From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat May 17 2003 - 01:58:30 MDT
In Windows XP it is not necessary to buy any software to convert text to an
audio file. A program called Narrator, included with XP, will read text
aloud (I just a moment ago listened to Microsoft Sam read Harvey's message).
Word XP also the built-in text-to-speech engine. The Text-to-speech function
in Word can read text from Word documents in any font (no need to convert to
text). Narrator will even read web pages directly in any font while ignoring
the HTML codes.
To start Narrator from the start menu, go Accessories|Accessibility|Narrator
or just type "narrator" at the run command. If everything is set up properly
then it will read this message aloud after you place your cursor in the
message field (in Outlook and Outlook Express at least - not sure about
other email clients).
All that is needed is a way to convert that audio output to a file. MS
Narrator does not provide a record function, nor does the speech function in
Word, but a free utility I found called "OpCode:Direct2Disk" does the trick.
There are probably several other such free utilities available from
shareware sites.
Opcode saves the Narrator output to a .wav file. Other similar utilities
might save directly to .mp3. If one needs to convert a .wav file to .mp3
then most audio players will do the job and also record the .mp3 to a CD-R.
I use Musicmatch Jukebox, which came bundled free with my Sony DVD writer.
Some audio players might even handle the whole job, eliminating the need for
the recording utility.
A few years ago I wrote a program in Visual C++ called "Blackjack Pro,"
which utilized a Microsoft Activex Control called "Microsoft Agent." The
program had both text-to-speech and speech recognition capabilities. It was
designed to teach people how to count cards and beat the casinos at
blackjack (an old hobby of mine). In teaching mode, the program listened to
the verbal commands of the player (e.g., "Hit", "Stand", "Double Down",
"Split", "Yes", "No", etc) as the player spoke into the microphone. If the
player tried to make a bad play then a little blue genie would pop up on the
table and say something through the speakers like "Sorry Mate, but the true
count is +5. You should know better than to hit a 16 against a dealer's 10
when the true count is greater than 0! Would you like to take that back and
try again?" My game had no use for the keyboard -- it could be played
entirely with a microphone. Lotsa' fun. :)
-gts
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat May 17 2003 - 02:10:25 MDT