OT: Text to Speech, Speech to Text software

[Michael Tauson]

All I have to say at this point is "WOW."  Thank you all for your
responses both on list and private.  I'm posting on list to answer a
bunch of comments and clarify a few things.

Bill, you've got nothing to apologize for.  People will read things as
they will and without audible or visual cues it's difficult to know
what is actually meant in many cases.

While I have a long history with computers, Noelle doesn't plus she's
3500 miles away which makes hands-on work a bit difficult.  Windoze is
a familiar and comfortable world for her while I've got time in an
array of OSs, both PC and mainframe, including an assortment of *IX
variants.  It might not help my reputation any to also mention I had a
friendly association with the original Pirates Bay in the 90s and
going that path again isn't out of the question if pressed.

We've gone to several associations looking for assistance but nothing
has come up, in a few cases because she has "complications" (MS,
Fibromyalgia, Meniere's Disease etc) and is terminal.  In the past
year, we've pretty much exhausted available resources which is why I
came here and went way off topic to see if anyone here has any ideas.
It's not something I would do unless I'd reached a point of utter
desparation.

Boy did people have ideas!  While the majority had to do with Linux
apps - not a problem if we were together since we'd both be running it
in a dual boot environment - a few didn't.  Linux isn't a problem for
me but I don't want to confuse her any more than necessary and with
the med load she's on (30 different meds daily plus another half dozen
or so as needed) that's not difficult.  From what I've read, Dragon
Naturally Speaking seems to be the speech to text favorite with
several offerings for text to speech worth investigating.  I doubt
I'll find anything that uses the AT&T voices she and I love so much
but I'm always digging and may find something.  AT&T might not be
adverse to donating one or two of the voices if I can (or so the sales
rep implied) so the first part of the problem is finding software that
uses them.  Wheee!

BTW: Dragon has come down by a lot since it was introduced, even the
special versions.  This rather surprised me.

If anyone has further ideas, please let me know.  Until then, let's
turn the lists over to the usual unscheduled fun.  :-)

mahalo nui loa

Best regards,

Michael, WH7HG ... father of the most wonderful daughter ever
-- 
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com
Hiki Nô!

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