Amazability, Inc. www.amazability.com is preparing to release its Adept1 product which uses voice recognition for command and control and AT&T's Natural Voices with Fedora Linux. For those who might be interested there was a Tech Talk given by Ken Ingham at Google, Inc, in California which features the Adept1. The URL is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dysOKPXUrGk It will give you some idea of what Amazability, Inc. is trying to do. -----Original Message----- From: blinux-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blinux-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Martin McCormick Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 10:57 AM To: Linux for blind general discussion Subject: What Software Speech-enabled Linux Distributions Work Today? For years, I used UNIX via RS-232 or even sometimes telnet from a DOS P.C. using Kermit or telnet and an external speech box. I am still doing that at home, but the old hardware is making decisions for me by dying and it has been time to move along for some time. I have been using Debian Linux since about 2001 and my dream installation would be Debian with software speech that isn't flaky. If one has more than one computer available, the one that talks can get in to ones that don't if they have a serial port or are far enough in the conscious world to operate on a network. So, I am ideally looking for a non-orphaned Debian distribution that uses a non-commercial speech engine that works. Knowing that we rarely get everything we want in the real world, I am saying all of this sort of tongue in cheek. What we usually use is something that is as close as practical. Somebody said, "Don't let perfect kill good enough." When I tried GRML, it first appeared to be adequate until that spelling bug hit. No software synth was going to work there. Oralux has mostly worked well but it is orphaned. I am not set in concrete on anything but I would like to stick with Debian if possible for historical reasons although there is nothing really wrong with the other distributions. What is working now? In the case of this laptop, there is no native serial port so any installation must either talk or work through a network. Some general observations: Some of the best speech right now is on the new Macintoshes but they also have a terrible flaw right now. Speakup is the closest I've seen to getting this thing right, but what Macs do is reset their speech when new input comes in. You can't listen to, say, the output of a compiler and get anything useful because new lines kill what you are already listening to. In my job, we frequently use tail on system logs to look for output in real time and the Mac just stutters as new input arrives. You can play back the buffer, but that's no substitute for listening until you've heard enough. Speakup only resets when one presses keys so you can listen as long as you want and then kill the input. This is the kind of utility I want to continue. I have been experimenting with computers for 29 years now and UNIX is without a doubt closer to perfection when it comes to access than we've ever been before. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list