home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Share Gallery 1
/
share_gal_1.zip
/
share_gal_1
/
CO
/
CO029C.ZIP
/
PC-VCO22.ZIP
/
VOICE.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-07-25
|
13KB
|
610 lines
VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
-----------------------------------------
VOICE driver for PC-VCO
Phoneme-to-sound drive for the IBM PC
-----------------------------------------
VOICE.EXE is distributed with the PC-VCO visual conferencing
accessory. VOICE.EXE is intended for use ONLY with PC-VCO.
It is so marked. PC-VCO is "shareware". If the program is
found to be useful or entertaining, a registration of $50.00
is requested. The author will make arrangements with regis-
trants for other uses of VOICE. The author may be reached:
CABER Software
R. (Scott) McGinnis
P.O. Box 3607 Mdse Mart
Chicago, IL 60654-0607
PLINK, GEnie id: TARTAN
SOURCE: BEM823
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
VOICE version 1.0 is copyright 1988 CABER Software (R. Scott
McGinnis) as a part of the PC-VCO communications accessory. All
rights are reserved world wide, excepting redistribution under the
ShareWare concept. PC-VCO is distributed freely and may be copied
by anyone for any number of machines, under the ShareWare concept.
PC-VCO is distributed as ShareWare. You may use PC-VCO without
charge for the purposes of evaluating it's usefulness to your
purposes. It is suggested that this evaluation period be limited to
a few days of actual use. If you find PC-VCO to be worth continued
use, then you are asked to pay for it. The payment is called a
"registration fee". Complete the included registration form and
mail it with your payment.
Registration of PC-VCO includes the communications program COM-AND,
all published accessory programs (which currently are CCHESS,
CBRIDGE, and CCOLOR), and several utilities (VCOLIB, VOICE, unPACKIT
and unSTUFIT). COM-AND, accessories and utilities are published
separately. One registration covers any and all of these programs.
By registering your copy of PC-VCO (or any ShareWare product), you
are promoting and supporting the convenient distribution method and
free evaluation policy that brought you this copy of PC-VCO.
If you have received this copy from a Users' Group, "Software
Library" or "SIG", and have paid a small fee (usually $3 to $10),
you have NOT acquired a registration or continued right to use
PC-VCO. This fee was for the convenience of obtaining the diskette
with PC-VCO on it. The fee does NOT apply to the registration fee.
You may NOT distribute PC-VCO or it's documentation in connection
with ANY commercial venture, product, publication or service without
written approval. PC-VCO may not be disassembled or modified
without express written consent.
PC-VCO is supplied "as-is" with no warranties expressed or implied.
Neither CABER software nor the author will be liable for any damages
or lost revenues incurred through the use of this program or any of
its accessories and utilities beyond the registration price paid.
Version 1.0; 880706
VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
Table of Contents
-----------------
I. Introduction .............................................. page 1
II. Using VOICE.EXE ............................................ page 3
III. Program Requirements ....................................... page 4
IV. Program and Author Information ............................ page 5
Appendices
----------
A. VOICE.EXE arpabet .......................................... page 6
B. SPEECH.COM arpabet ......................................... page 7
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 1
I. Introduction
A. What is PC-VCO?
PC-VCO for the IBM PC is an accessory program, intended to be
used with a 'base' communications program. PC-VCO is integrated
into the included program 'COM-AND'. However, PC-VCO may be used
with any comm program supporting a 'DOS gateway' that does not
break an established comm link.
PC-VCO, used with network conferencing services such as People-
Link's PARTY, CompuServe's CB and GEnie's RTC conferencing,
provides a way to 'see' and 'hear' people talking. PC-VCO is a
graphics communications program (the 'see'ing...) interfacing to a
speech driver (the 'hear'ing...).
The speech function of PC-VCO is supplied by a resident speech
driver. Currently, PC-VCO interfaces two speech drivers:
VOICE.EXE (created for PC-VCO) and SPEECH.COM (the original
interface, believed to be public domain). PC-VCO only implements
an interface to the driver. Text-to-phoneme conversion is
performed in PC-VCO.
B. The SPEECH.COM driver
The resident speech driver SPEECH.COM and associated programs (SAY
and READ) were originally found on a public domain Bulletin Board
in Chicago. The author's name is not contained in the document,
and no statement is made as to its ownership or copyright.
The author IS identified within the executable object files (as
Andy McGuire... I incorrectly referred to Douglas Sisco in
earlier documents). I have attempted to find anyone who knows of
Andy McGuire, with no success to date. SPEECH.COM is not
included in this release (nor has it has been in any - its not
mine to give). It is available on most services as SPEECH.ARC.
The current speech driver (by Andy McGuire) will not function
with DOS 3.xx (so its document states), without patching.
The driver is limited to a 4.77 Mhz clock as well. I published
a patch for SPEECH.COM... but that patch is mostly ineffective
above 8Mhz.
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 2
I. Introduction (continued)
C. The VOICE.EXE driver
Beginning with version 2.2 of PC-VCO, PC-VCO interfaces its own
speech driver (VOICE.EXE). VOICE.EXE was created to support
PC-VCO, and provides the following advantages over SPEECH.COM:
o VOICE.EXE is not CPU speed dependant
o VOICE.EXE will run with any version of MS-DOS after 2.0
o VOICE.EXE implements a broader 'arpabet' (the phoneme set)
compatible with the MacIntosh/Amiga arpabet
o VOICE.EXE permits a limited variance of speech pitch and
speaking rate
o VOICE.EXE may be loaded 'on top' of PC-VCO and deleted after
use (and it may be used TSR as well!)
D. This document
This document describes the use and function of VOICE.EXE. At
this time, programming specifics are not included - VOICE.EXE is
offerred ONLY for use with PC-VCO. Registrants of PC-VCO may make
private arrangements with this author for other uses.
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 3
II. Using VOICE.EXE
PC-VCO defaults to the use of the VOICE.EXE speech driver. It
expects to find VOICE.EXE on the current subdirectory. VOICE may
be used with PC-VCO in one of two ways:
A) Place VOICE.EXE on the subdirectory from which you execute PC-VCO.
When you enable voice (SPEECH pull-down, or /V in the run
command), PC-VCO will load VOICE.EXE automatically. When PC-VCO
terminates, it terminates VOICE.EXE as well.
-or- B) Load VOICE.EXE before loading PC-VCO (and before loading ANY
communications program, if you use PC-VCO with a comm program).
Loaded manually, VOICE.EXE becomes a terminate-and-stay-resident
utility. It takes up space until you next boot.
That's all there is to it. PC-VCO performs text-to-phoneme
conversion and passes the phonemes to VOICE.EXE for sounding. The
quality is about what you'd expect without digital-to-analogue
conversion... but its a start.
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 4
III. Program requirements
This program can only function on an IBM PC or DOS compatible
machine.
Certain I/O is done through the 'Handle' oriented I/O routines
added to DOS 2.0. Therefore DOS 2.0 is a minimum requirement.
VOICE (Version 1.0) requires 21K for itself. You need 117K
(minimally) for PC-VCO, and considerably more it you load PC-VCO
through a DOS gateway, or COM-AND's accessory menu.
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 5
IV. Author information
VOICE was written using Microsoft Macro-Assembler. The author likes
assembler. Assembly language is an entirely appropriate vehicle for
some of the program, and a not-inappropriate vehicle for the rest.
The author of this program is R. Scott McGinnis of Chicago,
Illinois. PLINK and GEnie ID: TARTAN. Comment and suggestions
(and criticism in moderation) are welcomed:
CABER Software
R. (Scott) McGinnis
P.O. Box 3607 Mdse Mart
Chicago, IL 60654-0607
I wish to thank my wife, Elizabeth, for offerring her voice for
digitization. Her voice provides a reasonable mid-range value. My
own voice is rather low. Speaking pitch is varied by control of the
output sample frequency (varying the speed of output if you wish),
and her voice is nicely centered in the desirable range. My voice
turns 'Donald Duck' quickly.
This TSR utility may not be distributed without PC-VCO. It is
offerred ONLY for use with PC-VCO. PC-VCO is 'shareware". If
PC-VCO/VOICE is found entertaining or useful, a contribution of
$50.00 is requested. If response warrants it, I will continue to
develop and support this product.
Registrants of PC-VCO are invited to contact the author if they wish
to use VOICE.EXE in other applications.
Version 1.0: 880706
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 6
A. VOICE.EXE arpabet
Phonemes are represented to VOICE.EXE textually.
Vowels Consonants
------------------------- -----------------------
IY beet IH bit R red L yellow
EH bet AE bat W away Y yellow
AA hot AH under M men N men
AO talk UH look NX sing
ER bird OH border S sail SH rush
AX about IX solid F fed TH thin
Z has ZH pleasure
Dipthongs V very DH then
------------------------- CH check J judge
EY made AY hide /H hole /C loch
OY boil AW power B but P put
OW low UW crew D dog T toy
G guest K camp
Special symbols
-------------------------
DX pity (tongue flap)
Q kitt_en (glottal stop)
RX car LX call
(postvocalic R and L)
QX (silent vowel)
Contractions
-------------------------
UL = AXL IL = IXL
UM = AXM IM = IXM
UN = AXN IN = IXN
Punctuation
-------------------------
Digits 1-9 stress marks (unimplemented in version 1.0)
. sentence terminator
? sentence terminator
- phrase delimeter
, clause delimeter
( ) noun phrase delimeters (unimplemented in version 1.0)
For example:
"I can talk" would be written "ay kaen tawk "
Version 1.0: 880706 Appendices
VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 7
B. SPEECH.COM arpabet
Phonemes are represented to SPEECH.COM textually. Individual
phonemes are separated by "-" if they are to be sounded smoothly.
Phonemes are:
a - tApe ae - hAt ah - fAther
aw - AWful b - Book ch - CHurch
d - Dog ee - fEEt eh - sEt
f - Find g - Get i - I
ih - sIt j - Just k - King
l - Look m - Make n - New
oh - hOE oo - bOOt p - Peek
r - Ring s - See sh - SHeep
t - Tool th - tooTH tz - THe
u - lOOk uh - Up v - View
w - Window wh - Where y - You
z - Zoo zh - whatever.
" " - pause between words
"-" - connect two or more phonemes
For example:
"I can talk" would be written "i k-ae-n t-aw-k "
Version 1.0: 880706 Appendices