[alphasubzero949]

Call me crazy, but...

So I was listening to NOAA weather radio. As you may (not) be aware, they switched to text-to-speech for broadcasting and have significantly improved the voices used recently...almost to the point of being cogently "human-like." I don't much about where they get their text-to-speech capabilities from, but it had me wondering...

When does Apple plan to update the voices currently available for text-to-speech? You have to admit...they sound like something out of an 80's Sci-Fi.

Discuss...

[TETENAL]

Several companies have text to speech technologies that are vastly superior to Apple's. Usually they also offer different languages beyond English which Apple does not do.

I wish Apple would make its text to speech plug-in-able so that third parties could provide their technologies and it would seamlessly work with the OS. That way third parties could provide the languages Apple is not interested in doing.

[Krusty]

Apple's speech technology was ahead of its time ... 18 years ago. I don't know why they completely let it lapse since then. My first computer (in 1983) was a TI-99 4A with a speech synthesizer attachment. The voices were as good or better than what Apple offers now. It actually let you go in and monk with pitch/tone/speed settings so that you could create unique voices of your own that sounded REALLY GOOD.

[moonmonkey]

It is dumb, Apple should just license a few new voices, the work is already done.

http://babel.fpms.ac.be/Demos.php?s=48&m=3&f=95

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
It is dumb, Apple should just license a few new voices, the work is already done.

http://babel.fpms.ac.be/Demos.php?s=48&m=3&f=95

SJ publicly indicated his desire to license new voices, at Macworld I believe, but apparently Apple hit some sort of a snag in procurement.

[moonmonkey]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
SJ publicly indicated his desire to license new voices, at Macworld I believe, but apparently Apple hit some sort of a snag in procurement.

I hope they sort it out, Windows has better voices then OSX at the moment.

[Gamoe]

ASZ,

I was thrilled when I discovered Apple's text to speech and voice recognition in 1994. I have been very disappointed with the almost complete lack of development of these key technologies since. I think Apple shifted away from major development of these technologies because it was put on the bottom of the list-- right under AppleWorks. Apple has done just enough to keep these working with the latest system version, and maybe fix a bug or two, but no more.

Perhaps Apple doesn't see sufficient advantage or return on putting the work, time and resources in updating these. However, I do not understand why Apple hasn't been able to reach a licensing agreement with someone who is actively working on these technologies.

And, yes I've also heard the more recent NOAA voice, and have also thought back to our aging, neglected Mac voices with sadness and disappointment.

[moonmonkey]

Originally posted by Gabriel Morales:
I do not understand why Apple hasn't been able to reach a licensing agreement with someone who is actively working on these technologies.

Yeh, it would be really easy for them to licence some.
All the work has been done.

[macintologist]

Check this out:

http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/

[Graymalkin]

How is that better than Vicki? Some of the TTS voices do sound archaic but Vicki which appeared in Panther sounds very natural. I do wish there were more voices of Vicki's caliber but for most purposes Vicki works fine.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Graymalkin:
How is that better than Vicki?

As I said, I wish Apple would make this plugin-able so that users could just use (and pay for � Apple would have to license nothing) the technology they need.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
Usually they also offer different languages beyond English which Apple does not do.

A small exception; in OS 9, there were the voices 'Carlos' and 'Catalina' for Mexican Spanish text-to-speech.

J

[Millennium]

Apple's TTS was extremely good for its time. Unfortunately, "its time" was 1993, and there has been very little development since then. It's still not too bad -particularly not Vicki- but it could certainly use a boost. Vicki's pretty good, but still not up to par with modern systems.

One of the big problems is that Apple never released an SDK for making new voices, and to be perfectly frank I'm forced to wonder if Apple has managed to completely lose its own documentation on it. The Trinoids voice in particular seems to have been redone at some point (somewhere in the OS8/OS9 days), with the newer incarnation being vastly inferior.

FUN FACT: In the anime Serial Experiments Lain, every episode is introduced in a familiar-sounding whispering voice. Familiar, at least, to Mac users: it actually is the Whisper voice.

[Powaqqatsi]

How is that voice in "How Does It Make You Feel?" by AIR called ? It's a Mac voice, no ?

[Gamoe]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
A small exception; in OS 9, there were the voices 'Carlos' and 'Catalina' for Mexican Spanish text-to-speech.

Oh yes, I remember and miss those! I always wondered though, why they were made to speak in Mexican like accent, instead of say, Spanish (as in from Spain) or some other accent. Maybe because Apple HQ is in California?

I always hoped they'd come out with more Spanish speaking voices. I also hoped for more singing voices-- those were always really fun! One of the things I did when I got my first Mac was write a song to the "Pipe Organ" voice. Great, creative fun. :-)

Edit: Actually, now I recall that it was the "Cellos" voice, not "Pipe Organ."

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Gabriel Morales:
I also hoped for more singing voices-- those were always really fun! One of the things I did when I got my first Mac was write a song to the "Pipe Organ" voice. Great, creative fun. :-)

I used to like to do stuff like this:

Code:
tell application "Finder" of machine "Whatever"
    say "Ouch! Stop hitting my mouse button so damn hard!" using "Agnes"
end tell