"My Name Is...", "How Are You?", Volume Production Has Yielded a Group "Would You Come Here?"

programmed with 373 words, 45 pho- thesis leads inevitably to fixed vocabu- nemes, 26 letters (the English alphabet), lary products (for the time being, at 13 morphemes (standard word prefixes least), their expertise with high -density and suffixes), and 16 short phrases like memories and the economies of high - "My name is...", "How are you?", volume production has yielded a group "Would you come here?". of products affordable and useful at a The HCI20, by comparison, is a phy- general -consumer level. sically smaller unit that offers all the Speak & Spell® (mine cost about capabilities of the HCJI0, plus an addi- $55), was introduced a couple of years tional 520 words, accessed by a 4x4 ago. It conducts spelling bees and plays keyboard and a 3 -digit control code. word games, primarily for children. (My AS MANY AS 300,000 WORDS have been de- wife and I both get a kick out of ours, veloped by one user of the Votrax VS -6 Elec- though we have no children.) tronic Voice System. Computalker Consultants New ROM modules to expand the One of the least expensive, though vocabulary of Speak & Spell have now talking instrumentation, handicapped highly capable, speech synthesizers been introduced. Vowel Power aids, and talking OCR (optical character available that is based on phonemes, (recommended resale $15) adds 140 recognition) printed copy readers. yet capable of direct parameter con- words to help children master vowel Votrax also manufactures the Radio trol, is the CT-1 Speech Synthesizer by sounds in four categories. Two new Shack TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer, and Computalker Consultants (P.O. Box Super Stumpers modules (also $15 each) includes with it software for a talking 1951, Santa Monica, CA 90406). for grades 4-6 and 7-8 add word lists blackjack game. The user hears cards to cover such problems as silent letters, shuffling and the banter of a "wise guy" CT -I irregular spellings, double consonants, dealer. 5PEECH and homonymous spellings. SYNTHESIZER

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HIGH -CAPABILITY CT -1 SPEECH SYNTHESIZER from Computalker Is available for the TRS-80, Apple II and S-100 computer systems.

RADIO-SHACK SPEECH SYNTHESIZER Is a part The CT-1 is in the $425 to $550 range, of their TRS-80 personal computer system and depending on software options, and is available as an option. plugs into the S-100 bus. Pre-packaged TEXAS INSTRUMENTS' NEW HOME COMPUTER (CT - AC -powered versions for Apple II has a speech -synthesizer accessory available. HC Electronics, Inc. /A) and the TRS-80 (CT-IT) are avail- They also use synthesizers in other products. That division of American Hospital able for $595. Supply Corporation (HC Electronics, In the Direct Parameter Control The heart of the Texas Instruments Inc., 250 Camino Alto, Mill Valley, CA Mode, signals modeled after previously- approach to speech synthesis is multiple - 94941) manufactures and distributes decoded words are used to recreate stage digital filtering and Linear Pre- products for language and speech them. That is obviously a limited -vocab- dictive Coding-a mathematical ap- therapy. Their two speech snythesizers, ulary approach, but the naturalness of proach to modeling, analyzing, and syn- Phonic Mirror® HandiVoicem mod- speech is especially high; even the man- thesizing the human voice. While TI is els HCI10 and HC/20, are actually nerisms of the original speaker are pre- producing 40,000 to 60,000 synthesizers - manufactured for them by Votrax. served. on -a -chip each month, their entire pro- The HC1I0 is a lap -size, flat device The Phonetic Mode, by comparison, duction output is currently going into designed for young children, the handi- is phoneme -based, but with a twist. TI products. capped, or developmentally disabled Target values for each phoneme param- Two of those products are their talk- persons with speech impairments or eter are first located, then a sm000thing- ing Language Translator (about $300, disabilities. Most of its surface is calculation performed to calculate with $60 modules to translate English, covered by its 128 -key keyboard, itself parabolic trajectories between them. French, Spanish, German, Chinese, and covered with one of three overlays- The result is less mechanical -sounding Japanese) and their new Home Com- words, graphics, or symbols. It is pre- speech. puter. The Solid State Speech TM pe- The computer hobbyist interested in ripheral (suggested resale $150) syn- experimenting with speech snythesis is thesizes a 200 -word vocabulary. strongly urged to investigate Com- putalker. Who else? Also, about a year from now, expect Lexicon, Craig, Matsushita, and news from Computalker about a totally others have all admitted to "looking at" digital system, replacing their current talking products. National Semicon- analog approach. Much of the cost of ductor has announced a one -chip syn- their current hardware is attributable to thesizer, about which little has reached precision tuning and calibration of the us. Ohio Scientific offers a speech syn- many analog -circuit sections, a cost thesizer of some description for their that the all -digital approach promises to Challenger computers, but repeated all but eliminate. calls to the company have resulted in no information to date. Texas Instruments HANDIVOICE HC120 is a portable device for Stay tuned. There's no telling who language and speech -therapy applications. While the TI approach to speech syn- will speak up next. R -E 46