Book reading SW Needed

Amazon has a deal with audible. One of my daughters loves it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Thanks

I have compiled a large portion of PDF files, including for example theory of electronics, IEEE papers etc, so I prefer an open device, one that I can decide which content I upload

Cheers

Klaus

Since lots of Arizona is accessible by radio only via Sirius, we buy (or rent/exchange... Cracker Barrel is a good source) books on tape/CD... otherwise the 2.5 hour trip to Yuma is _boring_ ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
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The best software I've ever seen for that was from Kurzweil (yeah,

*that* Kurzweil). It was aimed at vision-impaired people and not particularly cheap.

These days maybe a tablet could do it.

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Not what you want, but I will suggest it anyway. Check your local library. I think books on tape have gone the way of the Dodo bird, but not they have books on CD.

I know, I know, but while you are looking for the right software, you can enjoy whatever the library has.

Dan

Nap? ;-)

["I want to die in my sleep, like GrandPa. Not screaming in terror like the folks on the bus he was driving!"]

Adobe Reader has support for this (View | Read out loud). But, I think it is only *token* support.

There are lots of TTS products available -- Nuance, DECTalk, etc. Even some online services (e.g., NaturalReader) that can be used in "batch" mode.

You will encounter a few problems.

First, chances are, your documents weren't created in a speech markup language. So, you're at the mercy of whatever algorithms reside in the TTS to make sense of your input. Text normalization (expanding abbreviations, acronyms, digit-letter sequences, etc.) is always prone to error. "Dr. Smith lives on Smith Dr." "A total of 1995 lives were lost" "This is 1995" etc. (when you hear "tiv" and scratch your head wondering what the hell it's trying to say -- "tv" vs "TV"-- you'll get an appreciation for how commonplace all of these things are in day-to-day language)

Then, things like homographs: "This heat is too much! I'd like to desert the desert!" "It's such a minute amount that it will cook in a minute!"

[I'm only commenting on USEnglish -- I have a hard enough time with *that* let alone trying to address other languages! :> ]

If what you are reading isn't "generic text", then the TTS will probably choke on domain-specific terminology and acronyms.

And, there are loads of exceptions (one of the first words added to the Reading Machine's exception dictionary was, amusingly, "Kurzweil"! Can't have the machine mmispronouncing the boss's name! :> )

You may also discover problems with document formatting. E.g., when I create a document, it contains multiple "text flows". The main flow might be in two column format: down the left column, then up to the top of the right, etc. A secondary flow may occur in an inset (table, "aside", etc.). It's flow is independant of the main flow yet may visually intermingle with it (e.g., when an "aside" spans more than a single page yet never claims an *entire* page for itself).

And, PDF's may not be "true" PDF's but, rather, *scanned* PDF's. So, now you need an OCR package (and hope the images were scanned at sufficiently high resolution, contrast, etc.).

You can also use bits of assistive technology (e.g., or the blind). JAWS comes to mind (though it is more general purpose -- "screen reader").

To *start*, I'd suggest opening one of your documents in a PDF reader. "Select ALL", then copy into a text file. Push this file at something like DECTalk (there used to be a free demo available -- multiple language support). See how convenient it is to "listen" to text (I, for example, can't absorb materials presented in that way. I'm far more "visual").

You may find that you end up spending your time reading "mainstream novels", instead. There, you can download "audio books" in which a genuine human has read the material -- much more natural prosody, inflection, stress, pronunciation, etc.

I'd be interested in hearing how you like/dislike the experience!

I just tried a technical text in Nuance PDF which is my preferred PDF reader. It sounds ok, but the true test will be when I cannot peek at the text, including ambient noise in the car.

I will try it, and let you know how it turns out :-)

Cheers

Klaus

Exactly. Initially, you may find it a "challenge" -- a puzzle -- to try to GUESS (based on your past experiences with the technology's idiosyncrasies and knowledge of the current text's domain) what it is trying to say. But, I think, after a fair bit of use, you will start to get annoyed with it -- if you AREN'T ACTUALLY RELIANT ON IT to consume text!

Good luck!