Do you think espeak is the most suitable, or just a convenient example ? A friend's commercial product used a system from Lernout & Houspie but it's also something the current AI craze does moderately well (most of the time, anyway..), often using an online server.
There are several open source choices too, as well as espeak and those fairly expensive commercial systems. I have collected a couple of external synths - A Votrax and a later DECTalk than the one in your link. I understand these are also in demand by musicians for their characteristic sound. I don't know if that's another market for your idea - I would have thought a DAW would provide a good environment for a software synth but they seem to like the DECTalk. On Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 7:52 AM Frank Ventura via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi all lovers of classic computing. As a blind lover of yester-years > computers I would like to share some personal experiences. Starting in the > late ‘70s and continuing well into the early 21st century; us blind folks > happily plugged along on any number of Atari, Commodore, Apple, and > Microsoft DOS machines. While we considered it magic at the time; there > really was no magic to it just some simple science. We used external speech > synthesizers with names like Arctic, Double-Talk, DEC Talk, Vortex just to > name a few. The most common, and arguably the best was the venerable DEC > Talk Express (external) and its internal cousin the DEC TALK PC. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPW2S4fZMJY > > Here is the general theory: > > https://www.listening.com/blog/speech-synthesis > > But from the end user’s point they didn’t have to concern themselves with > that. In the case of the popular DECTalk Express the user merely needed to > connect the DecTalk to a DB9 serial port on their computer and direct > their screen reader software to it. > > For blind lovers of vintage computing now the software screen readers are > still around in various Internet archives. Many have been released into the > public domain for use free of charge. An example of this is JAWS for DOS: > > https://allinaccess.com/happ/ > > The challenge is that the supply of used external speech synthesizers has > or soon will be dried up. Unfortunately, as we get old and pass on many of > these units get thrown out. Consequently, the world of vintage computing > for us blind folks is coming to a close. What would once again, open up the > world of vintage computing to us blind folks is a recreation of an External > DECTalk Express. The way I can imagine this is that a Linux software speech > synthesizer, like ESpeak, could be running on a Raspberry Pie. The Pie > would have a USB to serial connection installed to allow for connection to > a DB9 serial port on the computer, which is what the screen readers expect. > So far all of that is off-the-shelf software and hardware. What would have > to be created is a software program that could be run on the Pie that would > listen for the text stream coming in from the serial port and then pass > that input along to the speech synthesizer which in turn could speak > through the headphone jack on the Pie. > > This program would have to listen and respond to DECTalk control character > strings. They can be found at: > > https://rmdir.de/~michael/DECtalk_Express/rongemma/volume.htm > > And now for my plea for help. If there are any Linux/Pie developers that > would like to take on this project for the benefit of all blind vintage > computing enthusiasts, I would love to hear from you. I honestly don’t know > what fair compensation would be but I am sure some compensation could be > involved. Even if the fine folks here don’t want to get personally involved > I would love to hear opinions on the feasibility of this project as well as > suggestions. > > > Thanks > > Frank > > [email protected] > > > > > Estimated parts list: > > Raspberry Pie > > > https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Starter-Kit-PRO/dp/B0CRSNCJ6Y/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2C5VWZMXGSR0K&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KmdhrY0pHCHs8fYFQTqApvJ2sAMYo-0KMlpqE0PwWLNJB1LHo1ODQ7CAiY1I_y6YvYr-ga5pgPWjmP9Uo47h4L0IEgBwspF3wZq-xTGmJw961T-TIX9wM8k6JoVD8rnyHWREzvNfJFKZ3j0YiOmozaJaOOAY3gALsJJgtebSYGwgWdFX8YAXl3mLC-flmQf9zJMy2eVxzFq1PtRR7zD3475LGMfUIjfis-oLfoDBHT0.gWYHKJAbCfzz36sHQ-SZj9i2e3n3XWKgreqZgb4kBec&dib_tag=se&keywords=raspberry%2Bpi%2B5&qid=1757875990&sprefix=raspberry%2Bpi%2B5%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-3&th=1 > > Speak speech synthesizer for Linux > > https://espeak.sourceforge.net/download.html > > USB to DB9 serial: > > https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Chipset > ，DB9-Serial-Converter-Windows/dp/B0759HSLP1/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=236I64S61EQUS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xWQsG3VO7IqOId9P7LqGZq38EEH2QvMypF3SndBiNDHWvPNKkkfgYzYA0pD41q3IjI2_ArJV46Wj27eBeQcyBdbW13HiUK_p3b4D_w3wOl3jRSF0UykqtRxJP_l1OKBvCNnI8Gk2f0DaY-xt74-p4WlZ7lZONme6W9bu9qLr_u7-TCe6V3k47ERRnKr1p4STS93i_tAK0u2UP-TBvMkG5QysadotCwOMGo-U-L19WG0.PCwoBg8nZ8_4xUSozrwGK9opLdpTM5qNhfSRaBgtyJU&dib_tag=se&keywords=USB%2Bto%2Bdb9%2Bserial&qid=1757878593&sprefix=usb%2Bto%2Bdb9%2Bserial%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1< > https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Chipset%EF%BC%8CDB9-Serial-Converter-Windows/dp/B0759HSLP1/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=236I64S61EQUS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xWQsG3VO7IqOId9P7LqGZq38EEH2QvMypF3SndBiNDHWvPNKkkfgYzYA0pD41q3IjI2_ArJV46Wj27eBeQcyBdbW13HiUK_p3b4D_w3wOl3jRSF0UykqtRxJP_l1OKBvCNnI8Gk2f0DaY-xt74-p4WlZ7lZONme6W9bu9qLr_u7-TCe6V3k47ERRnKr1p4STS93i_tAK0u2UP-TBvMkG5QysadotCwOMGo-U-L19WG0.PCwoBg8nZ8_4xUSozrwGK9opLdpTM5qNhfSRaBgtyJU&dib_tag=se&keywords=USB%2Bto%2Bdb9%2Bserial&qid=1757878593&sprefix=usb%2Bto%2Bdb9%2Bserial%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1 > > > > >
