[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Design Team agenda item: TTS, e-speak and voices

[Chris Leonard]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:21 PM, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org> wrote:
> Thanks Chris by putting this topic on the table.
> Overall, I am no sure this is a topic to the Design Team,
> anyway, I will add a few comments below...

Well, I'd argue that a slow drift towards "lock-in" on a core
technology involving an aspect of the user interface (TTS) merits some
Design Team consideration, I will not dispute that the needs are
heavier core developer-type action items than "graphic design".

> We need research:
> * Can we use mbrola voices? (http://espeak.sourceforge.net/mbrola.html)
>
> * Gnome-speech: When I implemented the tts feature in sugar,
> tried to use gnome-speach to have a layer where we can use espeak or
> festival voices,
> but at the moment I tested it, festival voices were not recognized,
> then I decided use espeak only. We can change that if found a better solution.
> We should test again (a quick test in F17, only show a festival voice)

Yes, part of my purpose in posting this was to raise awareness and
perhaps get others interested in working with you on the speech engine
question.  I seems like too big a task to drop on one person, plus we
want the benefit of any other experience that might be out there.

> * Move speech to sugar-toolkit: we have a lot of code copy pasted in
> the activities
> to implement tts. Having a central implementation should solve a lot
> of problems.

>From a L10n perspective, I'd be happy to see the e-speak voice lists
from Speak and Memorize collapsed into a single place.

> I think the problem is not espeak, but the gstreamer espeak plugin.

I stand corrected, but it is still a packaging issue right?

re: new voice files
>
> I don't know how difficult this can be, but quidam said
> is very difficult create good voice files.
>
> I think we need find other groups of experts in the topic
> and try to create alliances. Many of the voices are created by universities.

Agreed, this can't be a Sugar Labs solo effort.  Part of the criteria
of anything that we lean on as heavily as e-speak for TTS should be an
assessment of the vitality of the upstream and the potential for
developing a collaborative effort (as opposed to taking on support of
the upstream package).

cjl