Half a Dozen Freeware Text-to-Speech Tools.
Created | Updated Mar 27, 2004
Half a dozen Freeware Text-to-Speech Tools
The First two!
1.Microsoft’s Agent /Narrator
2.Toyagent.. A IE4x Screen Reader
1....Microsoft’s Agent / Narrator.
At the time of writing, Windows 2000 and XP have the ability to produce Text-to-Speech Synthesized out put, by way of the Operating System Core Components (Narrator/MSAgent) build in.
Windows 9X /ME can have this software installed.
"©Microsoft’s" Agent /Narrator, System Software Requirements…
1. Windows® XP/2000/NT4/Me/9x or later
2. Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later
3. A Pentium 100-MHz PC (or faster)
4. At least 32 MB of RAM
5. At least 1 MB free disk space for the core components
6. An additional 2-4 MB for each character you install.
7. An additional 32K for each language component (dll).
8. A Windows-compatible sound card.
9. A compatible set of speakers and microphone.
Recommended…
1. Don’t forget to Backup, backup, backup. Your personal files
2. An additional 1.6 MB free disk space if you plan to use the Lernout AND Hauspie® TruVoice Text-To-Speech Engine.
3. An additional 22 MB free disk space if you plan to use the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine for speech input.
Considerations.
1.Don’t forget to Backup, backup, backup. Your personal files.
2.First Microsoft Agent is not an application that you can just run and expect to have characters to do things.
3.Second Microsoft Agent will become part of your Operating System and it is unlike that you can uninstall it.
4.The software is “FREE” and available form Microsoft Agent Home Page and, (MSAgent Web Ring).
5.Microsoft Agent must be specifically programmed to understand and interact with what you are saying.
6.Microsoft Agent does not support dictation.
Auto Install.
This is done by various applications.Manually Install.
STEP 1.
Download and Install, the Microsoft Agent Core Components”. Then store away the setup program.•WINDOWS XP/2000/Me Users may skip this step. Agent Core Components are already installed
Download the MSAgent.exe setup program and run it to install the core components and then run it.
STEP 2.
Download and Install, the Text-to-Speech Engine” tv_enua.exe Then store away the setup program.The Lernout AND Hauspie TruVoice Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine provides speech output capabilities for Microsoft Agent so you can hear what the characters are saying through your sound cards speakers. Download the tv_enua.exe setup program and run it to install the TTS Engine..
STEP 3.
Download and Install, the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine”actcnc.exe. (Optional, you can download this later). Then store away the setup program.Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine, version 4.0 actcnc.exe(6MB) the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine provides speech input capabilities for Microsoft Agent. This allows you to speak to characters through a microphone.If you've already installed this, you will see Microsoft Agent Speech Recognition Engine in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs list.
STEP 4.
Download and Install, the Microsoft Speech Control Panel”SpchCpl.exe (Optional, You can download this later.) Then store away the setup program.The Speech Control Panel will add an icon to your Control Panel to enable you to list the compatible speech recognition and text-to-speech engines installed on your system and customize their settings for your use.
STEP 5.
Download and Install, Some Microsoft Agent Characters”.There are many Agent characters available and many more are being created.
The most used characters seem to be Genie and Merlin, and some application will not install with out these being available.
Down load and run the setup programs for both Genie and
Merlin. Microsoft.
Appendix…
A list of some Lernout AND Hauspie TruVoice TTS Engine.
•British Eng.......lishlhttseng.exe........already installed
•American Eng......lishtv_enua.exe.........already installed
•Dutch.............lhttsdun.exe
•German............lhttsged.exe
•Italian...........lagtx0410.exe
•Japanese..........lhttsjpj.exe
•Spanish...........lhttsspe.exe
•French............lhttsfrf.exe
A list of some Microsoft TTS Engines
•Mary - Female Voice (English)my favorite
•Mike - Male Voice (English)
•Sam - Male Voice (English)
A list of some Microsoft Characters.
•Character: Peedy the Parrot
•Character: Genie
•Character: Merlin the Wizard
•Character: Robby the Robot
•Character: James
•Character: Charlie
•Character: Ozzar
•Character: Claude the Bear
•Character: Oscar the Cat
•Character: Plany
•Character: Milton the Bear
•Character: Marge
•Character: Wartnose
•Character: Al the Gangster
•Character: Cami
•Character: VRGirl my favorite
•Character: CheckMate
•Character: Max the Dog
•Character: E-Man
•Character: E-Woman
•Character: Felini
•Character: Cathie
•Character: Debbie
•Character: Isabella
•Character: Blanche
•Character: Woo
•Character: RovingCowboy
•Character: Cupid
•Character: Wabbit
•Character: Gourdy the Jack-o-Lantern
•Character: Reaper
•Character: Santa
•Character: Gar the Gargoyle
•Character: Hanz
•Character: Alien
•Character: Birdie
•Character: Spaceman
•Character: Electra
•Character: Joe
•Character: Sharky
•Character: Totem
•Character: Miku
Notes.
Microsoft Agent Characters….the characters files have the .ACS extensions.
Microsoft Agent Characters are distributed in the following file formats:
1....EXE Files - Some characters may be packaged as self-extracting executable files. Double-click the .EXE file after you have downloaded, it to automatically install the character to your character folder. Then store away the setup program.
Or Most .EXE files are ZIP compatible so you can optionally open them with a program like WinZip.
2....ACS If you get a .ACS file, just save them to your character folder (C:\WINDOWS\MSAGENT\CHARS for Windows 9X/ME or C:\WINNT\MSAGENT\CHARS for Windows NT/2000/XP) folder.
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OK now you have the bit and bob’s for the operating system to uses this technology.
