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Leicester Text to Speech
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Further Information on Text to Speech
Optimizing Text to Speech
Word pronunciation text to voice software, known as text to speech software, can convert any written text such as web pages, emails, Microsoft word documents, and PDF files into spoken words. It can also convert any written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV for your CD player or iPod. Especially, tex to speech software can massively help those who are blind or partially sighted. The future of accessibility in PCs is upon us and these text to speech related technologies will help unite the world and connect the unconnected. In fact, it is now possible to go to a web site and have that web site read to you. Even if you do not have sight challenges it is still time saving and more efficient to have a web site read to you rather that you have to read it.
Furthermore, with the expansion of the text to speech technology and the speech engines, most of the up to date speech voices are more natural sounding. However, due to the technical limitations of speech voices, users have to correct pronunciation for some words manually. Fortunately, most of the text to speech software supply a Pronunciation Editor tool. The Pronunciation Editor is useful when you want to change the spelling of words, unscrambling syllables or corrects a word's pronunciation. For example, you might pronounce "i.e." as "that is", or pronounce "IE" as "Internet Explorer".
The process of adding a pronunciation improvement record is very easy. Just follow the steps below.
1. Click the New button on the Pronunciation Editor window and the Pronunciation Correction dialog appears.
2. Type the word that its pronunciation should be corrected in the "Word" field.
3. Type the new pronunciation in the "Pronounce As" field.
4. [Optional] Uncheck the "Case Sensitive" check box if the word is case insensitive.
5. [Optional] Uncheck the "Whole Words" check box if the word can be part of other words.
6. Click OK.
That's all. Now the word you specified will always be pronounced as the new pronunciation.
Here is a frequently used pronunciation correction list that you can import to your word pronunciation text to voice software.
WYSIWYG => what you see is what you get
IE => internet explorer
IE1 => internet explorer 1
IE2 => internet explorer 2
IE3 => internet explorer 3
IE4 => internet explorer 4
IE5 => internet explorer 5
IE6 => internet explorer 6
IE7 => internet explorer 7
IE8 => internet explorer 8
IE9 => internet explorer 9
ie. => that is
i.e. => that is
i. e. => that is
e.g. => for example
eg. => for example
viz => videlicet
viz. => videlicet
id. => the same
i.d. => the same
i. d. => the same
iq. => the same as
i.q. => the same as
ibid. => in the same place
i.f. => in the end
i. f. => in the end
sh. => in the sense
s.h. => in the sense
s. h. => in the sense
io. => in that order
i.o. => in that order
i. o. => in that order
ia. => among other things
i.a. => among other things
i. a. => among other things
nb. => observe
n.b. => observe
n. b. => observe
obs: => observe
Of cause, adding a lot of pronunciation corrections manually is a bit of time-consuming and tiresome.
GPS With Text to Speech?
Before I make an effort to answer that, let's lay down some ground rules. I'm sure you can discover some knock-off from some unknown company, which says it has text to speech. And it may well have. But the predicament is it will last about three weeks, if that. You'll have no support. And eventually the maps will be out of date. So, let's not count "junk" in with our cheapest GPS with text to speech survey.
So, let's stick with the World's main manufacturers, Garmin, TomTom and Magellan. We'll talk about their goods in order.
Garmin has put text to speech facility in all but a very few of their nuvi series. Their least expensive GPS with text to speech right now is the nuvi 255. At just over £100, the nuvi 255 is a very solid little device. It has a 3.5-inch touch screen and text to speech voice instructions. Although, it would have been considered state of the art only a few years ago, the nuvi 255 today is well...a little missing in bells and whistles.
You can spend £50 more and get a assortment of nuvis with text to speech and lots of other goodies, like Bluetooth so you can use your mobile phone with the device. But as far as being the cheapest GPS with text to speech, the nuvi 255 is probably it, for Garmin, that is.
As far as TomTom is concerned, they have a new basic model GPS called the TomTom EASE, which I like a lot. It's ever so faintly more expensive than the nuvi 255, but it's got text to speech, plus TomTom's proprietary MapShare technology, which is a type of user generated mapping feature. One thing that's really great about the TomTom EASE is that's it's incredibly easy to use! When you turn it on, there are only two icons to select from. You don't have to read instructions to be on your way to a new destination, and of course, hearing the street names said to you as you drive.
Magellan's lowest priced text to speech models are slightly more expensive than Garmin's or TomTom's. The Magellan Maestro 4220 and 3220 both sell for around £150. (The 4220 is also slightly more expensive, because it's got a greater resolution screen.) Of course, these come with lots of great Magellan features that no one else has, like having the Triple A Auto Club tour book right on the device. (Accessible if you're a member of Triple A Auto Club. If you're not, it's cheap to join.)
So, to summarise, if you're looking for the cheapest GPS with text to speech, you have a lot to choose from, and you don't have to end up with some no name model.
Top Free Text To Speech Services
These days, more and more people use text-to-speech (TTS) technology to improve their reading efficiency and save time. But, for newbie computer users, it's too complicated to download and install various software, including speech engines and voices. Fortunately, there are many websites supply free online text to speech synthesis services without any software download and installation. The following recommendations are the top five sites with lots of unique features.
1. AT&T Labs Natural Voices Text-to-Speech Demo
The AT&T labs official text to speech demo is the best online program to experience and use the famous high-quality human sounding AT&T Natural Voices for free. And the demo is very easy to use. The whole process contains only three simple steps.
Step 1. Choose voice and language from the voice list.
Step 2. Input or paste text for conversion.
Step 3. Click the "SPEAK" or "DOWNLOAD" button to synthesize your text to wave audio file!
If you want to try more AT&T Natural Voices of other languages, the Wizzard Software AT&T Natural Voices Demo is the obvious choice.
2. imTranslator TTS Utility
The TTS section of the imTranslator website supplies a TTS utility with animated speaking characters. This program will read the text in the most realistic, human-sounding way in a variety of languages: English U.S., Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and European Spanish.
Additionally, you may adjust the speed of the speech if the default speed doesn't fit you. The reading word will be highlighted automatically while playback.
Another exciting feature of this utility is Virtual Keyboard that allows multilingual text input in most popular languages.
For webmasters, imTranslator allows you to add TTS functionality to your website. To incorporate the TTS Voice to your website, just copy several lines of HTML code and paste it into your web page. And there are four styles (floating button, iframe, link, banner) available.
3. iSpeech TTS Demo
Listen to anything you used to read with iSpeech TTS service. There is no software required because iSpeech is a software as a service. That means you don't have anything to install or any bloat-ware, malware or spyware risk. You simply enter the text or upload the document you would like to convert to speech.
The quick start demo on the home page is easy enough. Just enter some text and play! Now anyone can listen to any text content with minimal effort, no software installation and no technical expertise.
Besides the easy demo, iSpeech also supplies a more powerful and complex text to speech service for registered users (the registration is free). This advanced text to speech service allows you convert text directly or upload files of various formats to convert.
iSpeech also lets you upload any supported document, website, blog, etc. and click convert file or the listen button.
Another great feature of iSpeech is the iSpeech Library. All your conversions are remembered by iSpeech and are accessible from the Library where you can listen to and download them whenever needed. This feature is very useful when you have plenty of speech conversions.
4. IVONA TTS Tool
The online IVONA TTS Tool allows you to experience text-to-speech technology by just one click, using their unique and crystal clear IVONA voices.
You may want to use another interface of IVONA - the IVONA Recording. This advanced interface allows you to backward/forward sentences and paragraphs.
5. vozMe TTS Program
vozMe allows you to convert text to speech or MP3 audio files directly. All you need to do is enter your text and click the "Create mp3" button. vozMe now supports six languages, including Espanol, English, Italiano, Hindi, Portuguese and Catala.
Another great feature of vozMe is "Speech in Your Browser". vozMe lets you add a speech synthesis bookmarlet to your browser. After installing the male or female voice bookmarklet, select any text as you browse, click the "vozMe" button in your browser and you will hear the text.
For webmasters, vozMe supplies a variety of utilities to help you add speech to your website, such as Wordpress plugin, Template for Blogger, Joomla plugin or code, and common code of adjustable text/image links or buttons.
All of the above online services are free to use, no software download and installation. They are the easiest way to learn about text-to-speech technology, but not the best. If you want to experience all the features of this technology like faster conversion, easier opening, clipboard reading, pronunciation corrections, speech control tags, etc., you will need a professional text-to-speech software, such as 2nd Speech Center.