It is my understanding that IBM intends that ViaVoice will e avaqilable to, and usable by our community in applications like Speakup and Emacspeak. I also believe that this technology is already, or will soon be available at this Wizard site mentioned. Clearly, this news story has a different point--but that's because they write for a different audience. Sina Bahram writes: > From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram at nc.rr.com> > > Janina any ideas on this? Do you think the components that are used for that > commercial package can then start to be used for Emacspeak or anything like > that again? > > Take care, > Sina > > No trees were destroyed in sending this message; however, a large number of > electrons were terribly inconvenienced. > > -----Original Message----- > From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca] > On Behalf Of Janina Sajka > Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 11:45 AM > To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca > Subject: ViaVoice Is Back > > > >From GCN's printer friendly version of the news story at: > http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client.id=gcndaily2&stor > y.id=24949 > > IBM brings text-to-speech to the Linux desktop > > 02/16/04 > By Patricia Daukantas, > GCN Staff > IBM Corp. researchers are bringing text-to-speech capabilities to the > Linux desktop. > Previously, production versions of IBM's text-to-speech engine had been > available only for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms, said > Rich Schwerdtfeger, an IBM software group accessibility strategist and > chairman of IBM's Accessibility Architecture Review Board. > A few years ago, the company had made a beta Linux version of the speech > engine available for downloading, but took it offline when it stopped > working > with later versions of the Linux kernel. > The speech engine, together with a screen reader, converts text on a > computer screen to sound but does not enable users to issue voice commands > to the > computer, Schwerdtfeger said. > Wizzard Software Corp. of Pittsburgh is distributing the IBM-developed > ViaVoice speech engine in its Interactive Voice Assistant line of products, > Schwerdtfeger said. > List pricing for the IVA Business Starter Kit, which assists users with > e-mail, dictation and Internet applications, is $95 per seat. The IVA Global > Business Suite, with additional translation and presentation > capabilities, and the IVA Communications Pack, with support for phone-to-PC > applications, > each cost $120 per seat. > > -- > > Janina Sajka > Email: janina at rednote.net > Phone: +1 (202) 408-8175 > > Director, Technology Research and Development > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > http://www.afb.org > > Chair, Accessibility Work Group > Free Standards Group > http://a11y.org > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Janina Sajka Email: janina at rednote.net Phone: +1 (202) 408-8175 Director, Technology Research and Development American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) http://www.afb.org Chair, Accessibility Work Group Free Standards Group http://a11y.org
