Computer Speech. by Dick Evans,

Transcription

1 Computer Speech by Dick Evans, One of the class attendees wanted to know more about talking to the computer and having it talk back to us. Actually, I think the request was for the speech to text aspect and I added the text to speech portion. If you are a user of Google.com, you have probably seen the microphone to the right of the search bar. Its presence means you can use the microphone built into your laptop to speak your search requests. If you have a desktop and do not have a microphone, you can pick up one that will either plug into a U S B port or into one of the three colored jacks usually located on the back panel of the box. This one is about $6 and is great when using the computer with Skype or as a phone with 1

2 Google voice or when speaking to it. Great on a laptop, too. You can get one that plugs into the U S B port for about $20 more. If you do not have a camera on your desktop or laptop you can get one that includes a microphone to take care of both video and audio. This one is less that $5. It generally sits on top of your monitor and works well on older laptops that are without a camera. Or you can pick up one of these lapel mics for about 5 cents (+shipping) OK. Now we have the microphone taken care of and the next time you go to Google.com you should see the picture it to the right of the search bar. Click it to start your search using your spoken words. It is as easy as that! Just start talking. When you pause it assumes you are ready for it to do the search. 2

3 This is what I got when I said Charlotte County Florida computer club. Microsoft provides a good paper on Speech Recognition at 3

4 Text to Speech Later version of Windows include a text to speech application. Here is one that is free and works with all versions of Windows Whatever you type into the box can be read. Even better, whatever you select and then copy to the clipboard will automatically be read to you. If left defaulted, all text in any dialog box will be read as well without copying it to the clipboard. This might be a better one to use. It allows you to register and get a more natural voice to listen to. Try them both. 4

5 Windows 7 That takes care of all Windows version, now lets look at how to do it in Windows 7. Start > type speech and see results above Speech to Text The Text-to-Speech Reader had me download and install a program that reads text from various files including txt, docx, and pdf. You can also have it read from the clipboard and even take what it reads and create an audio file. It is called Verbose Text to Speech. There is a nagtext that plays each time it starts to encourage you to buy the software, but it works well without spending the money. The software is easy to use with many options in the left margin and on the toolbar. 5

6 Text to Speech Start > type speech and choose Windows Speech Recognition A floating toolbar appears and you click the microphone to activate it. Whatever you say when activated will appear in the active window. Click the microphone again to turn recognition off. It does not work very well unless you talk r e a l s l o w right out of the box. You have to train it to your voice first. 6

7 Click Speech Recognition 7

8 Click Train your computer to better understand you to help the program understand your voice. And remember, this is only for your voice. Windows 8 That takes care of Windows 7 version, now lets look at how to do it in Windows 8. Text to Speech On the desktop search for text; click Hear text read aloud with Narrator. Works with text on the computer or the Internet with Internet Explorer. Does not seem to work with Chrome or Firefox. Speech to Text On the desktop search for speech; click Start speech recognition 8

9 First you have to go through the setup so it knows your voice. Click the microphone to get started. Say notepad and the notepad window opens Speak a sentence or two. Period to end a sentence and new line to drop down to the next line. Click file to pull down the file menu Stop listening to turn of speech recognition. I hope this overview was helpful. I think I will stick with using the keyboard, but might be using the text to speech from time to time; not the Narrator but the third party one from Naturalreaders.com. 9