DSpeech: Terrific Treasure for all kinds of Text and Speech Operations

DSpeech gives you free text to speech, text to mp3 and wav conversion, voice recording and speech to text - all from a flash drive!
I was exploring Access Apps, a free downloadable accessibility suite from RCS in Scotland, that runs from a flash drive. I was exploring for Mp3 conversion tools and one of the tools was DSpeech. I will be sharing more on Access Apps on another post, but wanted to specifically share the DSpeech today. You can opt to download it from the link at the top and just use it off a flash drive or your computer if you don't want the full downloaded suite in AccessApps. (More to come on the tools on the AccessApps suite.)
DSpeech can import text files in many formats and read them aloud. There is a box to check that shows tracking so that words are highlighted as they are read. Text can be converted to wav or mp3 files to download and listen on a portable player or they can be heard through the computer.
I used the speech to text tool and found that if I spoke slowly and clearly, I could get most of what I said to print okay. I could then save that as a text file. I found that under options, if I configured the ASR (automatic speech recognition) with the pull-down menu choice, SAPI Developer, I got better results with the computer interpreting my voice. There are recorder buttons on the program also to record messages and read text outloud to create Mp3/wav files as well. The website says you can do conversational things with the text and set up new voices by blending other voices - I haven't explored it that deep yet, but it has great potential. When you choose a voice, you get an avatar at the top that blinks and talks when the text to speech is activated. This will definitely be a draw for students!
I recorded some sound files, used the speech to text, copied an article from Word I had taken off the Internet and turned it into an mp3 file. Everything worked great.

Because DSpeech can run off a jump or flash drive, nothing has to be installed on a computer. A student can carry the jump drive with them and store files on it as well. The interface uses any voices you have on a computer. Mine had the Voiceware VW Paul and VW Kate. I liked them the best. I think I got them when I downloaded a free version of Natural Reader. The voices extended themselves over to the DSpeech which made a much more natural sounding voice so you might want to try downloading the free version of Natural Reader and see.

If you are looking for some great accessibility tools for voice, text and mp3, check out DSpeech. It's a great tool.

All the best to you!

Lon




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DAISY Pipeline Software Provides Free Text to Mp3 Conversion

"I have a university class starting next week and have scanned my textbook into Word and used the "Save As DAISY " plug in to convert it all. I can't seem to figure out what to do from there to get it finished. Can you help me?"
I had this question from the UK this week (I am paraphrasing it a little). The question came from a student with Dyslexia who is not able to qualify for the files she needs and needed to get this text converted ASAP.
I had done a series of posts last June '08 on Converting Text with DAISY where some great advice was shared by DAISY Consortium developer Romain Deltour. I had meant to use his information to do a tutorial with steps for this process and never got around to it. Now with this question, I had a reason to get something organized, written and available.
I would like to get it perfected as a more visual tutorial and maybe a video one down the road, but for now, I have created a free pdf with links to the tool downloads and the steps start to finish from the Word text to an Mp3, wav or DTB 2.02 file that will play in DTB players and on Windows Media Player, iTunes, Quicktime Player, etc.
You can access the tutorial on my NL2L website at the bottom of the Training page at this link.
Here is also a helpful link to DAISY Consortium with all their conversion tools.

Don't Forget!
"Romancing the Phone" Courting and romance sparked a new phone speech assistant for the speech impaired - a visit with Jay and Melissa Blocksom. Tonight, Friday, January 30 at 7 PM Pacific. Blog Talk Radio/No Limits 2 Learning Live!

AT Blog Carnival for February - call for submissions on "perfect pairings" of AT.
Deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb 20. The carnival will post on Monday, Feb. 23.

All the best to you!

Lon




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Free Text to MP3 Conversion Tutorials Now Available at No Limits 2 Learning

I finally have my training tutorials for my workshops on converting text to MP3 for you online. They are available free on my training page at No Limits 2 Learning.com.
I have designed them after guiding quite a few people in sessions on how to do this. I hope I have thought of all the steps and procedures. I wrote them from the standpoint of a relative new-comer to technology. I get a lot of teachers in my trainings that say they have little or no experience - so here's to more experience!
Enjoy!
All the best to you...
Lon



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Holiday Gift Idea: Mp3 Player Jump Drive

The RCA Pearl 1 GB Jump DriveMp3 under $30!

My Mp3 player jump drive goes with me everywhere. I bought it after attending a day workshop on print disability tools and converting text to audio Mp3 files. I found that I preferred it over my iPod (which I love too). The iPod has to work through iTunes which is proprietary so everything has to be loaded into it and then the player has to be synced to it to add new material. I wanted to be able to add files "on the fly" and skip that extra step.

With a jump drive player, you have a built in USB so you can plug it in, open it as an external memory device from "My Computer" in Windows and then open the music folder and literally drag your files in to store or out to throw away.

I go on websites that have archives of interviews for talk and radio shows that comment on the news, etc. I download new files almost everyday, listen and then dump when done and drag on new files. There is no putting it into a player software first - very easy. There are quite a few varieties of these jump drive USB players - I just found this one to be easily available and priced very reasonable.

If you are looking for a cheap and effective tool for your family member with print disability, processing or LD issues, think about this as a way to support literacy and learning by listening as well as seeing. Following the text while listening is very supportive and is used by such companies as Read Naturally. I have used the Premiere Literacy tools to convert pdf files into mp3 audio files as well and then put them on my player.

Where Do I Get the Free Books?

Gutenberg.org is one of many sites with public domain literature to download for free. Many of the titles have an audio file option to hear the book being read. Another is Free Classic Audio Books. The service, LibriVox uses volunteers who read, record and send in files of books so you get a large library of public domain texts by real voice readers - free.

The Pearl Mp3 has a built in radio and also a voice memo feature that allows a student to record directions from a teacher or voice notes from a class and download them as Mp3 files to a computer for future reference or playback on the player.

I have been showing folks how to use a free blog with the free odiogo service to convert a blog post to Mp3 like I do here on my blog. You can cut and paste or write anything, download it and play it on an Mp3 player. You can find my tutorials and notes on how to do this on my website, nolimits2learning.com under the resources section and the training section.

There is a new Pearl Mp3 version 2 out now with 2 GB and an optional mini sandisk slot to expand memory. It is still under $30 from Amazon on a special right now. I don't have this new version but it looks like they have just expanded and improved on the old one. I can't think of a bigger bang for your buck in a piece of technology that will support learning and be fun at the same time!

All the best to you!

Lon

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Make Free Audio Book Mp3's Using Audacity

Use Audacity to make audio book Mp3 files with E text:

Because there are some issues as to whether copyright law is being violated or not when trying to convert textbooks to Mp3 by using the Odiogo tool, some might feel more comfortable with using a voice on their computer instead. If so, you can download Naturalsoft's Natural Reader and use Audacity (a free open-source sound editor) to "record" your reader in real time and then convert it to Mp3. It makes an extra step but for some it is worth the peace of mind. The Odiogo voice is so much nicer than Microsoft Sam, which is what plays on my computer when I use Natural Reader - but that is the the sacrifice you make if you are working with free tools.

I am presenting this at Closing the Gap in Minneapolis next week, along with other uses for free tools and blogs, but I carved out a portion of a tutorial for my workshop to give you below. This is new material that I haven't shared before. My instructional technology co-worker shared this trick with me last weekend and I am excited to use it. I recorded some of my text read by Natural Reader and the quality of the recording Audacity made was great. I might need to buy the Natural Soft voices so I can record my text in a better voice and have nicer recordings.

I hope you enjoy...

What You Need:

Audacity

Natural Reader or Odiogo

(We assume you have scanned or found text you want to record to put in a reader already. If you want to know more on scanning, check out my post on that topic here.)

1. Open Audacity to record.

2. Set the microphone to "stereo mix" (older versions) or "wave mix out"(newer versions). This stops recording sound from outside and uses the internal signal going to the speakers .

3. If you start the record button on Audacity and then start "play" on a text reader reading feature (like in Natural Reader) - it will record the reading. Stop the Audacity program when passage is completely read.

4. Once done, in Audacity, clean up the beginning and end for any blank space and then convert the file just recorded to an Mp3 by choosing "file" and selecting the pull-down menu and "convert to Mp3". You need to add a special encoder to Audacity the first time you convert. The directions are below, after step 5.

5. Save the file where you want it. You could link files to download from your server in closed blogs for students. Save the file on your server and copy paste the address or hyperlink it to a document name on the blog.

Getting the Encoder to convert to Mp3 in Audacity:

The first time you convert to an Mp3 format in Audacity, you need the free Lame encoder to be installed with Audacity.
You can get the Lame encoder here: http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

1. Download the free encoder (save) and open on your desktop. Drag the utility onto the desktop and then pick up the steps of saving the recorded file as an Mp3.

2. Audacity will tell you it cannot convert the file until it has the Lame encoder and will ask if you want it to find it. Say "yes" and then browse to your desktop where you put it and double-click on it. Audacity will add it to your utilities for on its' own and then ask you to go ahead with the step below:

3. Indicate where to save the file somewhere on your computer, choose to save it there and finish the conversion.

Students can use this tool to access textbooks and literature that can be added to a simple Mp3 player that can be bought for as cheap as $20 or $30.

All the best to you!

Lon

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How to Create Your Own Audio Books for Free or Low Cost

I was listening to an Mp3 I had downloaded recently from a national talk radio show that I enjoy. They had been interviewing an author and it was the time in the show when folks can call in and share opinions, ask questions, etc. A caller was put on the air and he said: "I am a blind person, and I love listening to your show. I would love to read your book but I have to have it in another format on tape or Braille. I get books from American Printing House and I wondered if I can get your book someway."
The author said he didn't have his books in an audio version but he would send anyone a book for free that was blind if they wanted to have someone read it on a tape recorder or something, but he didn't know anything about books for the blind and couldn't do Braille.
The caller had sounded like someone who didn't really know about the technology available to them. Neither did the host or the author. I was listening to the interview several days after the fact and wished I could have called in and given some tips. I guess because I work in AT, I assume most people who need access to tools already know about them and that I am not sharing anything new - but I need to stop assuming that. I am giving a presentation this afternoon to a group of folks in special education that don't know how to do this at all. Since I am not able to call in and answer the gentleman's question that called in, I'll share with you. I know I have shared this before, but for new readers, here it goes:

In order to do the things I suggest, you need the following:
1. A computer - that is a given!
2. A Scanner - the scanner can be a 4 in one printer/fax/photocopier/scanner, or a dedicated flatbed scanner. You can buy a new one for around $65 at the big general stores like Target, Wal-Mart, etc. Make sure it has OCR (Optical Character recognition).
3. A FREE text reader. I use Read Natural. The voices aren't that great if you use the free version but "Hey, free is free - it helps" The upgrade pay version has great voices AND an Mp3 converter tool - very cool.
4. An Mp3 player - This is optional. You can hear the text on a computer for free, but if you want something portable, you will want one of these. What I like is that these little jump-drive players use the USB port right into the computer, no cables or wires (except the headphones). You can then open the device on the computer screen and drag and drop in converted e-text files to listen to. I bought a little jump-drive RCA makes. I can drag and drop music or documents from my computer right onto the jump drive and then listen to them from the player - quick and easy. It cost $29.95 and has1 Gig Memory.
This is a lot better than using an iPod and iTunes and having to sync your device and build playlists etc. I have an iPod and I find I don't use it to listen to quick downloaded talk shows, articles, converted files, etc. because the iPod doesn't lend itself to on-the-fly syncing

If you have a book, but no audio version what do you do? In this instance, you can scan the pages using the scanner with OCR that will recognize the text and turn it into an RTF (Rich Text Format). It will open in a Windows, Mac or Linux operating system.
After you scan the text you can use your free downloaded Natural Reader to hear the text read to you. You have to open the mini toolbar that floats on the screen and then highlight the text and let it read - or you can open the reading window and paste the text in to be read.

Converting Text to Mp3
There are tools out there that can take your text and convert it to an Mp3 file. There is the Natural Reader upgrade I already mentioned above. Premier Literacy has an Mp3 conversion button on several of their readers and has a program called "Text to Audio" for $69.95 that will convert large amounts of text and create sections every 10 minutes or when you specify.
The Kurzweil 3000 has a text to Mp3 feature also but the program costs about $1200 - $1500.

A work around buying software to convert text to Mp3 is to start a blog just for this purpose - like I have with My Reading Chair and copy paste your text into a post. Add the Odiogo free player onto your blog and then be able to download your text as an Mp3 format onto your computer for free. Anyone can do this but one caution: If you are scanning copyrighted text, there is a fair use allowance for the owner of a book to adapt the text for their own private use. If you use a blog, you need to close it and delete the post as soon as you have your converted text to Mp3 files so you are not opening it up to the world-wide-web. That would definitely be a copyright violation! Also, if you are scanning a book and creating files of audio text you need to keep it for your own use and not give it to others. If a book is in public domain, you are fine to do what you want with it. Gutenberg.org is a great source for public domain works and many titles have audio versions ready to download for free.

I hope this has helped some of you get to accessing some books and listening - I know I am having a lot of fun with it and it helps me and my students.

All the best,
Lon



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