[Hallicrafters] Sorry, No Tactile TV

Sat Jan 4 17:56:04 EST 2003

It is not as simple as just converting text into speech. The program you refer
too does not allow for an active user interface. Because of the differences in
software programs, the user must have total control over how the screen reading
programs 'sees' the screen, how it reads it, whether it reads or ignores, what
characters to ignore, what characters to speak, and on and on. It is an
incredible amount of work. Sighted people frequently give no thought to how a
human must interface with the display on the screen. That is where the work
comes in, not the conversion from characters, graphic or ASCII, into synthetic
speech.	

Every program must have a configuration file that instructs the screen reading
software how, when or if to read the screen. JFW comes with configuration files
for about forty major programs. If you want to use one other than included, you
write it yourself. This is not an easy process and it is not simple.	

Compare it to being blindfolded, put on a rotating turntable, given one dart,
told the room was covered in ballons each the size of a quarter, colored red
-green-blue-yellow-pink-white-purple-turquoise-black-violet, and instructed to
hit the one balloon among them that was orchid. Without specific directions, the
odds are quite high you will miss. Throwing the dart is easy, hitting the right
balloon is not. 	

Just try to close your eyes, and keep them shut, while you are in bed. Then get
up and spend the next hour doing everything you normally do with those eyes
closed. Do not open them until you are sitting in your vehicle ready to leave
for work. Of the hundreds I have challenged, only one person, did it. Who? Marie
Lamb. One heck of a person.	

Duane W8DBF	

----------
From: Gary Pewitt <gpewitt at execpc.com>
To: Duane Fischer, W8DBF <dfischer at usol.com>; tlogan7 at cox.net
Cc: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Sorry, No Tactile TV
Date: Saturday, January 04, 2003 5:36 PM

At 11:54 AM 1/4/03 -0500, Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:

>Tim,
>
>There are several software programs that convert the display on the CRT into a
>speakable format.
>
>These programs are very costly and they are not given free to the blind.
>
>About 15 years ago I bought a Bondwell 12 Luggable CP/M computer.  It had 
>a free, repeat free, built in text to speech utility that would read any 
>text file and had two voices (male and female) and if the sometimes 
>peculiar pronounciation was objectionable you could improve it by miss 
>spelling the words so they would sound more like human speech -or- you 
>could use a phonetic alphabet and get really good speech out of it.  This 
>is in a 4 Megahertz Z80 processor machine with 128 K of ram running CP/M 
>Plus.  I really regret letting it go.  I can see no reason why similar 
>results should cost so much on modern high powered and high speed machines.

Gary Pewitt  N9ZSV  gpewitt at execpc.com
6120 W. Calumet Rd. Apt 204
Milwaukee, WI  53223-4132
Sturgeon's Law "90% of everything is crap"

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.431 / Virus Database: 242 - Release Date: 12/17/02