Hi John My Garmin has many different voices in different languages and both a male and female option (so you can get an Australian male or female, a British male or female, etc). The voices you chose in the setup have a name (e.g., Gary is the American male). As far as I can tell (without a systematic examination) what they say is exactly the same. In the text-to-voice option the street names are actually pronounced (the voice says "make a left at Washington Street" instead of "make a left at the next street). It is always very amusing when the software struggles with those street names in Europe (get the US voice to pronounce the Danish street names!). Sometimes it just gives up and spells it! Must be some interesting algorithms. Marie
**************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Department Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Kaufman 168, Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 17013, office (717) 245-1562, fax (717) 245-1971 Office hours: Mon/Thur 3-4, Tues 10:30-11:30 http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/helwegm **************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: Serafin, John [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:54 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Two questions Carol, Hope nobody minds, but I'll respond on list, even though I can only contribute to the so-called trivial question (sorry). My GPS system is named Lucy (think evolution). Sybil is a great name...wish I had thought of that! But a broader question: do all GPS systems have a female voice? That's all I ever recall hearing. And, just to make this even more relevant to TIPS, I seem to recall running across a study or two that compared males & females in terms of how they give directions (males more likely to use directional terms like north, females more likely to refer to landmarks on the route). I wonder if Garmin et al. have taken that into account in programming their systems. John -- John Serafin Psychology Department Saint Vincent College Latrobe, PA 15650 [email protected] From: DeVolder Carol L <[email protected]> Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:21:47 -0400 To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Conversation: Two questions Subject: [tips] Two questions My second question is very trivial and if you have to choose, the first question is the one for which I really want the answer. I have noticed that sometimes people with GPS units in their cars name them. I find this quirky and interesting, and I wonder how many people do that. If you are one of them, please let me know off-list. Mine is named Sybil. :) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
