[Kde-accessibility] Proklam and KMouth

[Gunnar Schmi Dt]

Hello,

I am writing a project called KMouth, which enables persons that cannot s=
peak=20
to let their computer speak, e.g. mutal people or people who have lost th=
eir=20
voice (like my mother, who cannot control her tongue).

Among the planned features of KMouth are the possibility to select phrase=
s=20
from (user defined) phrase books (so that regularly used phrases do only =
need=20
to be typed in once), and the selection of a language that is used for th=
e=20
pronounciation (so that English phrases can be spoken with an English=20
pronounciation and German phrases can be spoken with a German pronounciat=
ion,=20
for example).

Currently the program uses a shell script for the actual text-to-speech=20
conversion. As I have seen that Proklam shall provide both an interface f=
or=20
other progams to speak and a module in kcontrol, I would like to use Prok=
lam=20
as standard text output system, so I don't have to deal with configuratio=
n=20
issues.

=46rom the messages on the mailing lists, I have understood that Proklam =
does=20
not support more than one text-to-speech system at a time. However there =
are=20
some multi-lingual text-to-speech systems (e.g., Festival --- if what I h=
ave=20
heard is correct). What I have not yet found is information whether these=
=20
languages can be specified when letting a text be spoken.

An other issue is that you might need to use more than one tts-system in =
order=20
to provide all languages of your interest (for example English and German=
 for=20
my mother). So I have basically two options:

Either I have to implement my own GUI for a multilingual text-to-speach s=
ystem=20
that uses a number of simple shell scripts (one for each language), or I =
have=20
to find a mechanism to switch the language within Proklam. Of course I wo=
uld=20
prefer the latter, as I do not wish to duplicate functionality of Proklam=
=2E

Also, as I am currently using hadifax (in combination with mbrola) as a G=
erman=20
tts system, I think about helping to write a Proklam module for hadihax.

Gunnar Schmi Dt