Getting started with Text-to-Speech

Microsoft Sam

You may not have known this, but if you have Windows XP or Vista, then you have Text-to-Speech built in to your computer.

Open up the Windows XP Control Panel…


Locate and double-click on the Speech icon:


Click on the “Text to Speech” tab:



In Windows XP, the default voice is Microsoft Sam, who sounds like a candidate for Prozac. In Vista, the default voice is Microsoft Anna. Since I have never experienced Vista, I don’t know what Anna sounds like.



Microsoft Programs with Text to Speech

If you have Microsoft Word, you can configure it to speak the text that you type with only a small amount of configuration, and with no programming at all.

Launch MS Word, and then select “Speech” from the “Tools” menu. If you have not used this feature before, you will need your MS Office installation CD to install the feature. You can cancel out of the Speech Recognition configuration (or if you are curious, you can take a brief detour to configure the wizard, and play with this for a while).

After you install the “Speech” feature, it will appear in the Tools menu of all of the MS Office applications, including Excel and PowerPoint.

If you don’t have Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word, don't worry – you can still use Text-to-Speech. Click here for information on using Microsoft Narrator, a standard XP feature for users with disabilities that nonetheless allows for simple Text-to-Speech functionality. There are other options as well, and they are all free! However you will have to download and install them:

http://www.microsoft.com/reader
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent



Robotics Projects with Microsoft Speech

Now we are ready to create automated speech systems. If you aren’t interested in programming, this could be as simple as attaching a small speaker such as for an MP3 player to your computer, and then inserting it inside a teddy bear or a model robot constructed out of plastic or metal containers.

If you are interested in programming, my next post will cover the Microsoft Speech 5.1 API, so stay tuned!