Text to Speech Tool to Double Information Take Up

« Beware of Cookies - No More Traffic Exchange. »

Text to Speech Tool to Double Information Take Up

22 April 2007

Author: Mind Posted under Knowledge

Firefox

My journey to utilize text to speech tools was began since I read an article about Mozila Firefox. Thing that makes this article so special for me because it’s written by a blind person. He said in order to use the full potentials of Firefox Internet Browser he combined it with a text to speech software therefore he could navigate the software easily.

Personal background of the writer is giving me a strong inspiration and a short of idea. Why not utilizing my hearing ability to capture a new information at the same time when I’m reading ? Instead of just hearing music, it would be better to hear an audio book during my reading session.

In case of Firefox I can “hear” a page and at the same time I’m reading on some other pages, it giving me more information in a same period of time. The first thing I was looking for is add-on for Firefox which could add text to speech feature in firefox. I found Speak It add-on looks perfect for my requirement. It using the built in Microsoft Windows Text to speech engine so it only deliver small size file to install, and its free.

Since I use Windows XP on my pc, I only have limited option to change reader voices. The default voice is Microsoft Sam which I found as a boring voice since it read sentences flat without a noticeable intonation. I should also reducing the reading speed to understand the sentence well. It’s not the voice you’d want to listen to all day long, so I change to Microsoft Mary which sounds better. You could compare three voices from Microsoft text to speech engine i.e. Sam, Mike and Marry by installing MS API 5. I heard that Text to speech engine on Windows Vista has been improved greatly comparing to its predecessor by adding a more human voice called Microsoft Anna.