Vocalizer
<< BackA while ago I wrote a small Perl script for my 4-year old son (who has autism). It would allow him to type any word and hear it be pronounced by a speech synthesizer. I was surprised to learn how much he liked it, so I developed a second version. Vocalizer is the result of this development effort.
As you would expect, vocalizer allows user input of any word, and it will pronounce those words through a speech synthesizer. In addition, it can be configured with (many) predefined words, images, sounds and alternative pronunciations. Whenever a word is entered that the program recognizes, it will display the appropriate picture and/or play back the relevant sound* (*not supported yet), if available.
For now, the program is free-form; it will allow the user to type in anything. A future version may display an image and request the user to type in the name of that image.
Configuration files permit associating (sets of) words with images. That is, each word will be associated with a single image, *unless* it is recognized as a set of words. As such, multi-word concepts such as ice cream, ice cubes or polar bear can be typed in normally without confusing the program.
Screenshots
Context-sensitive word recognition will likely be added soon. Thus, when the user types "Red yellow orange", the program will display those colours, whereas when the user types "apple orange banana" the program will display those fruits. In other words, "orange" is treated differently depending on the context of the session.Current status The application is operational, but currently for personal, non-profit use only due to the use of copyrighted materials. If you wish to find out how this program can be adapted to your needs, feel free to contact me. Any suggestions are welcome. | |