Text-To-Speech on Phones: Nuance Talks

[Gregory Nowak]

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

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 at 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 at EU.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFF60ub7s9z/XlyUyARAme7AJ9vmWqD0WsdTrq3+OP5MIC/aRtwGgCgvg6L
KBrgE74p4O7xO781qf3XJ0M=
=WxvF
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----