State of text-to-speech enabled puppies

What features/apps/bugfixes needed in a future Puppy
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rill
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Joined: Tue 18 Mar 2014, 18:18
Location: Southern Wisconsin

State of text-to-speech enabled puppies

#1 Post by rill »

Hi all,
This is my first post to a Puppy forum. I have been doing a lot of reading, but I don't have a good grasp on Puppy Linux which can be used by the visually impaired. I would appreciate some comments. Links for further reading are just fine.
1. Is there a build for the pc that a blind user can boot up out of the box or do I need sighted assistance for this?
2. I have a Raspberry Pi in addition to my pc. I found instructions for converting an ArchLinux install to a puppy one. My Arch pi speaks at the console command line. I'm not sure orca, the only screen reader I know of for the Linux desktop, will work with Joe's Window Manager or other tools. Can someone speak to this?
I'm trying to keep this short. I can expand on my questions if they are too broad.
Many thanks.
Rill

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ETP
Posts: 1193
Joined: Tue 19 Oct 2010, 19:55
Location: UK

Re: State of text-to-speech enabled puppies

#2 Post by ETP »

rill wrote:Hi all,
This is my first post to a Puppy forum. I have been doing a lot of reading, but I don't have a good grasp on Puppy Linux which can be used by the visually impaired. I would appreciate some comments. Links for further reading are just fine.
1. Is there a build for the pc that a blind user can boot up out of the box or do I need sighted assistance for this?
2. I have a Raspberry Pi in addition to my pc. I found instructions for converting an ArchLinux install to a puppy one. My Arch pi speaks at the console command line. I'm not sure orca, the only screen reader I know of for the Linux desktop, will work with Joe's Window Manager or other tools. Can someone speak to this?
I'm trying to keep this short. I can expand on my questions if they are too broad.
Many thanks.
Rill
Hi rill & welcome to the kennels,

The only Pup that I am aware of that offers some limited features for the blind is my own Obedient Pup V3. Sighted assistance would be required for initial setup. My signature panel contains a link to the thread which you would need to study.
A quick overview can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/oyubbtq
An example of actual voice quality here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 507#752507

Hopefully someone else will jump in on your Pi & Orca question.
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

rill
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 18 Mar 2014, 18:18
Location: Southern Wisconsin

Re: State of text-to-speech enabled puppies

#3 Post by rill »

[quote="ETP"]
Hi rill & welcome to the kennels,

The only Pup that I am aware of that offers some limited features for the blind is my own Obedient Pup V3. Sighted assistance would be required for initial setup. My signature panel contains a link to the thread which you would need to study.
A quick overview can be found here:
[url]http://tinyurl.com/oyubbtq[/url]
An example of actual voice quality here:
[url]http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 507#752507[/url]

Hopefully someone else will jump in on your Pi & Orca question.[/quote]

Thanks for your quick reply. Your project sounds wonderful, but sadly, isn't what I am looking for, though I might have a play with it. I am totally blown away by the number of ambitious projects people like you have put together.

Am I right that puppies do not have ssh access right out of the box? I'm looking for a way to get started on my own.

mcewanw
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Joined: Thu 16 Aug 2007, 10:48
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#4 Post by mcewanw »

There is what is now a very old (and huge) thread called "Seeing Dog Puppy for Blind".

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24571

Somewhere in there you should find a link to an iso Trobin produced. However, that thread was primarily concerned with commandline only distribution since focussing on someone who had completely lost their sight. In that context, Trobin said somewhere, that if he ever went totally blind then he would use the program edbrowse, even though it has a steep learning curve. The steep learning curve arises from the fact that edbrowse is really written from the point of view of text coming in a stream, single letter by single letter, that is, line-oriented, rather than in a window, which is how a sighted person tends to have text presented. Actually, Karl Dahlke, the author of edbrowse explained that matter in detail somewhere; unfortunately I don't have the link but will be somewhere in the online edbrowse documentation. In line with Trobin's comments, I would use edbrowse too. On top of that you do however need a text to speech system and speech to 'text' if you also want voice control (though if a person can type, a keyboard remains a good option).

http://the-brannons.com/edbrowse/
Edbrowse is a combination editor, browser, and mail client that is 100% text based. The interface is similar to /bin/ed, though there are many more features, such as editing multiple files simultaneously, and rendering html. This program was originally written for blind users, but many sighted users have taken advantage of the unique scripting capabilities of this program, which can be found nowhere else. A batch job, or cron job, can access web pages on the internet, submit forms, and send email, with no human intervention whatsoever. edbrowse can also tap into databases through odbc. It was primarily written by Karl Dahlke.
...
Version 3 uses the Spider Monkey javascript engine from Mozilla.org, which is also open source...You'll need the packages pcre-devel and openssl-devel to compile this program
I have been busy on other matters for a long while so didn't notice Obedient Pup before. Looks like an interesting effort. I'll give it a spin sometime. Hope it is continuing to be developed.
github mcewanw

Jasper

#5 Post by Jasper »

Hi,

Elsewhere in this Forum amigo wrote about STT [not TTS as in this enquiry], but just in case it may be of some interest
... you might want to look into using the version of knoppix which has speech support. Klaus Knoppers' wife is blind and together they have developed a full version with very good STT support. Trying to achieve that level of support for Puppy is next-to-impossible.
My regards

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butchydave
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TTS

#6 Post by butchydave »

Don't know about Pups but I did try Vinux for the heck of it. I believe it is Ubuntu based.. Maybe you could use Precise Pup and make compatible? Seem to remember it as being o.k. ..

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rufwoof
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Re: State of text-to-speech enabled puppies

#7 Post by rufwoof »

Hi Rill

Not puppy. But I believe Knoppix has a Adriane version, that talks right out of the box. Knoppix is a LiveCD and is large. I only know because I downloaded the Adriane version, without knowing what it did, when I was generally looking at different liveCD's

I'm uncertain of how easy it is to install Knoppix as I believe it is intended only as a liveCD - and doesn't include persistence (saving changes).
Last edited by rufwoof on Wed 19 Mar 2014, 22:53, edited 1 time in total.

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Keef
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#8 Post by Keef »

This might be the article by Karl Dahlke that mcewanw referred to:
http://eklhad.net/edbrowse/philosophy.html
It had moved from its original location, but I think its the one.

There is an Arch LiveCD with speech:
http://talkingarch.tk/
It was started by Chris Bannon, who is now the EdBrowse maintainer.

mcewanw
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#9 Post by mcewanw »

Keef wrote:This might be the article by Karl Dahlke that mcewanw referred to:
http://eklhad.net/edbrowse/philosophy.html
Yes, that's the one.
github mcewanw

gcmartin

#10 Post by gcmartin »

Hello @Rill

Knoppix Adriane, as shared earlier, was developed to be an OOTB solution for persons with sight disabilities and others. Knoppix can be installed OR Knoppix does have a persistence feature, as well. If you are used to the ease of understanding and use of a live Puppy Linux, Knoppix's understanding in NOT THE SAME, but with some reading can be workable with the Live approach.

Obedient-PUP, the 1st offer in this thread, is a good solution. but, it should have a sighted person available for initial kick-off. It has as its intent to be a good distro for those with that disability and offers good useful tools. Also, it can be used in Live mode having built-in persistence or place on USB/HDD peripherals.

Both of these distros have good desktops built-in and both can run in RAM for increased responsiveness. Obedient is smaller than Knoppix's CD/DVD versions. And may offer a quicker method of testing, once burned to a disc and Live-booted.

Hope this helps in your search for something meeting your needs.

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