[DECtalk] Snoopi's recent thoughts about Dectalk

[Blake Roberts]

Hi everyone,

Snoopi recently wrote an article about Dectalk for a GoFundMe campaign he
created. With his permission I'm sharing his thoughts with this list. Here's
a link to Snoopi's GoFundMe campaign for anyone interested in checking that
out.

https://www.gofundme.com/28a7brqw 

His Dectalk article is pasted below my name. I want to be someone who helps
carry the Dectalk torch.

Blake

 

I really thank everyone for donating to, and sharing my campaign. In this
update, I want to share part of what I'm trying to keep going and pass on.

 

The software I program to sing is called Dectalk, and it was invented by a
group of people at MIT. The name most recognized for the project is Dennis
KLATT.

For some reason, Dennis left everything in the software unlocked, making it
100 percent programmable. You can create unlimited male and female voices,

program them to sing, act, or anything you want. Dectalk was way ahead of
it's time and was a real gift to the blind and the disabled communities.

 

Dennis died in 1988. In 1989 I Prayed and asked God to make me a singer. I
then basically ended up with a device that had Dectalk in it. I freaked
because

I knew Dectalk at the time was $2000.00. So I read the manual and basically
became excited when I read it could sing. I never put it down and I spent 36

months trying to get it to sing just one sound. Finally I got it to hold a
pitch. BINGO! I suddenly had something that I could program to sing, God had

made me a singer so to speak.

 

Over the years I've learned that Dennis wanted someone like me to be able to
sing by using Dectalk, which was why he made it 100 percent programmable.

However, the instructions were totally unclear. You had to understand
linguistics, be very good I'm math, know how to read sheet music, convert
music time

into milliseconds, and you had to know a lot. I didn't care what it took, I
was going to make it sing. 7 years later I became a singer.

 

What I love about Dectalk is, there is no end to this thing, you always find
little things that you didn't know about. I practice 14 hours a day because

I want to sing that bad. I know I've pushed the software far beyond what
Dennis had in mind, but I just want to sing that bad. Dectalk truly is my
voice.

 

Dectalk was once very popular in communication devices and many disabled
people were using Dectalk to sing. Well, part of what happen was, it became
too

expensive for companies to put Dectalk into devices. 

 

I feel Dectalk for the disabled is equal to a human voice, and if any person
can open their mouth and sing, why isn't it the same with Dectalk? The human

brain sends signals to enable someone to sing. All I do is write the signals
to enable Dectalk to sing.

 

Companies are now backing away from including Dectalk in devices. I have
collected different Dectalk languages, Dectalk versions, and so on. So even
if

a device doesn't have Dectalk, I have many, many ways of putting Dectalk
onto a device. I even have a Dectalk SAPI 5, but my business partner helps
with

the instructions for installing because SAPI is over my head.

 

Blake and I both program songs. We do it because we both know this stuff is
hard even though to us it's easy. If some song will help someone find who
they

are, or motivate them to use their device, it's all worth it. 

 

In handing down the torch in 2017, maybe someone else will keep Dectalk
alive. That's why meeting my financial goal and doing this end of life talk
is

so important to me. My entire life people have doubted my abilities. Dectalk
has no choice, it has to do whatever I program it to do. So at the end of

my life, if I can get enough people to understand that people like me have a
disabled body but a clear mind, it might create a better path for the next

generation.

 

Please share my campaign and donate if you can.

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