datajake1999

@datajake1999@dragonscave.space

I am totally blind, and I am interested in archiving rare software such as old screen readers and speech synthesizers. I am also an audio and mythology nerd.

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pixelate, to accessibility
@pixelate@tweesecake.social avatar

It's June 10, 2024, at 4:00 PM Central US time. Almost every blind person that owns an iPhone has installed the iOS 18 beta. Some are playing retro games with the new, AI driven screen recognition. Others are gladly using DecTalk as their main voice, the Enhanced Siri voices that use ML to speak using emotion and context, as their reading voice, Eloquence as their notification voice (sent to one ear to minimize distractions), and finding it amazing that VoiceOver emphasizes italic text, and emboldens bold text. Others are finding it amazing that they can navigate their whole phone using Braille screen input, searching to find things by typing a few letters, or just swiping down through everything. A few are connecting their multi-line Braille displays, and feeling app icons and images, made much more understandable through touch, using an AI filter.

The next day, when news of all these features filters down to Android users, they quickly begin hammering Google, wanting DecTalk and Eloquence on their Pixel phones, like iOS users have. But Google is silent as always, only just now having given Chromebook users high quality Google TTS voices.

Note: great liberty has been taken to imagine the coolest outcome for the vague feature announcements Apple gave for VoiceOver users. We'll see just how cool, or not, they actually are on June 10.

datajake1999,

@pixelate @Lottie I highly doubt DECtalk would officially be on iOS considering the legal situation is complicated. The BTSpeak is using DECtalk 4.99, which is the version on GitHub. I suspect the HumanVoice LLC story is a cover up, since it would make Blazie Technologies look bad if they admitted to using leaked source code in a product.

datajake1999,

@pixelate @Lottie If I were to guess which voices are going to be added in the next iOS release, I bet you it is some neural voices that can run locally.

DavidGoldfield, to random

Google TalkBack will use Gemini to describe images for blind people https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/6953

datajake1999,

@Rich @pixelate @DavidGoldfield As far as I know, DECtalk 4.99 can be compiled for MacOS, however there isn't any integration with the speech framework that would enable it's use with applications such as VoiceOver.

datajake1999,

@Rich @pixelate @DavidGoldfield They did.

datajake1999, to random

Interesting that Window Eyes 4.5 appears to be the only version that shipped with RealSpeak.

datajake1999,

@FluidEscence Window Eyes 4.5 was released in 2003. That is a version I still want to get my hands on. If @Jage is able to find the install disks, that might actually happen.

datajake1999,

@FluidEscence @Jage Also notice I said disks. Apparently in versions prior to 5.0, the MP3 manual was supplied on a separate CD.

datajake1999,

@Jage @FluidEscence That's OK. Besides 4.5, the only version I am really after is 5.5, since I don't have an official dump of that version.

datajake1999,

@sclower That makes sense.

datajake1999,

@remixman It was a SAPI4 synth.

datajake1999, to random

I finally found DECtalk 4.60 R003, which was compiled on April 22, 1999. The most notable difference between this version and R008 is the voice definitions are different. In fact, the voice definitions in this version appear to be the ones from the Unix port of 4.51. To test this theory, I took the source for 4.60 R008, undid the voicing gain offset hack in the vocal tract model that was applied in 2003, and compiled it with the voice definitions from the aforementioned Unix port. I generated a WAV of the April 99 build and my custom R008 build, and the audio was bit identical.
As for where I found this long lost version, it was part of a program called PhoneSoft, which was archived by the Wayback Machine. The installer was password protected, so I got some cracking assistance from a reliable friend.
This build of DECtalk I found isn't an access32 build, so the licensing scheme is different. I used a tool included in the DECtalk source that is used to set the license count to whatever you want, and I set it to 0, which gives you infinite licenses. I have updated the speak windows archive with this version, and I have included registry files for both 32 and 64-bit registries.
Here is a link to the archive. https://datajake.braillescreen.net/tts/dectalk%20software%20and%20manual/DECtalk%20Speak%20windows.7z

datajake1999,

@andrew No, I haven't. It sounds like it would be interesting to mess around with.

datajake1999, to random

I just uploaded some Artic Technologies audio tutorials that are on the Wayback Machine to my collection. https://datajake.braillescreen.net/manual%20and%20tutorial%20tapes/artictech.com

datajake1999,

@Jage I am interested in getting whatever you can find, and I will upload anything I don't have yet.

datajake1999,

@KaraLG84 I was only able to download 2 other files, test08.wav and test11.wav.

datajake1999,

@Jage @bryansmart @sclower Thanks for these. Do you happen to have any old Window Eyes disks lying around? If so, I would like to get dumps of those as well.

datajake1999,

@Jage @bryansmart @sclower Sounds good.

datajake1999,

@FluidEscence @sclower @Jage @bryansmart The tutorials are now up, and the author name for the 5.5 and 6.0 tutorials has been fixed. https://datajake.braillescreen.net/manual%20and%20tutorial%20tapes/Window-Eyes

datajake1999,

@Jage @FluidEscence @sclower @bryansmart No problem. As an assistive technology historian, this is important to me as well.

datajake1999,

@Jage @FluidEscence @sclower @bryansmart I just uploaded the Outspoken tapes to my collection.

daygar, to random

I wonder if Audio Game Maker is still floating around anywhere?

datajake1999,

@remixman @daygar @jaybird110127 I just uploaded the Audio Game Maker files to https://datajake.braillescreen.net/games/agm.

datajake1999, to random

I posted a comment on an AI generated article calling it out for what it is. For anyone interested, here is the link to the article. https://www.iancollmceachern.com/single-post/unveiling-the-magic-the-story-behind-the-windows-95-startup-sound

KaraLG84, to random
@KaraLG84@dragonscave.space avatar

@datajake1999 just checking to see if you got my dm or whatever they're called on here.

datajake1999,

@KaraLG84 I got it.

datajake1999, to random

The Neural voices NVDA addon was updated. The default language is now English, and audio device fixes were implemented. The link is the same as before.

datajake1999,

@luiscarlosgonzalez I didn't develop it, and I don't know who did. All I know is they want to stay anonymous.

datajake1999,

@bermudianbrit Not sure on that one, as I haven't extensively tested this addon.

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