iPods for Study

We have a ton of people using TextAloud for this type of thing, but it has been hard to get most people to realize there are a million other uses for iPod and other MP3 players besides just music.

Prepare for the SAT on an iPod

You can pretty much do everything on an iPod, so why not prepare for the SAT? Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions today announced availability of three interactive SAT prep programs that students can buy and download from the iTunes store.

The $4.99 programs work on the fifth-generation iPod devices, and focus on the three graded sections of the SAT: Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. The downloads also include explanations of the exam structure, "expert Kaplan strategies for the SAT," and tips about the college admissions process.

Who knows? If this is successful, maybe we'll start to see some Microsoft and Cisco certification test preparation programs available for iPod users.

Ipods and hearing loss

Not sure that TextAloud users who make their own audiobooks are listenning too loud, but a lot of young people who listen to music do, and it is damaging their hearing. Saw interview on TV the other day with the girl who invented these. Great idea...

iHearSafe™ Earbuds have been designed to keep the volume at a safe level to prevent noise induced hearing loss. They can be used on any audio device.
iHearSafe™ Earbuds take the guess work out of determining how loud is too loud. Never worry about how loud or long you can listen to your music, regardless of how high the volume is turned up on the audio device iHearSafe™ Earbuds prevents it from exceeding what the researchers have determined is a safe volume.

IHearSafe.com

Robotic Hand

This doesn't include TTS yet, but it has to be one of the neatest ideas ever.

Robotic Hand Translates Speech into Sign Language

“Robot educators Keita Matsuo and Hirotsugu Sakai have created a robot hand that translate the spoken word into sign language for the deaf. From the article: ‘A microchip in the robot recognizes the 50-character hiragana syllabary and about 10 simple phrases such as “ohayo” (good morning) and sends the information to a central computer, which sends commands to 18 micromotors in the joints of the robotic hand, translating the sound it hears into sign language.’”

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/17/0349236

Also, Fookem and Bug found this past article relating to signing Robotic hand, read on:

June 15, 2001
Teen shows design at CU - Electronic glove translates sign language into text
By Christina Eisert, For the Daily Camera

Ryan Patterson, 17, likes hanging out with his friends, and “all the regular sports” that kids his age enjoy. He also dabbles in electronics. Well, as the winner of all three top honors at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Calif., he is a little more than a dabbler.Ryan, a Grand Junction high school senior, has invented a glove that translates American Sign Language into text. The written words appear on a computer screen that can be carried around in a pocket. The invention has earned Ryan more than $216,000 in cash and scholarships, as well as a trip to Sweden to present the sign translator to a group of Noble laureates. Ryan spent much of Thursday participating in research presentations at the University of Colorado`s Center for Lifelong Learning and Design at the University of Colorado, where he presented his sign translator. He came home from San Jose with the Intel Young Scientist Scholarship Award, the Glen T. Seaborg Nobel Prize Visit Award, the Intel Best of Category Award and nine other prizes. Last year, he also won the Best of Category, with a low-cost robot designed to search buildings in case of an emergency. Ryan said he created the search tool with Columbine in mind. By third grade, Ryan`s teachers were aware of his talent for electronics. He was introduced to John McConnell, a retired Los Alamos National Laboratories physicist and director of the Western Colorado Math and Science Center. McConnell became Ryan`s mentor. “All the basic electronics I learned from John,” Ryan said. McConnell said Ryan would come to his house at 9:30 on Saturday morning and wouldn`t leave until 5 p.m. “He`s very focused on where he wants to go, and the drive he has,” McConnell said.The sign-language translator is a golf glove fitted with finger sensors, wrist sensors and a circuit board sewn in by McConnell`s wife. It works on both the right and left hands, and translates letters as they are signed, displaying them on either a laptop computer screen or a tiny portable LCD screen.

The user “trains” the sensors to recognize signs as letters,which appear on the screen. “Everyone signs a little differently,” Ryan said. So the glove is trained over and over again, and “it gets smarter each time,” he says.

Ryan got the idea while sitting in Burger King, where he watched a group of teens attempting to order their meals using sign language. All had to rely on a single adult translator to place their orders. “I can only imagine how bad it would be, as a teenager my age, to have to have an adult follow you around,” Ryan said.

He says the glove is not meant to replace human translators. It translates the alphabet only and is intended to be used to make users of sign language more independent in the classroom and the community. The glove is “a little bit tedious,” he said, and he said he wants to work with a human translator in the lab to “really train it” to be more accurate.

He has applied for a patent and hopes to find a manufacturer for the glove. He is also considering adding a text-to-speech program, so that the glove will translate sign language into spoken word.

Ryan works 15 to 20 hours a week during the school year and full time in the summer at Thermo Automation, with engineers who design robotic equipment. He also must take some time to sift through the scholarships he has been offered from several universities. The University of Colorado also made attempts to woo him to the computer science department`s Cognitive Lever Team — a part of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design. But before he goes to college, there is next year`s science fair.

Electronics is “not interesting unless you can make something that helps people,” Ryan said. “You might as well not use electronics, unless you can help people out.” Full Story...

Better voices coming for Mac

I suspect these still won't be as good as the premium voices like Cepstral, but Apple will upgrade basic voices much like Vista brought Anna.

Leopard preview: What's new in OS X 10.5

...

Accessibility

What it is: Apple's tools for users with physical impairments get a major upgrade in Leopard. A new text-to-speech engine features a voice, Alex, that sounds far more natural than what Apple has offered previously. The VoiceOver screen-reading tool is also upgraded, and also supports Grade 2 contracted Braille devices.

What's changed: The new NumPad Commander lets you transform your keypad into quick access to commonly used VoiceOver commands. VoiceOver also lets you set hot spots over accessible windows and notifies you of any changes in those areas. QuickTime features improved closed-captioning support. And all your accessibility preferences can sync to your other Macs via .Mac.--JASON SNELL

Virginia Tech shooting drives schools towards TTS Notification

More of these will be coming

Notre Dame installing warning system

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The University of Notre Dame announced Monday it would install an emergency communication system that will allow school officials to contact large numbers of students and employees quickly in case of a campus crisis.

The move follows the Virginia Tech attack in which a student killed 30 people and himself.

"This spring's tragic mass shooting at Virginia Tech both saddened and startled those of us in higher education," said Gordon Wishon, Notre Dame's associate vice president and chief information officer. "We had an emergency communications project in the works, but Virginia Tech was an eye-opener. A lot of universities, Notre Dame included, put emergency communications systems at the top their IT project lists."

Notre Dame will use a technology service called Connect-ED, a service of The NTI Group in Sherman Oaks, Calif., that can reach students by voice or text messages by cell phone, office phones, home phones and e-mail addresses.

The system can send the same message to up to six telephone numbers per person and do text messaging, text-to-speech recognition, and voice-to-text recognition.

The school hopes to have the system working when the fall semester begins in August.

ArcheBooks audio books

LEAVERAGING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY FOR BOOKS IN AN iTUNE WORLD

ArcheBooks Publishing (www.archebooks.com) announced today the release of its first “mBook,” an Audio Book recorded in MP3 file format. However, this MP3 Audio Book isn’t simply a narrated novel with audio files compressed from traditional CD format into the MP3 format – no, the narrator itself is a digital creation. This is an example of state-of-the-art Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology, using natural sounding human voice engines created and commercially licensed to ArcheBooks by NeoSpeech (www.neospeech.com).

ArcheBooks’ first mBook title is A Prophecy Forgotten by M. B. Weston, an epic Young Adult fantasy/adventure novel, and one of ArcheBooks’ hottest selling hardcover titles. “We chose A Prophecy Forgotten to launch this new program,” explained Publisher Robert Gelinas, “for two key reasons. One, the popularity of the book leverages a fantastic buzz around this first book of The Elysian Chronicles, renowned by parents and teachers for its ‘clean’ nature and great appeal to kids and adults alike. And two, we believe this kind of Audio Book technology is perfect for the ‘iPod Generation,’ who has no comfort-zone issues with downloadable entertainment content, organizing playlists and tracks—in this context a complete novel and its chapters—and enjoying that content while on the go or anywhere.”

Ralph Wolf, ArcheBooks EVP of Sales and Marketing added, “This is a perfect example of the emerging virtual-media entertainment world of today, where the physical media of the CD, the plastic cases, the printed matter, etc. are no longer needed—just the content, in a conveniently downloadable format for enjoyment on universal digital playback platforms, whether that be an iPod, an iPhone, a Zune, MP3 player, a laptop, whatever. There is no waiting for a book to be delivered by the postman, UPS or FedEx. It’s never out of stock or backordered, no shipping charges—just the instant gratification of immediate enjoyment.”

“Immediate Enjoyment” is a relative term, but close enough when you consider that in MP3 format, a 300 page 98,000 word book in hardcover, comprising over 10 hours of audio, now fits nicely in 75 megabytes of uncompressed data, or 64 megabytes downloaded in a compressed Zip file. For the DSL and Cable Internet users, that’s a download of five to ten minutes. For the dial-up user, they’d better be prepared for a wait of up to an hour.

“Another serendipitous facet of Audio Books in MP3,” said Mr. Gelinas, “is that the dynamic audio range needed for voice is far less than that of high-fidelity music. Music is normally recorded in a 64 KHz spectrum, whereas voice traditionally has been more than adequate with far less, as telephone systems have been for decades. The smallest MP3 sampling rates are able to achieve dramatic compression ratios yet maintain a clean crisp sound. Hence, goodbye 6 to 8 CDs to listen to an entire book—hello eight minute download.” Free samples of mBook MP3 files are available on the ArcheBooks website (www.archebooks.com). Both the Prologue and Chapter 1 of A Prophecy Forgotten are available to sample for free, approximately 40 minutes worth of audio.

Mr. Wolf noted, “Admittedly, a computer generated voice isn’t a voice-over professional or actor performing a reading of a novel. Rather, thanks to our friends at NeoSpeech, it’s a very natural-sounding human voice that reads in a very neutral, dispassionate manner. For some people it’s a voice that takes a few minutes to get used to hearing, but once you do, and the images of the story begin to form in your mind, the voice is no longer the primary stimulus of the entertainment experience, rather the talent of the storyteller who wrote it. And the price of the mBook reflects the distinction from professionally narrated works as well, with complete, unabridged mBooks priced as much as half the price of traditional Audio Books.”

ArcheBooks invites everyone to visit its website and experience the mBook for themselves. Mr. Gelinas said, “Good storytelling is good storytelling, whether that be found in a printed book, in an eBook, or listening to an Audio Book. The mediums that serve as the vehicles to share that storytelling content with a wide variety of audiences must be flexible and adaptable to each new communications platform in the ever-evolving digital age we live in.”

Talking ATMs

I've seen the earphone jack at ATMs more and more recently, partially because of legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

They should be sounding better now:

ScanSoft and Diebold Collaborate to Provide Talking ATMs for Blind Users
from Axistive.com

ScanSoft, a provider for speech solutions, and Diebold Incorporated, an integrated self-service and security solutions firm, have teamed up in an effort to manufacture speech-enabled ATMs across the US.

Many banks provide Braille features on their ATMs but only nine percent of the blind population actively reads Braille and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)Â requires speech output to enhance efforts to make ATMs more accessible for people with visual impairments.

By leveraging ScanSoft RealSpeak text-to-speech (TTS) technology, the Ohio-based Diebold can now provide an unmatched level of accessibility at the ATM. The technology guides visually impaired users through transactions with an easy-to-understand, natural-sounding voice, enabling them to quickly complete transactions with increased ease and fewer errors. ScanSoft RealSpeak helps users navigate their transactions - from simple requests such as account balance information to deposits and cash withdrawals - and alerts ATM users to any errors that may have occurred during the transaction.

ScanSoft is yet another enhancement to Diebold advanced-function ATMs. Diebold’s Opteva family of ATMs, which was launched in 2003, is the most accessible in the financial industry. Through its work with organizations like the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) , Diebold has engineered design elements that ensure accessibility for people with various disabilities. In addition to text-to-speech capabilities, Diebold’s Opteva ATMs also include accessibility features such as a more consistent transaction flow, pronounced bezels for card readers and headphone jacks, a single-style keypad that provides consistency across the entire line of ATMs and grouping of primary and secondary transaction functions.

Both Diebold and ScanSoft have worked with the NFB during the development of their products. Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the NFB, said it is important for all product manufacturers to consider the needs of people who are blind when developing products and services.

“Not all blind individuals can read Braille,” Maurer noted. “That is why, without a speech component, an ATM is not truly accessible to the blind. Diebold is an industry leader in deploying voice-guidance technology in the ATM, and those banks that opt for ScanSoft RealSpeak will be providing their customers with a superior text-to-speech product.”

Source: Business Wire

Nice TextAloud Review

15-Minute Reviews :: TextAloud v2.248

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“TextAlouds unique Text to MP3 or WMA conversion can save your daily reading to audio files to download to your portable player. Listen to email, online news, or important documents while you exercise, work or commute. TextAloud is easy to learn so you can put it to work for you right away.

Everything is user friendly, from the help function to the VCR style playback controls. It has never been easier to keep up with the information you really need. Includes Firefox toolbar. Support for Natural Voices, Neospeech, Cepstral, Acapela BrightSpeech and Elan, and ScanSoft RealSpeak Voices.”

Quick Pros

• Easy-to-use layout – Places everything you need for common use at your fingertips
• A lot of options to alter reading, style, and more
• Does what is supposed to do; Take plain text and convert into audio
• Does accept .doc, .pdf and .html (saved) ad well
• Supports websites via plug-in

Full Review...

There wasn't a simple way to leave comments to the review, so I'll post it here in the hopes that the reviewer will see it. He states:

While free, this application is good for those who are looking for a good text-to-speech application. As for paying $29.95, while the price isn’t very high, it really should include a good voice or offer a ‘package’ that has a bundled voice, say, for $59.95. I would more likely purchase the one with a bundled voice than the standalone one, just because I dislike the quality of the Sam voice, and there isn’t a lot of people on Vista yet to enjoy Anna (And honestly, Anna isn’t a top-notch voice either.)

We actually hear this a lot from people, and it is a bit of a mis-understanding and probably partially due to how bad the nextup.com site is to navigate and our not making the message clear. The most popular package we sell is TextAloud with Mike and Crystal voices, and it totals $54.95, so that is $5 cheaper than what he proposes. Our challenges in making this clear are:

1. We need to keep a low end package, starting at $29.95 because some of our users either have sight impairments or reading disabilities, and are on fixed incomes. So we need a lot entry point for them, often they will come back a few months later and add voices when they can afford it.
2. We offer so many different voice options at
   http://nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechEngine/voices.html
   
   that we are really struggling to find a way to present all the options without overwhelming people. We do have a site redesign pending, which will hopefully help.

Convertible Tablets for use with NextUp Talker

For those who haven't seen it, we have a neat product called NextUp Talker.
This has very much been a labor of love. We don't know how to market it, don't make much money on it, but it has changed hundreds of lives. It is amazing the number of people we run into who have lost the ability to speak, whether through disease like ALS, disorders like dysphagia, or because of surgery. Previously the only option for these people were devices to speak for them costing several thousand dollars, leaving them sounding much like Stephen Hawking. So, for $100 plus a PC, these people can once again talk to the world, and sound like a real person again.

The most frequent question we get though is, what kind of computer work well with Talker. Any windows computer will work, but for those who need to be on the go and still have the ability to talk, the newer Tablet/Convertible PCs are fantastic. I ran across a great review of some of them the other day:

Top 9 Convertible Tablet PCs

Mobile office users should consider convertible Tablet PCs as an alternative to using a laptop and PDA. Convertible Tablet PCs provide portability and power for mobile office professionals. A convertible Tablet PC offers mobile professionals the choice of working in two ways - display mode and as a regular laptop. Using the display mode works well when diagrams or handwritten notes are being taken.

1) Acer TravelMate C310 Convertible Tablet PC

The Acer TravelMate C310 features an Intel Pentium M processor and has a 14.1" EMR TFT LCD. It has an onboard modem and can use Ethernet or wireless networks. With the addition of the optional second battery you should be able to get a full day of computing from the C310. The graphics on this Tablet PC are quite good and would be very useful for presentations to small groups.

2) Acer TravelMate C303XMi Convertible Tablet PC

The TravelMate C303XMi convertible Tablet PC offers a 14.1" XGA display with Smart Vision. The C303XMi has an 80GB hard drive, modular DVD-Dual drive, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and V.92 modem. The C303XMi offers up to 7 hours of battery life with a single charge and with a 2nd battery can provide up to 13 hours of battery life.

3) Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC

The Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Convertible Tablet PC has a 12.1" display, battery life of up to 7.5hrs on an 8-cell battery, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi capability, starting weight of 3.8lbs and 1.1" thick. It has support for up to 4GB of RAM and up to a 120GB hard disk drive.

4) ElectroVaya Scribbler sc2200 Convertible Tablet PC

The Scribbler sc2200 convertible Tablet PC has a detachable keyboard and mouse. The display is a bright 12.1" with pressure sensitive screen. The sc2200 also has integrated biometric device for fingerprint recognition. The extended battery run-time is up to 9 hours. The sc2200 weighs 4.5lbs with keyboard and mouse attached. Without the keyboard and mouse the sc2200 weighs 3.5lbs.

5) Fujitsu T4010D Convertible Tablet PC

The Fujitsu T4010D has a 12.1" XGA display and has 160-degree wide viewing angle. A built-in modular bay can be used for an additional battery or a media drive. Wi-Fi is Atheros Super AG with dual diversity antennas. Bluetooth is also available. The T4010D has a Kensington lock slot and uses the Trusted Platform Module for security.

Read Review

6) Gateway S-7200c Convertible Tablet PC

The Gateway S-7200c Convertible Tablet PC is well suited to mobile professionals and life on the road. It offers the features of a desktop replacement laptop without the greater weight and the convenience of writing directly on the screen. The included software will enable you to work productively. It is a very solid Tablet PC and good for mobile professionals who demand a sturdy machine.

Read Review

Manufacturer's Site

7) Panasonic Toughbook 18 Convertible Tablet PC

The Toughbook 18 is a ruggedized convertible Tablet PC with a 10.4" outdoor-readable LCD display. Weighing only 4.5lbs this is a lightweight rugged solution for mobile professionals. The case is constructed of magnesium alloy and has sealed port and connector covers. The keyboard, LCD and touchpad are all moisture and dust-resistant. The Toughbook 18 provides Wi-Fi connectivity, GSM/GPRS, Bluetooth and Wired LAN.

8) Toshiba Portege M200 Convertible Tablet PC

The Portege M200 convertible Tablet PC has a high resolution 12.1" SXGA+ display and offers up to 4.34 hours of battery time. The M200 has integrated Wi-Fi, 10/100 Ethernet and V.90/56K modem for a variety of connection options. The M200 weighs 4.4lbs and included drives are DVD/CD-RW Combo and 60GB hard drive.

9) HP TC1100 Tablet PC

The HP TC1100 Tablet PC is both a convertible Tablet PC and can be used in tablet mode only. The keyboard is fully detachable. The display is 10.4" TFT XGA with a hard tempered sparkle free glass covering. A discharged battery can be swapped when in standby mode for a fully charged battery allowing you to continue working. The TC1100 has built-in Wi-Fi, Ethernet and phone modem.

Full Story...

This stuff must be expensive

Gizmoz, a kind of online version of CrazyTalk
let's you take your own picture, animate it, and upload audio to go with it or use text to speech to make an online, animated, talking version of yourself. Neat idea, and apparently it isn't cheap to create.

Gizmoz Raises $6.3 Million

By: Bill Hartzer
2007-05-31

Gizmoz has recently secured a $6.3 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital.

This round of funding is a Series A investment from Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital. The money will be used to expand the Gizmoz's product development efforts and support its global expansion plans.

Gizmoz is a social expression and user-generated media service. Gizmoz offers a new generation of character-based visual expression-for use across your digital life. The Gizmoz service makes it easy to create, customize, animate and share photorealistic 3D talking characters and videos that allow you to communicate and express yourself in more realistic and imaginative ways. Each Gizmoz has a 3D lifelike head and body-it delivers a personalized, lip-synched message. Characters can be fashioned as a self-portrait, using a digital photograph, or customized using images from the Gizmoz Library.

Once the 3D head and body are automatically constructed, you can choose from a lot of different hairstyles, clothing and accessories to fashion a one-of-a-kind character just for you. At the end, you can create a personal message by making a voice recording or choose a text-to-speech option. The entire process takes less than one minute.

Gizmoz also launched its new online service, which allows you to create animated, talking characters. These 3D lifelike characters can be used to generate video clips and other forms of original content-they can be posted to any blog or social networking profile, sent via email to family and friends, or uploaded to video sites.

Gizmoz has also released new widgets that let you communicate:

- Gizmoz Stickers allows you to "stick" your Gizmoz character on any blog or profile page, leaving your personalized mark and message behind. You can use Gizmoz Stickers to greet visitors or to comment on another site. Posting takes just two clicks.

- Gizmoz Answering Machine allows you to create a message center on your blog or profile page. You can use the Gizmoz Answering Machine to post your Gizmoz message on your site, and visitors can use the tool to instantly create their own Gizmoz character and leave a message, which can be made private or reviewed and rated by others.

The Gizmoz technology platform combines behavioral animation, digital puppetry and 3D rendering to deliver animated characters that behave in a natural and believable manner. They appear to have lifelike movements, including eye blinks, breathing and a range of facial expressions constructed from nearly 100 morph targets. Live voice-driven lip-syncing, text-to-speech and advanced phoneme recognition provide a range of voice tones and dialects for optimal sound quality.

Because Gizmoz incorporates Flash throughout its service, it can be played on any Web browser, and it's compatible with mobile devices that support MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). The footprint is small enough for mobile devices, yet delivers the graphics quality required for broadcast TV. Gizmoz has four patents in place and one pending.

As you can see, I have added an animated, talking, Gizmoz head to the top of this post. I would like to challenge a few fellow bloggers to create an animated, talking head just like I did. For this, I'm pinging Jennifer Laycock, Shoemoney, Todd Malicoat, Michael Gray, Aaron Wall, and Andy Beard. I'd love to see your "talking head". So, if you're up to it, post it! I'd love to see it! Aren't these things hilarious?

There's a lot of other people talking about Gigmoz, here's a list of who has mentioned them recently:

Gizmoz Launches Updated Beta for Photo-Enhanced Avatars

Gizmoz Launches - Create Your Talking 3D Avatar

Gizmoz offers fun avatars

Go have fun with Gizmoz

Gizmoz, a new way to express.

Gizmos Tool Is Too Cool not to Post About

Reveng-e of the 3d talking heads.

Gizmoz Launches - Create Your Talking 3D Avatar

Have your Face made into and animation online - Free

Create A Talking 3D Avatar With Your Own Face Image

Cheap MP3 Players to use with TextAloud

Many TextAloud users turn text into MP3 files to listen to portably. Here is a nice CNET article on some nice inexpensive ones.

MP3 players for $50 or less

Jasmine France, Associate Editor

Updated May 17, 2007

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It may be hard to believe, but you can actually find a decent MP3 player for around 50 bucks. In fact, we may see more and more devices start to hover near that price point if flash memory costs continue to fall the way they have been over the past couple of years. Of course, there's no sense in dropping even $50 on a complete piece of junk, which is why I've scoured the site looking for some worthy options.

As you might notice, SanDisk rather dominates this category: there are definitely some advantages to manufacturing your own flash memory. At the most basic level, there's the Sansa Shaker, a simple and fun screenless model that's perfect for the kiddies. Next, we have the recently released Sansa Express, which offers an FM radio and a handly built-in USB plug. And finally, there's the people-pleasing Sansa m230.

For those who demand high quality audio, Creative and Sony step up to the plate. The Zen Stone is dead simple with a cute, pebble-like design (and it's available in a variety of colors). Even the Zen Nano Plus is still around and offers plenty of features, including line-in recording. If you don't mind dealing with SonicStage, some older Sony MP3 players offer a bargain, such as the NW-E105 and some models in the NW-E500 series. Full Story and Comparisons...

TextAloud and Audio Books

Nice Blog mention:

Now this is an interesting question with which to begin my Booking Through Thursday entries!

While I try to focus on using audiobooks now, ebooks have been a great alternate format for me since 2001 when I first found some Adobe Acrobat Reader ebooks. Adobe Acrobat had a “read aloud” function at that point, which helped me greatly.

In 2002 I found MicrosoftReader ebooks and also discovered the free version of the Overdrive Readerworks program for turning electronic texts into MicrosoftReader ebooks. Microsoft now has an add-in for Word which also allows you to make your own books quickly and easily. This can be a great way to store and use class notes for future use and study. These programs have improved dramatically over the years. MicrosoftReader has a text-to-speech function and now has many features that allow you to take notes, write in the margins, add bookmarks, and highlight text while you read. You can also view and search your annotations or markups from the annotations list, rather than flipping through the pages to find the bits you thought were important.

I also make use of the ebooks available through my public library which has a subscription to NetLibrary. This is a MARVERLOUS resource for those of us who have a hard time return books to the library on time! The book checks ITSELF back into the library at the end of two weeks, so you never have to worry about it! Now how cool is THAT!

These ebooks are compatible with my screen reader software, JAWS, and also allow you to add your own notes which are saved on the system, even after the book is “returned” to the library. Additionally, my public library also has down-loadable eAudiobooks through NetLibrary which play on a variety of media players like Windows Media Player or Winamp and which also check themselves back in after two weeks.

With the progressive loss of my functional vision, I’ve been forced to go looking for alternate text formats. In the last two years, Rehabilitation Services for the Blind have provided me with the equipment and software to make my own electronic texts efficiently and at need. I do this by using a high speed scanner and the educational software program Kurzweil 1000. With practice, I can now scan a two hundred fifty page book in about 45 minutes. Kurzweil has some additional features which make it an excellent tool for anyone who needs or wants to work in electronic format. It allows me to skim books, reading only the first sentences of paragraphs, take notes, and add hyperlinks between sections of a book, so I can jump to related sections. This feature is somewhat like writing “see page 67 for another example” in the margins of a print book.

Several organizations have been creating online e-texts for many years now. Project Gutenberg has been around for decades provide plain “vanilla” texts, that is, electronic versions of texts in plain text or ASCII 2 format that any computer can display in any word processing program, even low-tech programs like notepad or very old programs. They are also expanding their collections to offer audio version of texts in Mp3 format; some are electronic audio like the ones I can make at home with the program TextAloud Mp3 and my AT&T Natural Voices. You can try a demo of these voices at the following page: http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php which is part of their research section. The demo at the Natural Voices homepage is currently down.

Full Article