Mega CD-ROM 1/megacd_rom_1.zip/megacd_rom_1/HANDICAP/VEDOCS20.ZIP/APPENF.DOC

Text File | 1991-06-11 | 42KB | 916 lines

APPENDIX F
SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS

Vocal-Eyes is a very easy to get along with screen reader.  By that we mean,
it works with many voice synthesizers.  Vocal-Eyes was not written for a
specific synthesizer however, it takes advantage of each synthesizers unique
features.  Some screen readers only work with one synthesizer and others
require you to get a completely different version for each synthesizer you
wish to use.  In our minds, this is not acceptable.  Here are the
synthesizers Vocal-Eyes directly supports:

- Sounding Board by GW Micro
- All Accent boards by Aicom Corporation
- All artic boards compatible with SONIX.COM and TTS.COM by Artic
Technologies
- Apollo by Dolphin Systems
- Braille 'n Speak by Blazie Engineering
- DECtalk by Digital Equipment Corporation
- Portable DECtalk by The Childrens Hospital
- Echo PC and GP by Street Electronics
- Internal ECHO PC+ and MC and 1000 by Street Electronics
- DoubleTalk PC by RC Systems
- Audapter by Personal Data Systems
- ASP by Automated Speech Functions
- Personal Speech System versions A and B by Votrax
- Prose 4000 by Speech Plus Incorporated
- Votalker by Votrax

Did you see your synthesizer in this list?  If not, all is not lost.  There
is a Generic option which will probably work.  Many of you may say, "Sure it
will work but I will not be able to use any of its features such as rate,
pitch, volume and most of all the silence command."  Fear not, you can setup
what Vocal-Eyes should send for each of the 10 possible rates, 10 volume
levels, 10 pitch levels, 26 tones, silence string and even an initialization
string.  Chances are, we already fully support the synthesizer you are using.
But if not, as you can see, you can customize the generic option to your
individual synthesizer.  If your synthesizer supports all of the above
commands, Vocal-Eyes will use them.

When you first startup Vocal-Eyes, it scans memory for your synthesizer
driver.  First, Vocal-Eyes will search for the Sounding Board software.  If
it does not find it, it will look for one of the supplied synthesizer
drivers.  Each of these drivers will be discussed in detail later in this
appendix.

The Sounding Board is the only synthesizer which does not require one of the
supplied drivers.  If you are using a synthesizer other than the Sounding
Board, the corresponding driver must be loaded prior to loading Vocal-Eyes.
If no synthesizer was found, you will get the message "Synthesizer driver not
loaded" and Vocal-Eyes will not be loaded.  If you are using the Sounding
Board, issue the commands to get it going.  If you are using another
synthesizer load the proper driver.  Now rerun Vocal-Eyes and this time it
will work.  Notice you do not have to tell Vocal-Eyes what port your
synthesizer is located in.  Vocal-Eyes gets all the information it needs
directly from the synthesizer driver automatically.

Below is a list of each synthesizer and what is required in order to use it
with Vocal-Eyes.  Also, any unique features relating to each synthesizer will
be discussed.  If you require any further information relating to your
synthesizer, please refer to your synthesizer's owners manual.

SOUNDING BOARD

The Sounding Board is by far the best choice if you require an extremely
responsive synthesizer.  Every feature Vocal-Eyes supports, the Sounding
Board handles.  In fact, the Sounding Board hot keys can be used to enhance
Vocal-Eyes performance.  Fastforward and Rewind work great.  If you press
either the increase or decrease hot keys for the rate or volume, Vocal-Eyes
will also, automatically adjust the screen voice setting accordingly.  The
only hot key which will not work with Vocal-Eyes is the punctuation hot key.
This is because Vocal-Eyes uses a much more sophisticated punctuation scheme.
Vocal-Eyes therefore automatically disables this hot key.  You may wish to
use the Sounding Board's hot key redefinition feature to undefine the
punctuation hot key since it will not work with Vocal-Eyes anyway.  Feel free
to setup and use all of the hot keys as you see fit.

The Rate, Volume, Pitch and Tone commands all map exactly into the Sounding
Board commands.  For example a Vocal-Eyes rate of 7 matches exactly rate 7 of
the Sounding Board.

In order to use the Sounding Board, you must load the programs SBLOAD.COM and
SB.COM.  These programs are supplied with the disk you received with your
Sounding Board.  However, the very latest version is also on your Vocal-Eyes
disk.  Vocal-Eyes requires version 2.0 or greater.  If you try and use
Vocal-Eyes with an earlier version of the Sounding Board software, you will
get an error message and Vocal-Eyes will not be loaded.  Simply replace the
version you were using with the version supplied on your Vocal-Eyes disk.

Therefore, assuming you don't require any Sounding Board command line
parameters, you would have to type the following at the DOS prompt:

SBLOAD
SB

Now simply start Vocal-Eyes in the usual manner.  Vocal-Eyes will take over
from here.

If you are using macros and have the MACRO.COM program loaded you will notice
when you enter Review Mode by pressing the fast review key, not only do the
macro keys no longer work, the Sounding Board hot keys also no longer work.
If you enter via the Review hot key, both the macro and the Sounding Board
hot keys work as always.  This is done on purpose for those using macros.

NON SOUNDING BOARD USERS

As we said earlier, all synthesizers except for the Sounding Board, you must
load the supplied driver.  Although we are referring to these as drivers, you
do not load them in the CONFIG.SYS.  These are actually .COM files which are
loaded directly from the DOS prompt.  The following lists all device drivers
and what synthesizers they are to be used with.

All ACCENT synthesizers                           ACCENT.COM
Apollo (external)                                 APOLLO.COM
Apollo (internal)                                 INAPOLLO.COM
Artic boards which use SONIX.COM and TTS.COM      ARTIC.COM
ASP                                               VEASP.COM
Audapter                                          AUDAPTER.COM
Braille 'n Speak                                  BNSPEAK.COM
DECtalk                                           DECTALK.COM
DoubleTalk PC                                     DBLTALK.COM
Echo PC or Echo GP                                ECHOPC.COM
Internal Echo PC+, MC or 1000                     INTECHO.COM
Prose 4000                                        PROSE4.COM
Personal Speech System version A                  PSSA.COM
Personal Speech System version B                  PSSB.COM
Portable DECtalk                                  PDECTALK.COM
Votalker                                          ARTIC.COM
All other synthesizers                            GENERIC.COM

The appropriate device driver must be loaded before you load Vocal-Eyes.  The
following describes the available command line parameters which can be used
for any of the above drivers.

/!Cn or /!Ln  (Port assignment)

Certain synthesizers require you to specify the port which they are connected
to.  If this is the case, you must include this command on the command line.
If you do not specify this parameter and your particular synthesizer requires
it, you will get the following error message.

Speech port not specified!

Don't worry if you get this error message, simply issue the command again.
But this time include the port assignment command.

This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes to which port your synthesizer is
connected.  Enter this parameter by typing /! and then following it with
either a C or an L (C standing for COM port and L for LPT port) and a number
designating the number of the port.  /!C1, for instance, informs Vocal-Eyes
that your synthesizer is connected to COM1.  /!L3, on the other hand,
designates LPT3 as the appropriate port.  You can specify any of the three
LPT ports 1-3 or any of the four COM ports 1-4.

Drivers which require a port assignment are:

All Accent synthesizers, external Apollo, ASP, Audapter, Braille 'N Speak,
DECtalk, Portable DECtalk, Echo PC, Personal Speech System and Generic.

Drivers which do not require a port assignment are:

Internal Apollo, Artic, Votalker, DoubleTalk PC, Internal Echo and Prose
4000.  If you specify a port on any of these drivers, it will be ignored.

/!Bn  (Baud rate assignment)

This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the baud rate of your synthesizer.  If you
are using a parallel synthesizer, or one which did not require a port
assignment, this command will be ignored.  If you do not specify this
parameter, the device driver will default to 9600 BAUD.  If you wish to use
the command, use one of the following forms:

     /!B1 = 1200 baud
     /!B2 = 2400 baud
     /!B3 = 300 baud
     /!B4 = 4800 baud
     /!B9 = 9600 baud

/!Pn  (Parity assignment)

This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the parity required by your speech
synthesizer.  If you are using a parallel synthesizer, or one which did not
require a port assignment, this command will be ignored.  Enter N for No
parity, O for Odd parity or E for Even parity after the /!P.  For example,
/!PO would signal odd parity and /!PN would signal no parity.  If you do not
use this parameter, the device driver will default to no parity.

/!Dn  (Data bits assignment)

This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the number of data bits required by your
speech synthesizer.  If you are using a parallel synthesizer, or one which
did not require a port assignment, this command will be ignored.  Enter /!D7
for 7 data bits or /!D8 for 8 data bits.  If you do not use this parameter,
the device driver will default to 8 data bits.

/!Sn  (Stop bits assignment)

This parameter informs the number of stop bits required by your speech
synthesizer.  If you are using a parallel synthesizer, or one which did not
require a port assignment, this command will be ignored.  Enter /!S1 for 1
stop bit or /!S2 for 2 stop bits.  If you do not use this parameter, the
device driver will default to 1 stop bit.

EXCEPTION DICTIONARY

With Vocal-Eyes even if your synthesizer does not directly support an
exception dictionary, you can still set one up.  Each driver supports a user
exception dictionary.  Those of you familiar with the Sounding Board will
feel at home with this feature as it was modeled after it.

Of course no matter which voice synthesizer you will be using, there will
always be unusual words, specialized terms, proper names, and symbols that it
will not pronounce exactly as you might like.  For that reason, we've given
you an ability to add your own custom dictionaries of exceptional words.  You
must first create a standard ASCII file containing the exceptional word(s)
and a mis-spelling of the word(s) that sounds proper.  For example, if you
would like to have the abbreviation "lb" to be spoken as "pounds" and the
roman numeral VI to be spoken as "6", enter these four lines in an ASCII
file:

     lb
     pounds
     vi
     6

Note:  Upper or lower case is not important.

Enter the correct spelling that is mis-pronounced on the first line, and the
mis-spelling that sounds better on the following line.  Give this file a
meaningful name, and save it on disk.  How about "VE.DIC."  You'll probably
find the exception dictionary feature quite useful for abbreviations, roman
numerals, acronyms, and proper names.

As was said earlier, this file must be in a standard ASCII format.  If you
are using a word processor, make sure you pick this option when saving.  If
you are using Noteworthy, simply save it as you would save any file.
Noteworthy is perfect for this type of editing as well as batch files.

There are a few rules of what can and can not be in this file.

1) Each entry must take two lines in the file.  The correctly spelled word on
line one and the mis-spelled word on line two.

2) The first line (correctly spelled word) can ONLY contain letters A-Z and
the apostrophe.  No other symbols are allowed.

3) The second line (mis-spelled word) can contain any standard printable
characters including spaces.

Let us see how to use the feature.

When you first startup your specific synthesizer driver for your current
session, it will attempt to load the dictionary file called "VE.DIC" by
default.  Assuming the file exists, it will automatically be loaded and used.
Nothing is required other than loading the specified driver as you have
always done.

However, if you wish to load a file with a different name you will need to
use the following command line parameter:

Parameter:  /Efilename

The synthesizer driver will load an ASCII file containing new rules for
text-to-speech translation by using the "E" parameter.  "filename" can be any
valid DOS file specification, including drive and directory information.  For
example, if you are using an ECHO PC synthesizer and you wanted to load a
dictionary file called 'LOTUS.DIC' on the C: drive under the directory called
'LOTUS', you could issue the command:

ECHOPC /EC:\LOTUS\LOTUS.DIC

After the dictionary is loaded successfully, the driver will confirm its
acceptance of the new rules with a message.  Remember, by default, the first
time the driver is issued it will look for a file called "VE.DIC" on the DOS
default log path, and load it, if it's located there.  The number of new
rules that can be added depends on a buffer setting.  The default buffer size
will accommodate approximately thirty to forty entries.

If there was a problem while trying to load the dictionary, you could receive
one of the two error messages:

* Dictionary load error *
* Dictionary format error *

The Dictionary load error means the driver could not find the specified file
name or the file was too large for the supplied buffer.  Verify the file
exists and your buffer is large enough to hold the supplied dictionary.

The format error indicates that you did not follow the above rules while
creating the dictionary file.  Verify that the file is an ASCII format and
the two entries contain valid characters.

Previously, we said the default buffer size would allow around thirty to
forty entries.  This number of course depends on the size of the words you
are defining but it also depends on the buffer size.  The drivers allocate
512 characters of storage for dictionary entries by default.  Depending on
the size of each entry, this allocation will accommodate up to approximately
40 entries.  The arithmetic here is 512/12=42.  We are using six characters
as the average word size, and we are doubling that to encompass the
mis-pronounced word and the properly pronounced substitute.  Should you find
this allocation to be too small, use the exception dictionary buffer
parameter to increase the size of the buffer as needed.

To adjust the buffer size, use the following command:

Parameter:  /!Ex

Notice the ! (exclamation point).  As always, since this command contains the
exclamation point it can only be issued the first time you startup your
driver each session.  The x is a number between 0 and 9.  The number
determines how many 512 character chunks to allocate as part of the buffer.
The default is 1 or 512 characters.

For example, if you wanted to triple the number of possible entries, the
command would read like this:

DBLTALK /!E3

The "E" in this parameter stands or "exception", and the number corresponds
to some multiple of 512 characters.  Notice that the dictionary buffer can be
set to 0 characters.  This is because if you do not wish to use an exception
dictionary file, you should not be penalized by taking valuable memory.
Therefore if you are not using an exception dictionary, use the command:

DBLTALK /!E0

This will set the buffer size to 0 freeing up a valuable 512 characters.  Of
course, you will not be able to load any exception dictionary though.

You can if you wish combine both commands to increase the buffer size and
load the actual file on one command line.  Because you will be issuing the
/!Ex parameter, this must be done the first time the driver is loaded each
session.  For example:

DBLTALK /!E5/EWP

This will load the DoubleTalk PC driver and increase the exception dictionary
buffer to 5*512 bytes or 4 1/2K.  It will then load the file WP.DIC.

REFRESH COMMAND

The final command line parameter allows you to fine tune how the driver
communicates to your synthesizer.  The driver is constantly sending commands
to your synthesizer.  However, with interruptability enabled with Vocal-Eyes,
those commands may not be noticed by the synthesizer.  Therefore, the driver
will occasionally send the entire command sequence every so often to ensure
the synthesizer is in the correct mode.  Actually, after every ten silence
commands this happens.  If you are using a synthesizer which takes some time
to digest the new commands, you may notice an annoying pause at certain
times.  Therefore, the following command can be used to disable this feature.
Be aware however, it may be possible for your synthesizer to get stuck in a
wrong rate or pitch for instance.  Normally, this is not a problem unless you
have your keyboard and screen voices different from each other.  If they are
the same, your synthesizer should always be in the correct mode.

Parameter /Rx (x=0 or 1)  0=disable, 1=enable.  The default is enable.  This
means Vocal-Eyes will occasionally send out the entire command sequence to
the synthesizer to guarantee it is set properly.

To cause the driver to disable this feature, issue the following command line
parameter when the driver is first loaded each session:

 AUDAPTER /!C1 /!R0

The 'R' stands for refresh and the 0 disables the feature.  If your
synthesizer issues a slight pause about every ten keystrokes, you might want
to give this command a try.

When you have typed in the name of your driver followed by whichever switches
are appropriate--don't forget to press ENTER after typing in the complete
command-- a message should be printed to the screen and also spoken through
your synthesizer.  The message contains the name of the synthesizer and the
version number of the device driver.  If you do not wish to hear this
message, add a ; (semicolon) to the end of the command line parameter.  This
signals the driver not to speak the initial message.  For example:

ECHOPC /!C1/!B4/!E5/!R0/EBADWORDS;

This will load the device driver for the external echo synthesizer using COM1
at 4800 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity.  The exception
dictionary buffer is increased to 4 1/2K and the exception dictionary
BADWORD.DIC is loaded.  Finally the refresh command has been disabled.  The
welcome message will be printed to the screen but will not be spoken since
the command line ended with the ;.

PSSB /!L1

This will load the device driver for the Personal Speech System version B
synthesizer using LPT1.  Since this is being used on a parallel synthesizer,
there is no need to specify the baud, data bits, stop bits or parity.  The
initial message will be printed to the screen and spoken.

PROSE4

This simply starts up the driver for the Prose 4000 synthesizer.  This is a
synthesizer which does not require a port assignment.

Now that you understand all of the commands available for each of the
synthesizer drivers, lets talk specifically about each of the drivers in
turn.

ACCENT.COM

As we said, this should be used if you plan on using any of the ACCENT
synthesizers.  The accent boards support all ten rates, pitch values and
volumes but it does not support all 26 possible tone settings.  They only
support 10 possible tones.  Therefore, Vocal-Eyes tones A-D are mapped into
the accents tone 0.  Vocal-Eyes tones E-L are mapped into the accent's tones
1-8 respectively.  Finally Vocal-Eyes tones M-Z are mapped into the accent
tone 9.  This means all tones between M and Z will sound the same.  The same
is true for tones A-D.  All other features work as expected.

Before, you can use the internal accent, you have to load their device
driver.  Please refer to your accent user's manual for a complete description
of this process.  All necessary accent files should be loaded before you
attempt to load the ACCENT.COM driver.  By default, the internal Accent
synthesizer intercepts LPT3.  This means you should supply /!L3 on the ACCENT
command line.

APOLLO.COM

This driver will work with the external Apollo synthesizers.  The synthesizer
itself does not require any setup.  Simply execute the APOLLO driver.  The
Apollo supports the 10 rate levels and 10 pitch settings but does not support
the volume or tone settings.

The Apollo synthesizers do not support any handshaking.  This means when the
8K buffer in the synthesizer fills, any new data will be lost.  It is
suggested that you not try and send more than 8,000 characters to the
synthesizer at one time.  With true handshaking, the synthesizer will signal
to the computer that its internal buffer is full so stop sending data.  As
the synthesizer speaks, the buffer slowly empties.  When there is enough room
for more data, the synthesizer will tell the computer to start sending data
again.  Without this ability, the computer has no idea when the synthesizer
buffer is full.  Again, this will only be a problem if you send more than 8K
of data to the synthesizer at once.

ARTIC.COM

This is to be used for all ARTIC synthesizers which support the SONIX.COM and
TTS.COM.  Newer ARTIC cards combine these two programs into one.  Every card
produced by ARTIC is capable of being used by Vocal-Eyes.  However, you may
have to purchase their interface which allows non-Artic products to function
with it.

Also, the Votalker board from Votrax should use this driver.  You will
recall, the Votalker also uses SONIX.COM and TTS.COM.

Before you can load the ARTIC.COM driver, you must first load the above two
programs.  Assuming you do not require any command line parameters the
following can be typed from the DOS prompt:

SONIX
TTS

If you try and load the ARTIC.COM driver before loading the above two files,
the driver will print "SONIX not loaded!"  Simply load SONIX and TTS and
reload ARTIC.COM.  Those of you familiar with PORTTALK.COM will be happy to
know it is not required with Vocal-Eyes.  This driver will support all of
Vocal-Eyes' features.

This driver does not require you to specify a speech port.

AUDAPTER.COM

This driver is to be used with the Audapter synthesizer.  The Audapter
supports all 10 rate, pitch and volumes commands as well as all 26 tone
settings.

BNSPEAK.COM

This driver is to be used with the Braille 'n Speak from Blazie Engineering.
We do not recommend using the Braille 'n Speak in place of a true voice
synthesizer.  However, it works great for temporary installations.  It does
not support any of the 10 rates, pitch settings, volumes or tone settings
directly from Vocal-Eyes.  It does support the silence command but does not
respond very quickly to it.

In order for the Braille 'n Speak to be used as an external synthesizer, you
first must enable the serial port and then place it into what is called
"Speech box mode."  The following can be used to enable the Braille 'n Speak:

First perform a warm reset to assure the default settings:

Dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-chord
Dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-chord

Next enable the speech port:

P-chord
Dots 2, 6
Y

Next enable the Speech Box Mode

Dots 3, 4, 5-chord
Dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
E-chord

At this point, you can load the BNSPEAK.COM driver.  If you wish to adjust
the rate, pitch or volume you must issue the proper commands directly on the
Braille 'n Speak keyboard.  The Braille 'n Speak does not offer the ability
for Vocal-Eyes to handle these features directly.  The following is what is
required to adjust these three settings:

Dots 3, 4, 5-chord

At this point, the following keys adjust the following features:

Dot 1 Softer, Dot 4 Louder;  (volume)
Dot 2 Slower, Dot 5 Faster; (rate)
Dot 3 Lower, Dot 6 Higher; (pitch)

Once you have the desired settings, you must press:

E-chord

Now the Braille 'n Speak will use your new settings.  If you have any further
questions relating to the Braille 'n Speak, please refer to your Users Guide.

DECTALK.COM

This will allow you to use the well known DECtalk voice synthesizer.  This
synthesizer probably has the most pleasing voice quality but is by no means
a very responsive synthesizer.  It also costs much more the all the others.
However, Vocal-Eyes uses it to its full potential.  We are sure you will be
pleased with the results.

Since the DECtalk is a completely self-contained external synthesizer, you
don't have to load any additional software other than the DECTALK.COM driver.

It supports all ten rates and pitch settings but does not support any of the
volume settings.  Changing the volume from within Vocal-Eyes will have no
effect at all.  To adjust the volume, you must use the volume control on the
DECtalk itself.  Also, we decided to map in the 7 different voices the
DECtalk offers into the tone settings.  Therefore, Vocal-Eyes tones A-H will
use Huge Harry.  Tone I will use Perfect Paul.  Tone J will use Frail Frank.
Tone K will use Rough Rita.  Tone L will use Beautiful Betty.  Finally tones
M-Z will use Kit the Kid.  Also notice when Vocal-Eyes increases the pitch,
it increases the pitch for the current voice.  Some screen readers will
switch you to a different voice.  We feel increasing the Pitch is a more
subtle way of accomplishing the same task.

The DECtalk is probably the most complicated speech synthesizer available.
Because of this, it seems to respond somewhat slower than other synthesizers.
For example, you may silence the speech but the DECtalk may keep talking for
a few seconds before it decides to stop speaking.  Rest assured, Vocal-Eyes
told the DECtalk to stop speaking the moment you requested it to.

DBLTALK.COM

This is used for the internal DoubleTalk PC synthesizer.  The DoubleTalk
supports all ten speech rates, pitch and volume settings.  However, it only
supports 2 tone settings.  Vocal-Eyes tones A-M are mapped into the first
tone setting and Vocal-Eyes tones N-Z are mapped into the second.

You will notice using a rate of 9 will cause the DoubleTalk PC to talk much
faster but use a much higher pitch.  This is sort of a hyper-rate.  If you do
not feel comfortable with this rate, feel free to slow it down to a standard
rate.  This is only true for rate 9.

No other software is needed to setup the DoubleTalk PC.  Simply execute the
DBLTALK driver.  If the driver could not find the DoubleTalk PC, you will get
an error message.

Because the driver is capable of locating the DoubleTalk PC, no speech port
is required.

ECHOPC.COM

Although this is called ECHOPC.COM it can be used with the Echo GP as well.
This synthesizer like the DECtalk is a completely self-contained external
synthesizer, you don't have to load any additional software other then the
ECHOPC.COM driver.

The Echos support all ten pitch settings and volume settings.  However, it
only offers two speech rates.  Therefore, Vocal-Eyes speech rates of 0-4 will
issue the slower of the two speeds and rates 5-9 will issue the faster of the
two.  Also, the Echos do not support any of the tone settings at all.
Changing the tone value in Vocal-Eyes will have no effect at all on the
speech.

Unlike the DECtalk, the external Echos will stop speaking immediately when
requested to.  However, they have a side effect of squeaking or hiccuping.
This can get annoying if you are using interruptability.  You may wish to
turn interruptability off when working with Echo.

INAPOLLO.COM

This driver will work with the internal Apollo synthesizers.  The synthesizer
itself does not require any setup.  Simply execute the INAPOLLO driver.  The
Apollo supports the 10 rate levels and 10 pitch settings but does not support
the volume or tone settings.

This driver will work for the default settings of the standard desktop
internal.  However, you can adjust the port address on this board.  Also, the
Toshiba model has a different address still.  Therefore, you may have to
include the following command line parameter to specify the correct speech
base address.

/!Bx x=0-2  (0=308HEX, 1=318HEX, 2=Toshiba model)

By default, Vocal-Eyes will assume you are using the desktop with the
standard address of 308HEX.  If you have changed the address to 318H, you
must supply:

INAPOLLO /!B1

Or if you are using the internal Toshiba version, you must supply:

INAPOLLO /!B2

The Apollo synthesizers do not support any handshaking.  This means when the
8K buffer in the synthesizer fills, any new data will be lost.  It is
suggested that you not try and send more than 8,000 characters to the
synthesizer at one time.  With true handshaking, the synthesizer will signal
to the computer that its internal buffer is full so stop sending data.  As
the synthesizer speaks, the buffer slowly empties.  When there is enough room
for more data, the synthesizer will tell the computer to start sending data
again.  Without this ability, the computer has no idea when the synthesizer
buffer is full.  Again, this will only be a problem if you send more than 8K
of data to the synthesizer at once.

You do not have to specify a speech port.

INTECHO.COM

This driver will work with either the Echo PC+, MC or 1000.  All three of
these are treated the same.  The only difference is the machines they work
on.

In order to use these synthesizers, you need to load the program TALK.EXE.
This is supplied with your synthesizer.  Please refer to your synthesizer
manual if you have any questions on how to load this program.  If you try and
load the INTECHO.COM driver prior to loading the TALK.EXE program, the driver
will print "The ECHO software was not found."  Simply load TALK.EXE and
reload INTECHO.COM.

One of the options the TALK program offers is what key do you wish to silence
the speech with.  Do not assign a key for this feature.  Allow Vocal-Eyes to
handle this.

These synthesizers support all ten rates, pitch settings and volume levels.
However, it does not support any of the tone settings.  Vocal-Eyes' tone
options will have no effect at all.

These synthesizers require the complete attention of the machine while it is
speaking text.  Therefore, You may notice some sluggishness while using any
of these synthesizers.

These synthesizer do not require a port assignment.  Vocal-Eyes will
automatically find the synthesizer.

PDECTALK.COM

This will allow you to use the Portable DECtalk voice synthesizer.  This
synthesizer uses the same voice as the original DECtalk and has the same
characteristics.

Since the Portable DECtalk is a completely self-contained external
synthesizer, you don't have to load any additional software other than the
PDECTALK.COM driver.

It supports all ten rates and pitch settings but does not support any of the
volume settings.  Changing the volume from within Vocal-Eyes will have no
effect at all.  Also, we decided to map in the 7 different voices the DECtalk
offers into the tone settings.  Therefore, Vocal-Eyes tones A-H will use Huge
Harry.  Tone I will use Perfect Paul.  Tone J will use Frail Frank.  Tone K
will use Rough Rita.  Tone L will use Beautiful Betty.  Finally tones M-Z
will use Kit the Kid.  Also notice when Vocal-Eyes increases the pitch, it
increases the pitch for the current voice.  Some screen readers will switch
you to a different voice.  We feel increasing the Pitch is a more subtle way
of accomplishing the same task.

The Portable DECtalk is slightly different than the original DECtalk.  First,
it is capable of speaking at a much faster rate.  You will notice rate 9 for
the original DECtalk does not speak nearly as fast as the Portable DECtalk
rate 9.

The other difference is a flaw in the Portable DECtalk itself.  It has a
feature which will automatically powerdown the DECtalk if no character has
been received through the serial port within a configurable time.  This is to
conserve battery power.  Once a character is received, it was suppose to
power up and continue on normally.

However, if the Portable DECtalk is in the process of speaking something but
nothing has been sent to it through the serial port for some time, it would
shut down and not finish speaking the remainder of the text.  The PDECTALK
driver will disable this feature when it is first loaded.  However, if you
power down the Dec and power it back up again, the auto-powerdown feature may
be re-enabled.  Therefore, you should never power down the Portable DECtalk
unless you are finished with it.

The DECtalk is probably the most complicated speech synthesizer available.
Because of this, it seems to respond somewhat slower than other synthesizers.
For example, you may silence the speech but the DECtalk may keep talking for
a few seconds before it decides to stop speaking.  Rest assured, Vocal-Eyes
told the DECtalk to stop speaking the moment you requested it to.

PROSE4.COM

This should be used if you wish to use Vocal-Eyes with the PROSE-4000
synthesizer.  Even though this is an internal synthesizer, nothing else is
required to be loaded.  The PROSE4.COM contains all necessary information.
If you have the PROSE.COM utility, you should not use it.  This would
interfere with PROSE4.COM.

All ten rates, pitch settings and volume levels are supported.  However, the
PROSE does not support the tone settings.  Therefore, changing Vocal-Eyes'
tone settings will have no effect at all.  Like the DECtalk, if you silence
the speech it may take a moment to silence the speech.  Rest assured
Vocal-Eyes sent the proper commands to the PROSE.  Sometimes, it takes it a
moment or so to actually silence the speech however.

A speech port assignment is not required for this synthesizer.  However, if
you have changed the onboard IRQ from the default of 2 or have changed the
speech port address from the default of 300 HEX, you must supply a command to
the driver indicating the change.

/!Ix - x = 2-7.  This parameter will supply to the PROSE4 driver which IRQ
the Prose 4000 has been setup for.  By default the driver will assume IRQ 2.
This is the default for the Prose 4000 board.  If you have changed the IRQ
from 2, you must supply this parameter.  For example, if the IRQ has been
changed to 7, you must supply:

PROSE4 /!I7

/!Bx - x = 0-4.  (0=300HEX, 1=308HEX, 2=310HEX, 3=318HEX, 4=320HEX) This
parameter will supply to the PROSE4 driver the speech base address.  By
default the driver will assume 300 HEX.  This is the default for the Prose
4000 board.  If you have changed the base address from 300 HEX, you must
supply this parameter.  For example, if the speech address has been changed
to 318 HEX, you must supply:

PROSE4 /!B3

If necessary, you can combine both the IRQ command and the speech base
address.  This driver does not require a port address.

PSSA.COM

This is a self contained external synthesizer so nothing other then PSSA.COM
needs to be loaded.

This should be used for the Personal Speech System version A only.  This is
a relatively old synthesizer.  It really was not designed for the blind
community.  You will notice as you speed the voice up, the voice becomes very
choppy and difficult to understand.  It supports all ten rates, pitch
settings and volume levels.  However, it does not support any tone settings.
Changing Vocal-Eyes' tone option will have no effect whatsoever.

PSSB.COM

This is just like the PSSA.COM except it is for Personal Speech System
version B. It has the same features and limitations as version A.

VEASP.COM

This driver is to be used with the ASP synthesizer.  It supports all of the
Vocal-Eyes commands.

GENERIC.COM

This can be used if the synthesizer you are using is not directly supported
with its own driver.

You will need to setup your synthesizer as required in its users manual.
Once all its required software is loaded, simply load the GENERIC.COM driver.

At this point, you should be able to use your synthesizer with Vocal-Eyes.
However, you will not have any control over the rate, pitch, volume, tone and
worst of all, you will not be able to silence the voice from Vocal-Eyes.

If your synthesizer supports any of these features, you can tell the generic
driver how to use it.  When you first load GENERIC.COM, it looks for a file
called "GENERIC.DAT."  If this file does not exist, it will default to not
supporting any features at all.  However, if it does exist, the information
will be used giving Vocal-Eyes control it normally would not have.

The format of the GENERIC.DAT file is very important.  There is not much room
for error.  First of all, the file must be in a standard ASCII format.  It
must contain exactly 59 lines.  The first 10 lines relate to the 10 rate
commands, followed by the 10 pitches, 10 volumes, 26 tones, silence string,
initialization string and finally a list of punctuation characters that can
be sent to the synthesizer.  This all adds up to 59 lines.  Even if your
synthesizer does not support all features, you must make an entry for all 59
lines.  If there is a problem in the format of the file, the GENERIC driver
will print "Format error in GENERIC.DAT" and abort the load process.  You
should correct the problem and attempt to load the driver again.

In the following example, we will create a GENERIC.DAT driver for the
Sounding Board.  Of course, this is not needed for the Sounding Board but it
will make a good demonstration.

The first 10 lines of the file relate to rates 0 through 9.  Each rate
command must be on a line by itself.  First you need to figure out what
command your synthesizer needs for the 10 rates.  The Sounding Board uses
CTRL-ER0-9.  Therefore, the first 10 lines of your file would look like this:

/5/R0
/5/R1
/5/R2
/5/R3
/5/R4
/5/R5
/5/R6
/5/R7
/5/R8
/5/R9

You are probably wondering what the /5/ is used for at the beginning of each
line.  Many word processors or text editors will not let you place ESCAPE or
control characters directly in a file.  Therefore, whenever you wish to enter
one of these codes, use the format:

/n/

Where n is the ASCII value of the character you wish entered.  For example,
to enter an 'ESCAPE Control-Z A' as one of your entries, the following line
could be used:

/27//26/A

The /27/ is the ASCII value of the ESCAPE.  /26/ is the ASCII value of
Control-Z and of course the A can be enter directly.  What if you really
wanted to enter a '/' in your string?  Simply place two slashes together.
For example:

/5////6/B

This line would place a Control-E (/5/) followed by a / (//) followed by a
Control-F (/6/) and finally a B (B).

Therefore in our Sounding Board example, the /5/ is simply the required
Control-E character.

Now that we have defined the first 10 lines as the rate, the next 10 lines
need to define pitches 0-9.  The Sounding Board requires CTRL-EP0-9.
Therefore, the following would be lines 11-20.

/5/P0
/5/P1
/5/P2
/5/P3
/5/P4
/5/P5
/5/P6
/5/P7
/5/P8
/5/P9

Now, we need to define the 10 possible volumes 0-9.  The Sounding Board
requires CTRL-EV0-9.  Therefore, the following would be lines 21-30:

/5/V0
/5/V1
/5/V2
/5/V3
/5/V4
/5/V5
/5/V6
/5/V7
/5/V8
/5/V9

The next 26 lines need to define the 26 possible tones A-Z.  The Sounding
Board requires CTRL-EA-Z.  Therefore, the following would be lines 31-56:

/5/TA
/5/TB
/5/TC
.
.
.
/5/TX
/5/TY
/5/TZ

The next line in the GENERIC.DAT file should be the string which when sent to
the synthesizer will silence the speech.  On the Sounding Board this is
CTRL-X.  Therefore, the following would be line 57 in our GENERIC.DAT file.

/24/

Remember, /24/ simply means ASCII 24 which is a CTRL-X.

The next line contains the initialization string.  This string will only be
sent to your synthesizer one time.  You can use this feature to make sure
certain settings are always set the way they should be.  The Sounding Board
really does not require such a string.  Therefore, leave this line completely
blank.  Line 58 in our GENERIC.DAT file will simply be a blank line.

The final line holds all the punctuation characters which can be sent to the
synthesizer.  On the Sounding Board this is every character.  However, for
example, the Personal Speech System uses both the ! (exclamation point) and
the @ (at sign) for command strings.  If you send these characters, the
synthesizer will give an error.  So for the final line 59, you would type the
following if you are using the Personal Speech System:

 ~`()_^-{}|:[]"?\;,.'

Notice the leading space.  Make sure you include this character.  You should
try and send as many punctuation characters as possible so your synthesizer
can use them for intonation.  Notice the @ and ! have been left out.  There
are a few others which have been left out since they also can be used as
command characters.  Sounding Board users could have included each and every
punctuation character.

Now that you have all 59 lines typed in your file, save the file in a
standard ASCII format.  Assuming you have no errors, each time you load
GENERIC.COM, it will load the GENERIC.DAT file and use the information
specified.

It may take a bit to get this file setup but once it is done, you no longer
have to worry about it but your synthesizer will work forever.