dax: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (The Assignment)
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READING BY WORD ETC IN PICO AND VI

[David Harvey]

Hello,

I'm currently using the GRML Live CD for my studies and there's a few things
I need help with:1

.  How do you read by word in Pico or Vi?  I can do it using the Speaku
preview by word keys, but when I go to edit or delete the cursor is
somewhere else.
2.  Is there a manpage to do command line editing?

Thanks

David Harvey

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.

If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
both.  

Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
also supports more software synths than talks.

http://codefactory.es

          Kenny

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

I wasn't pushing anything, just stumbled across that nuance
talks software, I didn't know such tts was available for phones.
What is annoying is that phones and providers now have many
"fun" features that are only entertaining, when they could and
should be working accessibility. Text-to-speech is a feature
that would be useful for everyone, it would make phones much
safer if people could listen to sms and mail while driving. And
as usual, anything for accessibility is outrageously priced.



Kenny Hitt wrote:
If you are going to push commercial screen readers

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kirk Reiser]

I also am very interested in getting speakup running on the open
source gnu/linux based phones coming along.  I have slowly been
building an open embedded platform for compiling and am trying to
decide what device to buy.  It is a bit difficult because I don't
really like phones; okay that's an understatement, I hate phones, so I
don't know that much about them.  There is a phone produced by a
company named FIC called the Neo1973 which has just been released for
purchase to developers.  I believe it sells for $350.00 and they say
it is the cheapist linux base phone available.  That's USD of course.

The Levelstar Icon PDA has gsm phone and gps capability and the
advantage that it is designed specifically for the blind by blinks
themselves.  It comes with a large amount of software already built-in
and working so there's no waiting for software to catch up with the
technology.  Well, almost no wait.  The Icon's software is still in
the early stages of development but quite useful.  It comes in at
$1400.00 without the phone or gps chips which will cost extra.  I
believe the docking station is another $400.00.  Once again prices are
USD.

The drawback I see with the NEO1973 is it only has a touch screen for
input so some sort of template would need to be developed before
blinks could use it.  Templates for the blind community is one of the
items already on the wish list but who knows how long it will be
before somebody does it.

This is the early stages of open source PDA/phones so I think we have
a lot to look forward to.  Anyone interested in working on this stuff
speak up 'grin' and we'll try to determine how to break up tasks.  I
as usual am extremely busy so if it is me myself doing the work it
will be a long time in coming.  If however we can build a core team of
technically capable hackers we can do it much faster.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Kirk,

I am working with two different embedded GSM modules
and embedded hardware, both processor and speech.
I keep hearing that speakup does not yet support any
USB synthesizers, is that right? I have doubletalk RC8660
interfaced with an ARM7 processor and firmware code
that implements a USB CDC (communication device class)
serial port. This makes it generic to the OS as USB serial
device, it can use standard windows and linux drivers for
the serial port connection.

I will soon be looking into how to make this USB device work
with speakup, was wondering if there were any reasons
why no USB drivers yet, it is due to lack of specs for the
synthesizers or is there known stumbling blocks? Since
USB devices are typically enumerated when hotplug runs
the speech wouldn't be available immediately at boot time,
but aside from that, shouldn't supporting standard USB
CDC serial port be straightforward? It would also seem
that existing driver code for doubletalk lite could be used
and adapted for different port connection.

Any tips or suggestions? How can we make it so speakup
will just catch an exception, but not hard fail, if the port it
is trying to access is not available yet? This would be the
case of a USB device when at boot time it has not been
enumerated during the hotplug initialization. Ideas?

Thanks,
Doug

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gilles Casse]

Kirk,

I also think that OpenMoko is a very attractive platform. So I recently
contacted OpenMoko for possibly adding speech to Neo1973 thanks to
eSpeak. 

Sean Moss-Pultz pointed out projects.openmoko.org as a place for
creating such a project.

>From my side, I will firstly evaluate a user space solution in one month
or two. But the true solution is perhaps a kernel/user space mix :-) .

Gilles



-- 
Oralux http://oralux.org

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Michael Whapples]

I think the biggest barrier to creating an open source screenreader for
the symbian phones is the lack of a free synthesiser. mbrola has been
ported, but that version doesn't do full text to speech as it requires
it in a .pho file, and also it is very large for such devices. I wonder
if espeak could be ported, admittedly it will have to output to wave
files and then those played, but it is much better for the system
resources than mbrola.

From
Michael Whapples
On Sun, 2007-03-04 at 05:17 -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
> both.  
> 
> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> also supports more software synths than talks.
> 
> http://codefactory.es
> 
>           Kenny
> 
> 
> 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kirk Reiser]

Well, now you've gone and done it.  You are going to make me admit my
stupidity for everyone to see and hear!  We have developed a usb
driver for the 2.4.x kernels which is a standard device driver like
the dtlk driver under the character devices.  We don't have it for the
2.6.x kernels yet although James Axler is working on one at Access
Solutions.

I was trying to figure out how to modify speakup to be able to talk to
standard devices instead of special devices because I thought that was
what was expected by the kernel hacker community.  I found out about
two weeks ago that was not was expected and in fact is verboden.  So
now I need to write speakup device drivers to handle the usb synths
such as the TrippleTalk  and DECTalk usb synths.  I have not started
working on that yet because I'm trying to get the git repository of
speakup working as well as a bunch of other projects at work.  I plan
on getting to that as soon as I can find time.  I feel like an idiot
for spending so much time over the past few years trying to manage
something which turned out to be very difficult and wasn't even
necessary.  Like I've said before I often am woefully ignorant about
kernel hacking.

I think though before I start working on the usb drivers I want to get
the smp compliant portions of speakup working and some other clean up
stuff like moving speakup to /sys instead of /proc.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Kirk,

This may not jive with synth manufacturers, but I am keen
on standard USB devices that "just work" because they
use the standard drivers. In the case of a USB serial port,
the CDC (Communications Device Class) already provides
a COM port class driver for the serial device (this is true
on both linux and windows per the USB CDC spec):

http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/usbcdc11.pdf
Sorry the spec is only available in pdf

I have firmware that implements the USB CDC
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc6269.pdf
Sorry again this is only available in pdf

The CDC can be very complicated depending on the device,
but it can also be very simple in the form of what appears as
a virtual COM port to the system. This is what I am working
towards, so the existing USB class driver in the kernel will
already support the device. The source for the USB serial
device is in

/usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.c

Assuming that a virtual COM port is available, the speech
synth connecting through this microcontroller with USB
device hardware, and implementing USB CDC ACM in
firmware, should be very similar to existing RS232 serial
doubletalk driver.  In fact,  the microcontroller simply
functions as a USB device, with the firmware correctly
implementing CDC, all the firmware does is pass the data
out a TTL level UART to the speech hardware.

I will take a look at the existing speakup doubletalk code
soon and see if I can find a way to make this work ...

  -- Doug


Kirk Reiser wrote:
I need to write speakup device drivers to handle the usb synths
such as the TrippleTalk  and DECTalk usb synths.  I have not started
working on that yet

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Hmm this same firmware and microcontroller could also
be made into a simple USB-serial adapter that could
solve the problem of connecting older RS232 synths to
newer PCs without serial ports. The microcontroller is
$12 and all that would be required beyond that would
be an RS232 level converter, crytal, regulator and a
few caps and resistors.

My intention is to build a simple and affordable USB
speech synth with onboard USB audio codec, it will be
sold on ebay in low volume, probably in the price range
of $150.

Since the same microcontroller and firmware would
solve the problem of supporting older RS232 synths
on PCs without serial ports, I could also make a
serial dongle with same firmware and R232 port for
connecting to synth, I could probably do that at a
price point of $40 for an adapter.

Both of these would appear as generic virtual USB
serial COM port due to proper implementation of the
USB CDC ACM in firmware. No special drivers will
be needed, only the driver code specific to the speech
hardware.

As mentioned several weeks ago, my longer term goal
is to make a audio based PDA with speech hardware
onboard, but I need to start with simpler ideas to get
the ball rolling. I am already working with  GSM/GPRS
hardware that provides both voice and data support,
this is intented to be an add-on to the audio PDA but
that is quite a ways into the future. It is actually very
easy to add phone capability these days. In fact it can
be done also entirely using standard USB drivers,
where the data connection is USB CDC (again just a
virtual COM port, looks like a modem), and the USB
audio drivers.

Short term, a USB adapter dongle that would work
with speakup connecting to older synths, and also a
doubletalk based USB synthesizer with audio codec
are in the works. I actually have all the hardware
working together, just not in a desireable form factor.

  -- Doug

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

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Yeah, I agree totally. There is of course the screenless phone, oasys
(spelling) 2200 I think. It does cost the same amount as one of the
higher-end phones plus talx, assuming you don't want the 2-year new
plan with tmobile, which I myself don't. So, from my point of view,
the real distinction is not the price, but whether you want a phone
that can do things such as e-mail, web browsing, ETC., and is from
what I hear mostly functional with speech, or if you want a simple
phone that can just do calls and text messaging, but is fully
accessible from startup to shutdown, and designed specifically for the
blind. 

I guess the only other plus for the screenless phone is that it does
have a serial cable, is gnu/linux based, and will have an sdk for it,
if it doesn't already have one. So, it has the potential to surpass
the other option I suppose in terms of what it can do, but as far as I
know, it's not there yet.

Ok, rant over for me as well.

Greg


On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:19:57AM -0500, Lorenzo Taylor wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> <rant>
> And all for the incredibly low price of only $295.  So in order to have
> a phone I can actually do more than just dial numbers on, not only do I
> have to get one of the most expensive phones in the store, but I then
> have to pay an additional $295.  But the rest of the world gets their
> phones for as little as ... ehhem ... free.  Did somebody say ripoff?
> Give me an open source screen reader for my phone.  I mean someone is
> actually developing a free open source screen reader for Winblows now.
> Is it so hard to do it for the phone too?  Hmm.  Maybe I could get one
> of those new Linux-powered phones.  Maybe Speakup can work with it.
> That would be very nice.  I would have to get a more expensive phone,
> but I would support free and open source software in the process.
> </rant>
> - -- 
> I've always found anomalies to be very relaxing. It's a curse.
> - --Jadzia Dax: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (The Assignment)
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> =bgZu
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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Re: ***SPAM*** Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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Actually, if portaudio could be ported, then espeak wouldn't have to
output to wav files.  And it shouldn't be too difficult to port eSpeak
itself.  It's already been ported to windows and I have successfully
experimented with the windows version along with the open source NVDA
screen reader on a family member's box.  This family member
unfortunately isn't ready to try Linux yet.  So eSpeak seems portable
enough that it just may work on a phone as well as long as portaudio can
be ported, and I would guess by the name portaudio that it should be at
least somewhat portable.

Lorenzo
- -- 
I've always found anomalies to be very relaxing. It's a curse.
- --Jadzia Dax: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (The Assignment)
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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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I am very much interested in working on this kind of thing.  The
unfortunate problem for me is that I have little experience with kernel
hacking other than the usual configuration and compilation procedures.
However I feel technically capable enough to hack on other parts of the
system and may even be able to learn a little about the kernel by the
time something like this becomes available for hacking.

Lorenzo
- -- 
I've always found anomalies to be very relaxing. It's a curse.
- --Jadzia Dax: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (The Assignment)
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Re: ***SPAM*** Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Glenn Ervin]

Lorenzo Taylor wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Actually, if portaudio could be ported, then espeak wouldn't have to
> output to wav files.  And it shouldn't be too difficult to port eSpeak
> itself.  It's already been ported to windows and I have successfully
> experimented with the windows version along with the open source NVDA
> screen reader on a family member's box.  This family member
> unfortunately isn't ready to try Linux yet.  So eSpeak seems portable
> enough that it just may work on a phone as well as long as portaudio
> can be ported, and I would guess by the name portaudio that it should
> be at least somewhat portable.
>
> Lorenzo


There is at least one version of Linux running on PDAs, but I don't know how 
to compile in Speakup into a distro, if that is the correct terminology.
I have wondered now for a few years, why nobody has put Speakup into one of 
those distros.
Glenn 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Thinking a bit further on this, if the USB device correctly
implements USB CDC serial class interface, and the usbserial
and core drivers are compiled into the kernel, rather than
as modules, then speakup should be able to access the device
at boot time. I will try to validate this notion soon.

   -- Doug

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

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Regarding the use of rs232 synths via usb, I'm not sure I see the
necessity of reinventing the wheel, since you can pick up a usb to
serial converter at your local computer store rather cheaply these
days. The only thing you have to be sure of is that linux supports the
converter you're getting, and judging by what's available in the
usb-serial section, a lot of them are supported.

It seems that a bigger issue would be looking at the speakup code, and
figuring out if it can be made to work with non-standard serial ports,
instead of just those from ttyS0 to ttyS3, using standard i/o
addresses. As has been seen here in the past, this is a problem not
only for those using serial to usb converters, but also for those who
want to use a pci serial card which is not, or cannot be configured as
a standard rs232 port, appearing as ttyS0-3.

Greg


On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:57:21PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> Hmm this same firmware and microcontroller could also
> be made into a simple USB-serial adapter that could
> solve the problem of connecting older RS232 synths to
> newer PCs without serial ports. The microcontroller is
> $12 and all that would be required beyond that would
> be an RS232 level converter, crytal, regulator and a
> few caps and resistors.
> 
> My intention is to build a simple and affordable USB
> speech synth with onboard USB audio codec, it will be
> sold on ebay in low volume, probably in the price range
> of $150.
> 
> Since the same microcontroller and firmware would
> solve the problem of supporting older RS232 synths
> on PCs without serial ports, I could also make a
> serial dongle with same firmware and R232 port for
> connecting to synth, I could probably do that at a
> price point of $40 for an adapter.
> 
> Both of these would appear as generic virtual USB
> serial COM port due to proper implementation of the
> USB CDC ACM in firmware. No special drivers will
> be needed, only the driver code specific to the speech
> hardware.
> 
> As mentioned several weeks ago, my longer term goal
> is to make a audio based PDA with speech hardware
> onboard, but I need to start with simpler ideas to get
> the ball rolling. I am already working with  GSM/GPRS
> hardware that provides both voice and data support,
> this is intented to be an add-on to the audio PDA but
> that is quite a ways into the future. It is actually very
> easy to add phone capability these days. In fact it can
> be done also entirely using standard USB drivers,
> where the data connection is USB CDC (again just a
> virtual COM port, looks like a modem), and the USB
> audio drivers.
> 
> Short term, a USB adapter dongle that would work
> with speakup connecting to older synths, and also a
> doubletalk based USB synthesizer with audio codec
> are in the works. I actually have all the hardware
> working together, just not in a desireable form factor.
> 
>   -- Doug
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

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- From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
changed, or is that still true?

Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.

Greg



On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
> both.  
> 
> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> also supports more software synths than talks.
> 
> http://codefactory.es
> 
>           Kenny
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

So do people have speakup working with usb serial adapters
connected to rs232 synthesizers? Or is it just the usb synths
that are problematic? If it's not done already it would make
sense that the communication driver code is abstracted as
separate from the synthesizer hardware specific code. Are
only the standard /dev/ttyS* ports working right now or is
there speakup support for usb-serial adapters?


Gregory Nowak wrote:
It seems that a bigger issue would be looking at the speakup
code, and figuring out if it can be made to work with non-
standard serial ports, instead of just those from ttyS0 to ttyS3,
using standard i/o addresses.

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

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No, as I've implied, and as has also been discussed in the list
archives, speakup doesn't as of now work with serial synths connected
via a usb to serial converter.

Greg


On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:58:31PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> So do people have speakup working with usb serial adapters
> connected to rs232 synthesizers? Or is it just the usb synths
> that are problematic? If it's not done already it would make
> sense that the communication driver code is abstracted as
> separate from the synthesizer hardware specific code. Are
> only the standard /dev/ttyS* ports working right now or is
> there speakup support for usb-serial adapters?
> 
> 


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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.

You are confusing Mobile-speak with Mobile-accessibility.  There was a
later main menu show demoing Mobile-speak.  I have access to all
features of my phone directly with Mobile-speak.

          Kenny

On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 03:51:20PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
> problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> changed, or is that still true?
> 
> Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
> 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
> that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
> 
> Greg

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Luke Yelavich]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 08:46:35AM EST, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> Thinking a bit further on this, if the USB device correctly
> implements USB CDC serial class interface, and the usbserial
> and core drivers are compiled into the kernel, rather than
> as modules, then speakup should be able to access the device
> at boot time. I will try to validate this notion soon.

This would not be possible, as the PCI subsystem is not initialized 
until the kernrel is in memory and running. Speech output would only 
work once the PCI subsystem is up, and the USB controller located, as 
well as the USB devices connected to it are identified.

Thats how I understand it anyway.
- -- 
Luke Yelavich
GPG key: 0xD06320CE 
	 (http://www.themuso.com/themuso-gpg-key.txt)
Email & MSN: themuso@themuso.com
Jabber: themuso@jabber.org.au
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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

The assumption is that kernel is in memory and running.
The difference being there are no usb modules to load,
because they are statically already in the kernel.

Luke Yelavich wrote:
This would not be possible, as the PCI subsystem is not initialized
until the kernrel is in memory and running. Speech output would only
work once the PCI subsystem is up, and the USB controller located, as
well as the USB devices connected to it are identified.

You're not getting speech now before the kernel is in
memory and running, are you?

Let's say I take a doubletalk lite RS232 synth and plug it
into a USB serial dongle. I compile a kernel with usb core,
usb-serial, the appropriate host controller driver for  the
hardware (uhci etc), and whatever dongle specific driver,
all set to y insted of m for static compile. As soon as the
kernel loads those usb systems should be available.

Now if I create a USB tty port like this:
mknod -m 0666 /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0
chmod a+rw /dev/ttyUSB0

That port is supposed to behave just like any standard
serial port, wouldn't it just be a matter of making sure
speakup points to /dev/ttyUSB0?

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Buddy Brannan]

On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 03:51:20PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
> problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> changed, or is that still true?

That was never the case with Mobilespeak. You are thinking of Mobile
Accessibility, a predecessor (still available) by the same company but
a very different product.  
-- 
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV
Independent Watkins Manager #361534
All Mixed Up Gourmet Founding Consultant #69
Email: buddy@brannan.name or phone 888-75-BUDDY
>From Kitchen Disaster to Culinary Master, make your meals and baking 
easier and faster: http://www.tastyshop.net
...And see how a Watkins business can improve your life. Read our 
free Ebook: http://www.tastybiz.com

Re[2]: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Farhan]

I've tested talks and mobile speak, and both seem to give the same functionality in the menus.
The only thing that I would change on a general note is the menu to grid mode to list mode.
On 3/4/2007 at 18:21 Gregory Nowak said
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

- From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
changed, or is that still true?

Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.

Greg



On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
> both.  
> 
> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> also supports more software synths than talks.
> 
> http://codefactory.es
> 
>           Kenny
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

- -- 
web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
skype: gregn1
(authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)

- --
Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
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_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Michael Whapples]

Your thinking of mobileAccesibility, it is from the same company as
mobileSpeak, but it came first and when I checked the prices it was
cheaper than mobile speak or talks. MobileSpeak is the screen reader
version, reading what it can from the standard UI.

From
Michael Whapples
On Sun, 2007-03-04 at 15:51 -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
> problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> changed, or is that still true?
> 
> Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
> 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
> that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> > Hi.
> > 
> > If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
> > both.  
> > 
> > Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
> > is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> > also supports more software synths than talks.
> > 
> > http://codefactory.es
> > 
> >           Kenny
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> - -- 
> web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
> gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
> skype: gregn1
> (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
> 
> - --
> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
> 
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> 8JPp+AVlT5kQz/5mbwBKNIo=
> =lrFt
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> 
> 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

I can see from the driver code in speakup.c that when you
specify speakup_ser=# that translates to a lookup that
returns the hexadecimal port 0x3f8, 0x2f8, 0x3e8, 0x2e8.
So I'm guessing the speakup drivers writes into memory
on the ISA bus at that port address, is this right?

One interesting thing is that it's already possible to direct
console output to a USB serial dongle as described here:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO.html#KERNELCOMPILE-25-USB-MENUCONFIG

Kernel configuration for USB dongle serial console using make menuconfig
USB Serial Converter support --->
<M> USB Serial Converter support
[M] USB Serial Console device support
[M] USB Generic Serial Driver

Kernel configuration for USB dongle serial console using .config
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_CONSOLE=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_GENERIC=m

If the kernel console can write to USB serial dongle then
there must be a way for the speakup driver to do the same.

  -- Doug

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Shawn Keen]

Hi,

I've tried both talks and mobile speak,  Talks I use on my Nokia 6620 and I 
tried mobile speak on a nokia 6682.  Using dectalk speech I found it very 
sluggish,  with talks when you hit a key you hear the function of that key 
and I didn't see the same type of responsiveness with MS. Mostly a lot of 
hangs and stuttering speech and a few lockups.

I wasn't aware of the custom menus problem, maybe that was early in it's 
development.

  I didn't try it with any other synths besides dectalk so maybe that was 
the problem but after giving it a week of using it I was ready to wait till 
I could afford to get talks on my 6682.

I like how code factory has a screen reader for the pDA's.  that is 
something I was real interested in looking at. and from the demos I've herd 
of it sounds real nice.  Hopefully it's a more stable program.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back, the
> problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> changed, or is that still true?
>
> Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
> 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
> that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
>
> Greg
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
>> both.
>>
>> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
>> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
>> also supports more software synths than talks.
>>
>> http://codefactory.es
>>
>>           Kenny
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> - -- 
> web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
> gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
> skype: gregn1
> (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
>
> - --
> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFF601o7s9z/XlyUyARAm0aAJ9cdGf4Ci1b5VggBKIerx1zUh247wCgszKg
> 8JPp+AVlT5kQz/5mbwBKNIo=
> =lrFt
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.7/710 - Release Date: 3/4/2007 
> 1:58 PM
>
> 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[David Poehlman]

There's been a lot of progress in Mobile speak lately.  I've heard  
that talks and the 6682 do not play well together.

On Mar 4, 2007, at 10:36 PM, Shawn Keen wrote:

Hi,

I've tried both talks and mobile speak,  Talks I use on my Nokia 6620  
and I
tried mobile speak on a nokia 6682.  Using dectalk speech I found it  
very
sluggish,  with talks when you hit a key you hear the function of  
that key
and I didn't see the same type of responsiveness with MS. Mostly a  
lot of
hangs and stuttering speech and a few lockups.

I wasn't aware of the custom menus problem, maybe that was early in it's
development.

   I didn't try it with any other synths besides dectalk so maybe  
that was
the problem but after giving it a week of using it I was ready to  
wait till
I could afford to get talks on my 6682.

I like how code factory has a screen reader for the pDA's.  that is
something I was real interested in looking at. and from the demos  
I've herd
of it sounds real nice.  Hopefully it's a more stable program.




----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."  
<speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back,  
> the
> problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> changed, or is that still true?
>
> Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
> 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
> that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
>
> Greg
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should  
>> mention
>> both.
>>
>> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks  
>> and it
>> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
>> also supports more software synths than talks.
>>
>> http://codefactory.es
>>
>>           Kenny
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> - --
> web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
> gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
> skype: gregn1
> (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
>
> - --
> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFF601o7s9z/XlyUyARAm0aAJ9cdGf4Ci1b5VggBKIerx1zUh247wCgszKg
> 8JPp+AVlT5kQz/5mbwBKNIo=
> =lrFt
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.7/710 - Release Date:  
> 3/4/2007
> 1:58 PM
>
>


_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kirk Reiser]

Doug Sutherland <doug@proficio.ca> writes:

> I can see from the driver code in speakup.c that when you
> specify speakup_ser=# that translates to a lookup that
> returns the hexadecimal port 0x3f8, 0x2f8, 0x3e8, 0x2e8.
> So I'm guessing the speakup drivers writes into memory
> on the ISA bus at that port address, is this right?

Yes, that is a simple array which just returns a port address where
each of the UARTs should live if they are installed.  We then talk
directly to the UART and handle all the registers ourselves.  I can't
make any comment about the rest of your post because I haven't looked
at any of the usb code yet serial or otherwhise.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Steve Holmes]

Another thing I think is better with Mobile Speak is it has been ported
to CDMA phones and I don't think Talks has.  Here in the US, CDMA is
more common and available in more areas than GSM.  It seems like all the
progressive development happens with GSM but getting that into CDMA is
like pulling teeth.

On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 05:45:53AM -0500, David Poehlman wrote:
> There's been a lot of progress in Mobile speak lately.  I've heard  
> that talks and the 6682 do not play well together.
> 
> On Mar 4, 2007, at 10:36 PM, Shawn Keen wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've tried both talks and mobile speak,  Talks I use on my Nokia 6620  
> and I
> tried mobile speak on a nokia 6682.  Using dectalk speech I found it  
> very
> sluggish,  with talks when you hit a key you hear the function of  
> that key
> and I didn't see the same type of responsiveness with MS. Mostly a  
> lot of
> hangs and stuttering speech and a few lockups.
> 
> I wasn't aware of the custom menus problem, maybe that was early in it's
> development.
> 
>    I didn't try it with any other synths besides dectalk so maybe  
> that was
> the problem but after giving it a week of using it I was ready to  
> wait till
> I could afford to get talks on my 6682.
> 
> I like how code factory has a screen reader for the pDA's.  that is
> something I was real interested in looking at. and from the demos  
> I've herd
> of it sounds real nice.  Hopefully it's a more stable program.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."  
> <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 4:51 PM
> Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks
> 
> 
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back,  
> > the
> > problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
> > to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
> > own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
> > changed, or is that still true?
> >
> > Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
> > 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
> > that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
> >
> > Greg
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> >> Hi.
> >>
> >> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should  
> >> mention
> >> both.
> >>
> >> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks  
> >> and it
> >> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> >> also supports more software synths than talks.
> >>
> >> http://codefactory.es
> >>
> >>           Kenny
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Speakup mailing list
> >> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> > - --
> > web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
> > gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
> > skype: gregn1
> > (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
> >
> > - --
> > Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
> >
> > iD8DBQFF601o7s9z/XlyUyARAm0aAJ9cdGf4Ci1b5VggBKIerx1zUh247wCgszKg
> > 8JPp+AVlT5kQz/5mbwBKNIo=
> > =lrFt
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> >
> > -- 
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.7/710 - Release Date:  
> > 3/4/2007
> > 1:58 PM
> >
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
HolmesGrown Solutions
The best solutions for the best price!
http://holmesgrown.ld.net/

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 07:45:33AM -0700, Steve Holmes wrote:
> It seems like all the
> progressive development happens with GSM but getting that into CDMA is
> like pulling teeth.

- From what I understand, that's because with GSM, all you have to do is
put a chip in a device, and you're ready to go, whereas with CDMA, you
have to get the cell provider's cooperation before you can do
anything.

Greg




- -- 
web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org
gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
skype: gregn1
(authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)

- --
Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org
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7Y8oxnMQqsYYF/jycJHOhqM=
=HDwl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Sean McMahon]

I don't know where in the world you are, but talks is available with cingular 
for $200 phone included.  Of course, you have to pay for the software, $200 
outright then get back in a rebate.  We've all seen the greate news about the 
osis on this list available for $200.  If only more phones supported accessible 
archatectures and could the whole world please get on the same page when it 
comes to spectrum allocation for 3g?  </rant>

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lorenzo Taylor" <lorenzo@taylor.homelinux.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 12:19 AM
Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> <rant>
> And all for the incredibly low price of only $295.  So in order to have
> a phone I can actually do more than just dial numbers on, not only do I
> have to get one of the most expensive phones in the store, but I then
> have to pay an additional $295.  But the rest of the world gets their
> phones for as little as ... ehhem ... free.  Did somebody say ripoff?
> Give me an open source screen reader for my phone.  I mean someone is
> actually developing a free open source screen reader for Winblows now.
> Is it so hard to do it for the phone too?  Hmm.  Maybe I could get one
> of those new Linux-powered phones.  Maybe Speakup can work with it.
> That would be very nice.  I would have to get a more expensive phone,
> but I would support free and open source software in the process.
> </rant>
> - -- 
> I've always found anomalies to be very relaxing. It's a curse.
> - --Jadzia Dax: Star Trek Deep Space Nine (The Assignment)
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>
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> j9j+aWBR+YwS7M0tUcGeeRc=
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> 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Sean McMahon]

I have a friend who baught mobilespeak and I noticed that on her phone it still 
talks while you are on a call.  This could be due to the type of phone, not 
sure.  Talx doesn't do that.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenny Hitt" <kenny@hittsjunk.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 4:17 AM
Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks


> Hi.
>
> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should mention
> both.
>
> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks and it
> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
> also supports more software synths than talks.
>
> http://codefactory.es
>
>          Kenny
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Kenny Hitt]

hi.

That is a configurable option in Mobile-speak.  I believe it is called
"silent on calls" and is in the general tab of the Mobile-speak
configuration dialog.

          Kenny

On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 11:26:03AM -0700, Sean McMahon wrote:
> I have a friend who baught mobilespeak and I noticed that on her phone it still 
> talks while you are on a call.  This could be due to the type of phone, not 
> sure.  Talx doesn't do that.

Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Sean McMahon]

According to the last report on cellphone trends released by the FCC, cdma is 
only slightly more common in terms of coverage in the US. 99% for cdma VS. 98% 
for gsm.  That was for population percentages not area which still was about 69% 
coverage for all cellphone technology in total.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Holmes" <steve@holmesgrown.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 7:45 AM
Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks


> Another thing I think is better with Mobile Speak is it has been ported
> to CDMA phones and I don't think Talks has.  Here in the US, CDMA is
> more common and available in more areas than GSM.  It seems like all the
> progressive development happens with GSM but getting that into CDMA is
> like pulling teeth.
>
> On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 05:45:53AM -0500, David Poehlman wrote:
>> There's been a lot of progress in Mobile speak lately.  I've heard
>> that talks and the 6682 do not play well together.
>>
>> On Mar 4, 2007, at 10:36 PM, Shawn Keen wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've tried both talks and mobile speak,  Talks I use on my Nokia 6620
>> and I
>> tried mobile speak on a nokia 6682.  Using dectalk speech I found it
>> very
>> sluggish,  with talks when you hit a key you hear the function of
>> that key
>> and I didn't see the same type of responsiveness with MS. Mostly a
>> lot of
>> hangs and stuttering speech and a few lockups.
>>
>> I wasn't aware of the custom menus problem, maybe that was early in it's
>> development.
>>
>>    I didn't try it with any other synths besides dectalk so maybe
>> that was
>> the problem but after giving it a week of using it I was ready to
>> wait till
>> I could afford to get talks on my 6682.
>>
>> I like how code factory has a screen reader for the pDA's.  that is
>> something I was real interested in looking at. and from the demos
>> I've herd
>> of it sounds real nice.  Hopefully it's a more stable program.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
>> <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
>> Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 4:51 PM
>> Subject: Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks
>>
>>
>> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> > Hash: SHA1
>> >
>> > - From what I recall hearing on acb radio's main menu a while back,
>> > the
>> > problem with mobile-speak vs. talx is that it doesn't give you access
>> > to all the menu options of the phone, rather, it presents you with its
>> > own custom menu, as opposed to the phone's actual menu. Has this
>> > changed, or is that still true?
>> >
>> > Also, on a scale of hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars,
>> > 46 dollars more isn't too much of a difference, especially if it means
>> > that you can access more of what the phone has to offer.
>> >
>> > Greg
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 05:17:50AM -0600, Kenny Hitt wrote:
>> >> Hi.
>> >>
>> >> If you are going to push commercial screen readers, you should
>> >> mention
>> >> both.
>> >>
>> >> Mobile-speak is also available for the same phones that run talks
>> >> and it
>> >> is cheaper.  I bought it for only $249 instead of $295.  Mobile-speak
>> >> also supports more software synths than talks.
>> >>
>> >> http://codefactory.es
>> >>
>> >>           Kenny
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Speakup mailing list
>> >> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> >
>> > - --
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>> > gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc
>> > skype: gregn1
>> > (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first)
>> >
>> > - --
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>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Speakup mailing list
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>> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> >
>> >
>> > -- 
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>> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>> > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.7/710 - Release Date:
>> > 3/4/2007
>> > 1:58 PM
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
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> HolmesGrown Solutions
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Re: Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Doug Sutherland]

Kirk,

You said:
I was trying to figure out how to modify speakup to be able to
talk to standard devices instead of special devices because I
thought that was what was expected by the kernel hacker
community. I found out about two weeks ago that was not was
expected and in fact is verboden.

Could you elaborate on this a bit, why should it be forbidden
to write to standard devices, because that should only be
done in user space? If console output can already write to
the USB bus (generic-serial, usb-serial), it would seem that
speakup needs to be in-between those, console to speakup
then speakup to usb-serial.

You said:
We have developed a usb driver for the 2.4.x kernels which
is a standard device driver like the dtlk driver under the
character devices.  We don't have it for the 2.6.x kernels yet

Is this 2.4 driver currently part of the distribution on cvs,
and if not could I possibly get the source to try this? I would
like to try output to what appears as a generic usb serial
device on the system. I may be able to devote some time
to working on 2.6 support in the future.

Thanks,
Doug