Re: [MUD-Dev] voice vs. text

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt <hhs#cbs,dtu.dk>]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2000, Matthew Mihaly wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Feb 2000, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> 
> > I would disagree here, because I think it would be rather difficult to
> > maintain a role that way. I can "talk like a girl" all I want, but if
> > you heard my voice there is positively no way you'd take me for anything
> > but a big middle-aged man. 

I recently visited the webpage for ATT's research labs for text to speech.
I must admit i was quite impressed, and what they have done makes it 
usable for a MUD (quality wise, i don't know how resource consuming the
thing is). All you needed would be a voice-parameter file. This would
certainly add the 'voice' aspect of a game.

Try it out yourself;
reference: http://www.research.att.com/

It does make mistakes, but it pronunciation is in general better
than mine, and some sentences are so well spoken, that you would not
know it was a aritificially generated.

However, making speech would greatly slow down the speed at which the
player would be able to process the information. The human visual system
is faster than the auditory one. Someone once described a text to speech
utility a blind terminal operator as 'Chipmunks on speed'. It is possible 
to train the ear to decifer such fast reading, but hardly usable in a
game to carry vital information. 

For conversation, however, it could be a valued feature, since the way
conversations in MUD's map well with a normal conversations, and the 
speed of input is comparable with the spoken word (or slower). It would 
however probably limit the number of conversations you can follow at a 
given time.


Hans Henrik Stærfeldt   |    bombman#diku,dk    | work:  hhs#cbs,dtu.dk      |
address:                |___  +45 40383492    __|__       +45 45252425     __|
 Dybendalsvej 74 2. th, | Scientific programmer at Center for Biological     |
 2720 Vanløse, Danmark. |  Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark|





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