Speech::Synthesiser - Generic speech syntheiser interface
use Speech::Synthesiser; $synth = new Speech::Synthesiser -type => 'SynthName', # other args ; start $synth; stop $synth; @voices = voice_list $synth; voice $synth "myvoice"; intro $synth; speak $synth $text;
Speech::Synthesiser provides a simple way to add speech to a perl application. It is a generic class which can be used to talk to any speech synthesiser given a suitable interface module.
Actual sound output is provided by an auiliary class, by default Audio::FileWave which runs an external program to play sound, but you can replace it with another class if you have a better way of playing sounds (eg a perl extension providing sound output), see the documentation for Speech::FileWave for the interface an alternative should provide should implement.
If you do use Speech::FileWave you may need to set up the command it uses to play sounds, see the documentation for "set_play_command" in Audio::FileWave.
Create a synthesiser of the named type. Looks for a package Speech::SynthName::Synthesiser. All arguments are passed to the creation function for that class.
Speech::SynthName::Synthesiser
The following arguments have special meaning to the Speech::Synthesiser new method.
Speech::Synthesiser
new
CLASS is the name of a perl package which implements wave playing. If not given it defaults to Audio::FileWave.
Audio::FileWave
@ARGS are passed to the new method of the wave class. For Audio::FileWave this defaults to ( "riff" ).
( "riff" )
Do whatever is ncecessary to prepar ethe synthesiser fo work. Returns true if all is well, false otherwise. In the event of an error the variable $synth_error conatains a description of it.
Close down the synthesiser, releasing any resources it holds. The synthesiser may be restarted with "start", but any state may have been lost.
Return a list of the voices available from this synthesiser.
Select a voice.
Returns a description of the voice.
Synthesize a description of the synthesiser,
Speak the given text. Not much more to be said really:-).
The following should talk to you, all else being equal. Uses the festival synthesiser, so you will need to run a festival server on the named machine.
use Speech::Synthesiser; $synth = new Speech::Synthesiser -type => 'Festival', -host => 'festival-server.mynet'; start $synth || die "can't talk to festival - $synth_error"; speak $synth "We are perl, prepare for assimilation.";
Richard Caley, R.Caley@ed.ac.uk
Speech::Festival, Speech::Festival::Synthesiser, Audio::FileWave, perl(1), festival(1), Festival Documentation
To install Audio::FileWave, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Audio::FileWave
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Audio::FileWave
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.