Synthetic speech output for electronic information services

Ọmọtayọ, Oluwọle Rẹmi (1983) Synthetic speech output for electronic information services. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Rapid developments in microelectronics have got to a stage at which many phonetically programmable synthesizers are now commercially available for synthesizing speech front text. Thus all the blind people (Braille-readers and non-Braille-readers alike) now have an easy means of accessing textual information. This thesis describes the development of such it system for converting page-oriented electronic information into speech. File design of the system involved the reorganisation of the page into a form that can be sensibly handled in spoken form; the development of an efficient translator for converting the reorganised page into synthetic speech; and the provision of adequate facilities with which a blind user can control the speech-output of the system; as well as appropriate feedback from the system to the blind user. During the course of this project, a microprocessor based prototype system was developed for converting Prestel (British Telecom videotex service) to synthetic speech. Evaluation of the system by both blind and sighted users showed that the necessary ability to understand the synthetic speech-output of the system can be acquired in about an hour by an English speaking listener. The result also showed that a blind person would be able to use the system independently after about 2 hours of training. The systems its well as the design and evaluation techniques described in this thesis have wide applications particularly in the fields of education of the blind, communication aids for the non-vocal, and also in the growing area of synthesised speech output systems.

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