[Kde-accessibility] Current state of KTTS / KSpeech Interface

[david powell]

On Friday 29 February 2008 21:08:27 Jeremy Whiting wrote:
> On Tuesday 26 February 2008 11:42:43 Jeremy wrote:
> > On Tuesday 26 February 2008 04:05:04 Conrad Hoffmann wrote:
> > > Hi folks!
> > >
> > > I was trying to port my Kopete KTTS plugin [1] to KDE4, thus trying to
> > > get things "spoken" by KTTS. At first, I followed Instructions given at
> > > [2]. The jobs showed up in the KTTSMgr config, and it was even
> > > indicating that they were beein spoken. I just couldn't hear anthing. I
> > > immediately figured my backend just didn't work properly. I can
> > > currently only try festival, und it does not work on the command line
> > > because of sound driver issues.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately, in a fit of curiosity, I tried KMouth. And to my dismay,
> > > it talked to me, crisp and clear.
> > >
> > > I tried in all possible ways (qdbus cli, generic QDBusInterface,
> > > KSpeech Interface) to reproduce, what KMouth does (e.g, I noticed it
> > > uses job priority warning). In the end, I used _the exact same code_ as
> > > KMouth. But it still won't speak my messages.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have some clues for me? Is KTTS even considered to work,
> > > currently? If not, how does KMouth work? If so, how do I get my stuff
> > > to work?
> > >
> > > For reference:
> > > I last compiled trunk like 12 hours ago, but the problem was there
> > > before. KMouth does use the kde4 speech subsystem (at least the jobs
> > > show in KTTSMgr). All other jobs show up there, too. They just don't
> > > get spoken (i.e. I can't hear anything)
> > >
> > > Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
> > > Please CC me off list, I am not subscribed.
> > >
> > > Regards, conrausch
> > >
> > > [1] http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=30900
> > > [2]
> > > http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/interfaces/kspeech/html/inde
> > >x. ht ml
> >
> > I've always wondered about the purpose of that plugin. (I've used it
> > before) C ouldn't the same functionality be added by fixing kopete's
> > notifications to se nd the contents of the incoming/outgoing message in
> > the notification?  It work s fine for konversation (in kde3) this way,
> > but not for kopete for some reason ...
> >
> > I just tried in kopete in kde4 also, and it has the same problem.  (Just
> > insta ll kdeaccessibility, and try to set any kopete notification to
> > speak the notif ication message, or name, and you'll see what I mean.
> >
> > Jeremy
>
> Weird, after either a reboot, or a rebuild of kde it works somewhat. 
> Though the notification messages are still not very helpful ("Incoming
> message") is less usefull than the text of the message itself ;)
>
> Jeremy
kopete support for kttsd was never good , i did get it working with kde3.2
but yes it is not realy mutch use just to speek the "new message" rather than 
the content of the new message 

recently i have not had the time or the incentive to get more involved with 
kde4 testing and helping out

the other function that i was able to use in kde3.2 that seems nolonger to 
work in kde3.5 is dual sound card support 
this from the testing i did was verry usefull when using kttsd
as it allowed on sound card /set of speakers to be used for the voice
and another for other kde sound functions ,, so if for example listeneing to 
net radio then the ttsvoice was not fighting for the sound card 
it was distinct and noticable as a seperate event , and from a blinds persons 
point of view would be verry usefull as it would not distract or require them 
to spend time finding mixer controls to stop the voice playing at double the 
volume of the other audio there listening to 

konversations support for kttsd is good ,, but seems that finding the plugins 
and such needed for kopete the hasstle installing them and the fact they dont 
allow the same level of notifications is somewaht a disapointment 

i am not blind but i make use of kttsd quite a lot , spoken notifications of 
irc / or other instant messages is usefull as it saves constantly flicking 
desktops and finding the appropriate message to see what was sent 
when your half way though reading a email or some web page , and you get a 
message  "you have new msn message " is not a lot of use  where 
"chat user says :- making coffee back in a bit " spoken you would not have to 
get distracted to find and read that 

blind or not that sotr of functionalaty is inportant  

Dave

>
> > _______________________________________________
> > kde-accessibility mailing list
> > kde-accessibility at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>
> _______________________________________________
> kde-accessibility mailing list
> kde-accessibility at kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility



-- 
time shifts by , life also shifts by but seems to shift with a silent f