67
edits
Changes
no edit summary
Q.8: '''What is the name of your project?
Q.8: '''What is the name of your project?
A: Speech Synthesis in core sugar
A: Speech Synthesis
----
----
Q.9: '''My project description. What are you making?
Q.9: '''My project description. What are you making?
A: I want to integrate speech in the core sugar. Means I want to provide speech synthesis as a basic functionality in sugar.
A: I want to integrate speech in the core sugar. Means I want to create a framework which can provide speech synthesis as a basic functionality in sugar.
: According to eye-tracking research it can be shown that ‘’viewers naturally synchronize the auditory and textual information while watching a film song with SLS. When SLS is integrated into popular TV entertainment, reading happens automatically and subconsciously.’’
: Let me become more clear. I am using case scenarios to clear my proposal. Imagine any window containing some text is open in sugar. Now what I will do is to provide speech to the text in that window. And of-course user has the freedom to listen the text he has selected. Means this framework will speak either the complete text contained in the window or the user selected text.
: Now how user can do this is very simple.
: First he have to select the text he wants to listen then he can simply press a keyboard shortcut (key combination like Alt+s) or a button provided in the sugar like the home button. From now onwards I will call this button as speech button. This button can be made as a permanent which is showed up on moving the mouse pointer to the top left corner of the screen.
: I will also provide a configuration management tool with a simple GUI. Simple because our target users are small children of age group 3-15.
: Now what you can do with this tool is that you can configure the speech. Like you can increase or decrease the volume, can change the language, can change the '''accent, pitch, male or female voice, rate of speech etc.
: I will also provide karaoke style coloring or captioning to the words being spoken. Like for example write activity is open up in sugar with some text. Then the user selects the text and presses the speech button. Now the framework will start speaking the selected text.
: The word which is currently being spoken will be captioned so that user can keep the track of the word.
: One more thing which I am including is a keyboard speaker. In the configuration tool, the user will be provided with an option of turning on or off the keyboard speaker. So if the key board speaker is turned on, then as the user presses any keyboard key, the framework will speak it. Like if user presses Tab key then the framework will speak 'Tab', on pressing caps lock it will speak 'caps lock' and so on.
: Now after describing so many features of this framework, I think that why not to make it a useful thing for the blind users. So here is an idea.
: ICON READER. Now what is icon reader is simple. As the blind user is browsing the XO, he can keep track of the current position of the mouse pointer. Suppose at present the mouse pointer is at Home button. Then as the user presses a pre-defined keyboard key the framework will speak 'Home'. Similarly if pointer is at desktop the framework will speak 'desktop'.
: If sugar labs likes this idea then they can provide a simple change in the XO hardware by creating that predefined keyboard key feel-able for the blind user. Like for example there are two keys j and f having a slight projection for feel. This functionality can be a boon for blind users.
: Here again I am pointing the main characteristics of my proposal:
* ''' Providing speech to text opened in any window in any activity in sugar.
* ''' Providing a configuration Panel with GUI from which speech configuration can be changed.
* ''' Karoake style coloring of the text being spoken.
* ''' Key board speaker.
* ''' Icon reader.
: Language learning can be a great experience if done with speech. The literacy rate can be increased by 6-10% if speech is also included with text because this is the ability of our brain to easily remember sounds rather than text. So I am making this activity for children of age group 3-15 so that learning language can become easier for them.
: '''Who are you making it for?
: '''What technologies (programming languages, etc.) will you be using?
: According to eye-tracking research it can be shown that ‘’viewers naturally synchronize the auditory and textual information while watching a film song with SLS. When SLS is integrated into popular TV entertainment, reading happens automatically and subconsciously.’’
: I discussed a lot with alsroot, assimd and besmac on IRC about this project. The main points of discussion are:
: Language learning can be a great experience if done with speech. The literacy rate can be increased by 6-10% if speech is also included with text because this is the ability of our brain to easily remember sounds rather than text. So I am making this framework for children of age group 3-15 so that learning language can become easier for them.
: Not only this, XO can now become a boon or a useful thing for blind children too.
: '''Why do they need it?
: The main of sugar is to spread the fruit of literacy. And as I have already mentioned that students can learn very fast if speech is also included with the text or words they read. So including this framework in sugar will make it more efficient.
: Not only this, now the blind students or children can also use the XO which will be like a boon for them. Blinds also want to study...
: '''What technologies (programming languages, etc.) will you be using?
: I discussed a lot with alsroot, assimd and besmac on IRC about this project. The main points of discussion are:
: Some rough ideas of implementation:
: Some rough ideas of implementation: