The conversion of computer text into audio sounds. The flip side of "speech recognition" is "text reading" conversion of written text into audio. The pioneer in this technology is Bell Labs at http://www.islip.com/ . That Bell Labs web site has some wonderful demonstrations of this technology. Apple Computer has a text manager in its AV models. Options such as Text Assist from Creative Labs (800-998-1000) and related hardware/software from sound board vendors are available for PCs. (See also Speech recognition )
Barry Rice forwarded the following message in January 1998:
Dear Mr. Rice: Thank you for your interest in the Lucent Technologies TTS system. The Windows 95/NT version of our multilingual TTS will be available for beta test in September, although the beta program is full at this time. General availability is scheduled for November. The full Software Development Kit, containing SAPI-compliant engines for both ASR and TTS, will be in the $500 range. Specific information on this product will be given on the Bell Labs web site shortly prior to general availability, so check our site again at that time. John Holmgren Business Development Manager Lucent Technologies Phone: 908 949-8864 Email: jholmgren@lucent.com