My Ramblings - About TTS and Speech Synthesis Technologies https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/feed.xml Tue, 16 Apr 2019 05:30:01 GMT en-US hourly 1 Microsoft Speech Platform 11.0 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/microsoft-speech-platform-11-0 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:28:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2011/09/11/microsoft-speech-platform-11-0/ Microsoft Speech Platform has upgraded to Version 11.0.  It includes many improvements on SR and TTS engines in the past year. 

There is a MSDN web page for more detail information about the speech platform

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh361572.asp

In particular, for TTS, there is a new voice "ZiraPro" for en-US.  

]]> Question about SupportedAudioFormats of SpeechSynthesizer https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/question-about-supportedaudioformats-of-speechsynthesizer Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:30:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2011/01/01/question-about-supportedaudioformats-of-speechsynthesizer/  
Happy new year!  It is 2011. 

Recently I got a customer question regarding "SupportedAudioFormats".  He used the Server Speech Platform 10.2. But he found the SupportedAudioFormats of speechsynthesizer is empty.
This is because of some issue in service voice setup. All the service voices currently is in 8k8bit PCM format.

The voice audio format can be specified like below.
speechSynthesizer. SetOutputToWaveFile(“output.wav”, new SpeechAudioFormatInfo(8000, AudioBitsPerSample.Eight, AudioChannel.mono));

if you set audio format to other format like 16k16bit, the speech synthesizer will do resampling for you.

 

]]> Where to ask for TTS support? https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/where-to-ask-for-tts-support Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:37:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/12/01/where-to-ask-for-tts-support/ If you are a developer that is looking for some help on using TTS in your project, there is an alias you can try.
speak AT microsoft.com

It is not a fulltime product support contact but you might get some suggestion to your problem. You can also give your feedback about text to speech engines via this email.

 

 

 

 

]]> TTS in Microsoft Lync https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/tts-in-microsoft-lync Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:57:33 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/11/05/tts-in-microsoft-lync/ According to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/extensible-platform.aspx

"State-of-the-art speech technology now in 26 languages provided by the updated Microsoft Speech Platform, a zero-royalty, enterprise grade server based speech platform that ships with UCMA 3.0 and now adds VoiceXML 2.1 to UCMA needs. "

So you can develop UCMA 3.0 based application with TTS function in 26 language now.

 

 

]]> What do you use TTS for? https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/what-do-you-use-tts-for Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:19:06 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/10/20/what-do-you-use-tts-for/ When we think about improving TTS voice quality, we always need to consider the scenerio that TTS are used in.
For example, if the scenerio is accessiblity, TTS needs to be highly intelligible in all conditions.
If the scenerio is reading turn by turn directions, the key information of routing needs to be highlighted and more prominent.

So if you are developing or have an application that uses TTS now, what do you use it for? What kind of expectation do you have on the TTS quality?

 

]]> TTS in Windows Phone 7 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/tts-in-windows-phone-7 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 16:25:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/09/19/tts-in-windows-phone-7/ If you got a chance to play a Windows phone 7, you can try out speech feature in it.

It has three cool speech features: voice search, voice activated dialing and start application by command.  

In these scenerios, Zira TTS will use to speak the text back.   I hope you will love it.

More news about speech for phone 7.

https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/speech/videoGallery.aspx

https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/aug10/08-03gamechangerfea.mspx

https://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/202560/windows_phone_7_to_excel_on_speech.html

]]> FAQ about The Server Speech Platform https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/faq-about-the-server-speech-platform Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:29:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/07/29/faq-about-the-server-speech-platform/ This post will talk about some frequent questions when using TTS functionality in Microsoft Server Speech Platform.  I will keep it updated as new questions come up.

For the detailed usage of the API, please go to MSDN. 

·     Why SpeechSynthesizer Speak doesn't produce sound on my sound card?

Currently the server voice doesn’t speak to sound card because it is primarily designed for server usage. It is a difference against System.Speech.Synthesizer.

There are serveral ways for you to play the audio from SpeechSynthesizer.

1.  You can speak to wave file first and play that wave file. See SetOutputToWavefile method of SpeechSynthesizer

2.  Use a custom output stream to send the audio bytes to your target device (could be audio device or network socket). See SetOutputAudioStream method.

3.  Speak to a memory stream, and then play the stream with System.Media.SoundPlayer

·     Why SpeechSynthesizer throws an exception that says "No voice installed on the system or none available with the current security setting"?

It could be caused by following reasons:

1. The speech platform runtime is installed, but the language pack is not installed. Make sure you install the TTS language pack. 

2. The speech platform and language pack are installed, but the .net application is compiled as a target platform different from the speech platform. For example, speech platform is x64, but the app is x86.

·     What are the difference between desktop speech API, and server speech API?
Here are some differences between desktop speech API and server speech API from usage perspective.
1. They have different GUIDs for COM object.
2. They have different name space. (System.Speech for Desktop,  Microsoft.Speech for Server)

]]> Use TTS functionality in Microsoft Speech Platform https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/use-tts-functionality-in-microsoft-speech-platform Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:53:16 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/06/25/use-tts-functionality-in-microsoft-speech-platform/ In previous post, I introduced the microsoft speech platform is available to download. Here is a short introduction on how to use the TTS functionality provided by the platform.  The steps are:

1. Download and install the speech platform runtime and one language pack like en-US as you wish

2. Download the Software Development Kit and install it.  the SDK is installed into somewhere like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Speech Platform SDK

3. Launch Visual Studio, go to “Tools” ->  “options” -> “Project and Solutions” -> “VC++ Directories” (Here I use VS2008)
    Add the path like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Speech Platform SDK\include into the “include files” directories (as top one)
    Add the path like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Speech Platform SDK\Lib into the “library files” directories (as top one)

4. Unzip the attached sample and build,  you should be able to compile it and run. You can hear the voice is speaking to you. This is actually a simple "hello world" example using the native API (SAPI) to call TTS.

Let me know if this works for you or not. Have fun with TTS!

 

speak.zip

]]> Bing app with Navigation for Windows Mobile released! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/bing-app-with-navigation-for-windows-mobile-released Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:24:04 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/06/10/bing-app-with-navigation-for-windows-mobile-released/ Recently Bing app for Windows Mobile has added free turn by turn directions.  TTS is used to read out the address during navigation.

https://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2010/05/11/updated-bing-app-for-windows-phone.aspx

If you have a windows phone, have a try with it.   How do you feel the TTS voice quality in it? Please comment!

]]> Use Microsoft TTS to read office documents with Office 2010 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/speak/use-microsoft-tts-to-read-office-documents-with-office-2010 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:34:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/speak/2010/04/14/use-microsoft-tts-to-read-office-documents-with-office-2010/ In Office 2010, there is a new cool feature to read the text aloud with Microsoft TTS.

Here is the post about how to use it. It can use the latest speech platform voices in 26 languages.

https://blogs.technet.com/office2010/archive/2010/04/14/hear-in-your-language-in-office-2010.aspx

Have fun with it!

 

 

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