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Replacing VOCA with a Laptop?

Posted by Cliff on from the let-your-laptop-speak-for-you dept.

tomschuring asks: "A friend of mine has Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and because of it, he is using a Voice Output Communication Aid (VOCA). When I heard the quality speech of the portable device I was less than impressed. My Mac is much better at it and at least has a few different voices (like one with an English accent) to choose from. Has anybody used a laptop for this purpose? What text to speech engine are you using and what are our impressions? Is there predictive text software available for this purpose? Is the startup time and battery time acceptable for this sort of application?"

1 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. I have problems speaking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I often use VOCAs to speak.

    Let me give this suggestion: Your friend is best off getting professionally evaulated and getting the best system for his use.

    I use a custom-made speech program on a Tablet PC with the AT&T Natural Voices. It's a workable solution some of the time. However, without my Lightwriter and Link, I'd be in serious trouble.

    The tablet PC simply takes too long to boot. The Lightwriter and Link boot instantly. The tablet isn't as portable. The battery life on the tablet isn't as good. And the tablet will break if I drop it.

    Also, DECtalk, the normal voice on these speech devices, sounds lousy but is actually very readable. For people I speak with for more then a few minutes, I find that they ask me to repeat less with DECtalk then AT&T natural voices.

    I've seen lots of people try building solutions themselves for this. My advice: Don't do that for someone's primary form of communication! If it is a backup to their primary device, that's fine, but do you really want someone's voice depending on your ability to build a solution? This is very serious business.