How to extend Extended BASIC vocabulary using allophones?

[+OLD CS1]

I became excited, and then subsequently in short course disappointed, in my "discovery" of the ALPHON device in the Terminal Emulator II module. I thought it fantastic that I could take a word which did not exist in the Speech Synthesizer's vocabulary and create data necessary to construct those words. At first, I though I would use that data to extend the vocabulary of TI Extended BASIC to fit my game(s) to provide a more rich experience in game play.

 

Woe unto me when I "discovered" that the TE-II ALPHON device output is unusable in TI XB. To the point that I have all but decided to completely remove speech capabilities from the XB version of my game(s), only providing it in TI BASIC with the TE-II module attached. Very disappointing.

 

Okay, get to the point, yeah? Yeah. Is there anything out there which will convert the TE-II ALPHON allophone data into the raw speeh data which I can pass to the Speech Synthesizer in TI XB? I have, just for fun, included a short list of words I want to build for my game "Tiles."

 

 

Word		Commands   Allophones
TILES		250,255,1, 112,49,75,100
TILE		250,255,1, 112,49,75
PATTERN		250,255,2, 109,26,112,11,79
HIDE		250,255,1, 117,49,89
MISS		250,255,1, 76,38,121
POINTS		250,255,1, 109,63,79,111,121
FOUND		250,255,1, 115,51,79,89
HELP		250,255,1, 117,56,75,110
WOULD		250,255,1, 83,64,89
BONUS		250,255,2, 86,67,78,45,121	! BOWNUS
SCORE		250,255,1, 120,103,66
TIE		250,255,1, 112,49
TIED		250,255,1, 112,49,89		! TIDE
COMPUTE		250,255,2, 107,19,76,109,85,44,113
PUBLICATIONS	250,255,4, 109,45,86,63,12,104,36,122,20,79,100
INCORPORATED	250,255,5, 13,78,107,42,109,42,36,112,21,89
COPYRIGHT	250,255,3, 107,107,27,109,55,28,113
CONVERSION	250,255,3, 107,20,78,97,37,122,20,79
WRITTEN		250,255,2, 82,38,112,10,79

 

 

While informative, and useful for building words phonetically by hand or modifying words adjusting for language nuances, and so on, this data is useless for normal usage since TE-II is just as happy to say "BOWNUS" via the SPEECH device as it is to say 250,255,2,86,67,78,45,121 via ALPHON.

Edited January 14, 2011 by OLD CS1

[sometimes99er]

Not created from the Terminal Emulator II module, but from real life sounds/voice ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVDE-6TtmFQ

 

QBOX Pro is the windows software that converts WAV files to LPC speech data for playback on the TI-99/4A speech synsthesizer. This is a 16bit windows application but it still runs in Windows 2000/XP/Vista. It does require the BWCC.DLL library.

 

I haven't tried it, but the assembler output, byte oriented data, should indeed be usable from within XB.

 

Construct a string, like A$ (you could have numeric data lines read into A$ using a loop), and have it spoken using CALL SAY(,A$)

 

Edited January 14, 2011 by sometimes99er

[+OLD CS1]

Not created from the Terminal Emulator II module, but from real life sounds/voice ...

(snip)

QBOX Pro is the windows software that converts WAV files to LPC speech data for playback on the TI-99/4A speech synsthesizer. This is a 16bit windows application but it still runs in Windows 2000/XP/Vista. It does require the BWCC.DLL library.

 

I haven't tried it, but the assembler output, byte oriented data, should indeed be usable from within XB.

 

Construct a string, like A$ (you could have numeric data lines read into A$ using a loop), and have it spoken using CALL SAY(,A$)

 

 

Thanks. I have QBox Pro and have given it some play. I suppose I could sample the TE-II SPEECH output and run it through but, frankly, that is too much work just to give XB enough vocabulary to play these simple games. If I were doing a more complex project with real voices I would definitely use it. I was just hoping for something to convert the raw numbers into raw numbers.

 

I assume that TE-II does not just pass the allophones to the Speech Synthesizer, right? That would mean that it has to convert them into LPC data for the synthesizer, which means there would have to be a conversion table in the module.

Edited January 14, 2011 by OLD CS1

[marc.hull]

Try the TI text to speech program. It pretty much duplicates the TEII functions in XB. I believe it's somewhere on WHT (good luck navigating that mess.) I have a copy somewhere I could EM you later this evening if you can't find it.

[unhuman]

You can use call SPGET to get the speech data and break it apart and recombine it. IIRC. I bought some program when I was a kid that essentially did that. Took HOURS to do anything. I think I got my computer to say "Baseball" as I was working on a game at that time. And then I walked away. There's that Ernie & Bert thing too... Although I think that was digitized.

 

I remember the lyrics to Ernie & Bert pretty well:

Hey Bert

Hey Ernie

Say, I was wondering if you could do me a really big favor, Bert.

Sure Ernie, what is it.

I would like you to pretend you are angry at me.

You would like me to pretend I'm angry at you?

Yeah, because your face looks all funny when you get angry at me.

 

Berts face turns red

starts over.

 

Amazing what's burned into my mind.

 

-H

Edited January 14, 2011 by unhuman

[GratedTopping]

Bert & Ernie? Yes, I was amazed back then at it!

 

I haven't heard it in ages; lets see how I recall it...

 

Hey Bert.

Hey Ern. [no "ie"]

I was wondering if you could do me a big favor, Bert.

Ah, sure Ernie, what is it.

Well, I would like you to pretend you are angry with me.

I should pretend that I'm angry with you?

Mmm-hmmm. You see... (Bert turns red) ... 'cause you're so good at getting angry.

 

----

 

I remember some program that used SPGET in Extended BASIC; something called "Verbose" from the 99'er magazine days. It helped combine parts of two words in the vocabulary

already to form new words. And I know there was a commercial product in the past, maybe from Asgard, that allowed any words in XB.

[+OLD CS1]

Try the TI text to speech program. It pretty much duplicates the TEII functions in XB. I believe it's somewhere on WHT (good luck navigating that mess.) I have a copy somewhere I could EM you later this evening if you can't find it.

 

That would be great, thank you. I found a manual in my copy of the ftp site called "Text-to-speech" in "Datasheets and manuals" which describes ML programs loaded by XB. I believe the "SPEAK" binary might contain what I want.

 

There's that Ernie & Bert thing too... Although I think that was digitized.

 

I remember the lyrics to Ernie & Bert pretty well:

Hey Bert

Hey Ernie

Say, I was wondering if you could do me a really big favor, Bert.

Sure Ernie, what is it.

I would like you to pretend you are angry at me.

You would like me to pretend I'm angry at you?

Yeah, because your face looks all funny when you get angry at me.

 

Berts face turns red

starts over.

 

Amazing what's burned into my mind.

 

-H

 

I found this in wht, /compuserve/Basic/SPEECH.BIN

 

[marc.hull]

Do you have access to The Hidden Reef ? Cruising around last night I saw what appears to be a file (or set of) that may be better than anything previous. It's a program by Michael Zapf (sorry if I butcher the spelling) that lets you edit the LPC data to creat or change word phrases etc. It is located in section c and is called speec0arc. Perusing the documents it seems to be actually better than the text to speech.

 

 

 

 

 

I became excited, and then subsequently in short course disappointed, in my "discovery" of the ALPHON device in the Terminal Emulator II module. I thought it fantastic that I could take a word which did not exist in the Speech Synthesizer's vocabulary and create data necessary to construct those words. At first, I though I would use that data to extend the vocabulary of TI Extended BASIC to fit my game(s) to provide a more rich experience in game play.

 

Woe unto me when I "discovered" that the TE-II ALPHON device output is unusable in TI XB. To the point that I have all but decided to completely remove speech capabilities from the XB version of my game(s), only providing it in TI BASIC with the TE-II module attached. Very disappointing.

 

Okay, get to the point, yeah? Yeah. Is there anything out there which will convert the TE-II ALPHON allophone data into the raw speeh data which I can pass to the Speech Synthesizer in TI XB? I have, just for fun, included a short list of words I want to build for my game "Tiles."

 

 

Word		Commands   Allophones
TILES		250,255,1, 112,49,75,100
TILE		250,255,1, 112,49,75
PATTERN		250,255,2, 109,26,112,11,79
HIDE		250,255,1, 117,49,89
MISS		250,255,1, 76,38,121
POINTS		250,255,1, 109,63,79,111,121
FOUND		250,255,1, 115,51,79,89
HELP		250,255,1, 117,56,75,110
WOULD		250,255,1, 83,64,89
BONUS		250,255,2, 86,67,78,45,121	! BOWNUS
SCORE		250,255,1, 120,103,66
TIE		250,255,1, 112,49
TIED		250,255,1, 112,49,89		! TIDE
COMPUTE		250,255,2, 107,19,76,109,85,44,113
PUBLICATIONS	250,255,4, 109,45,86,63,12,104,36,122,20,79,100
INCORPORATED	250,255,5, 13,78,107,42,109,42,36,112,21,89
COPYRIGHT	250,255,3, 107,107,27,109,55,28,113
CONVERSION	250,255,3, 107,20,78,97,37,122,20,79
WRITTEN		250,255,2, 82,38,112,10,79

 

 

While informative, and useful for building words phonetically by hand or modifying words adjusting for language nuances, and so on, this data is useless for normal usage since TE-II is just as happy to say "BOWNUS" via the SPEECH device as it is to say 250,255,2,86,67,78,45,121 via ALPHON.

[+OLD CS1]

Do you have access to The Hidden Reef ? Cruising around last night I saw what appears to be a file (or set of) that may be better than anything previous. It's a program by Michael Zapf (sorry if I butcher the spelling) that lets you edit the LPC data to creat or change word phrases etc. It is located in section c and is called speec0arc. Perusing the documents it seems to be actually better than the text to speech.

 

Is it telnet, dial-up, or web? I recall the name, but not certain where I have seen it.

 

EDIT: Never mind, I found it. I will check into it over the weekend between server migrations. Thanks for the heads-up.

Edited January 19, 2011 by OLD CS1