speech synthesis for linux using internal speaker?

[jhu]

here's the setup:

1) i've an internal network with a '486 acting as a router (ie, connected to dsl modem)
2) '486 is running linux (16MB ram, no hard drive)
3) said 486 is in my roommates room
4) i'd like to pull a prank on him. have the router speak to him or something

can anyone help me out? thanks!

 

[HaVoC]

Methinks the tiny PC speaker won't really produce .wav files required for speech very well. The speaker is limited in the frequencies it can produce. It's probably not worth trying to get the speech synthesis to work.

Why not just put a glob of white shampoo on his bed to freak him out. (use your imagination...what would that look like?)

 

[jhu]

i'm not talking about using .wav files (but it can be done with the internal speaker). that's too much computing power. i'm talking about a program that is able to generate some simple sounds using the internal speaker that somehow sounds like words in a tinny, robotic sort of way.

 

[jhu]

about the wav playback on the internal speaker, i used to do that using win 3.1. ms produce a driver for the internal speaker that could play wave files. it was totally weird.

 

[Modus]

Actually, the internal PC speaker is limitted only by its own clumsy software interface. As an analog speaker, though, it's as good as the $5 models you get with an eMachine.

To use the PC speaker for decent quality sound output essentially requires the software emulation of a sound card. In the past, CPU's were only fast enough to do this when the sound routines were written in assembler (look at some old DOS games circa 1989 for interesting examples), but with the 486 and higher, your PC speaker, coupled with the proper driver, could actually sound. . . not horrible

Do a search for the Windows 3.1 PC Speaker driver. It was a little 30k driver that let your PC speaker emulate a sound card for most Windows 3.1 applications. I lost track of it when most machines came equipped with Windows 95 and dedicated sound cards.

As far as Linux, I'm sure those crazy programmers have come up with something similar.

Modus

 

[jhu]

haha! if i'd found a linux driver, i wouldn't be here...

 

[dkozloski]

www.txwesleyan.edu/masscomm/speak.exe will give you the old Win routine and files.

 

[dkozloski]

ftp://ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de/pub/linux/hu-sound/ and Bob's your uncle.

 

[jhu]

thanks