Re: Making gnome speak

[SEGV <mlepage cgocable net>]

> Paolo Molaro wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 26, 1999 at 01:43:16PM -0700, Erik Walthinsen wrote:
> > > There is a program in CVS called gspeech that does just that.  It's not
> > > very polished, but it does use festival to speak buttons and whatnot.
> > >
> > > Both the cool thing about it and the problem is that it runs as a GTK
> > > plugin.  That means all you have to to do enable an app to use speech
> > > output is add --gtk-module=gspeech to the commandline of the program.
> > > That's it.  Where that breaks down is the simple fact that all
> > > applications are going to have different requirements when it comes to
> > > speaking to the user.  There is no such information available in GTK.
> >
> > Well, gtk+ provides a lot with its signal system. Basically all
> > the things that trigger a signal emission can be converted to
> > a useful speech or audio feedback: this covers 90+% of what is happening
> > in a gtk+ application. The problem is completely different if you're
> > trying to "drive" the application with voice commands.
> >
> > > I would propose that Gtk+ be extended to make it easier to tie in the bits
> > > of information that are needed to properly describe a GUI in terms of
> > > voice control and output, and probably extend Glade and libglade to set up
> > > all this information.
> >
> > Some extensions may be needed, but the things really important are
> > good design and extensive use of the signal system for me. For voice
> > control you may need additional information.
> > The single thing that is most needed by both of us, though, is a way
> > to know the language used in the labels etc.: maybe we can define a
> > convention that in each toplevel there is a "__language" data?
> > The value should not be translated, but changed, ie:
> >
> > gtk_object_set_data(GTK_OBJECT(toplevel_window), "__language", _("english"));
> >
> > will be "translated" to: "italian", "french" and so on...
> > This way we can use the proper voice/dictionary...

The problem is far more complicated than that. Ever see a blind person
use a computer? Their needs are more complex, and what's the point of
adding voice output to a computer system if it doesn't free you to not
look at the screen?

For example, what happens when I am skipping through menus faster than
they are being read? How quickly can I turn it off if my phone rings?
Can I replay the last few messages because I was distracted?

-- 
SEGV  -  http://www.cgocable.net/~mlepage/
Features Minion real-time strategy game, RTS game programming info,
GTK+ tutorial, etc.