[DECtalk] DECtalk TTS licensing

[Don]

On 8/30/2021 11:30 AM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> When i went to work for Xerox in the early 90's one explanation for the variety
> and quality of dectalk for communication was the number of men women  and
> children who used the tools  after losing their ability to speak.
> The importance to those I encountered of being heard clearly was hard to
> articulate.

This is largely a matter of "settling" for what's available.

I had a friend die from ALS.  Too late, I realized that it was going to
cost her her voice.  She LOVED to talk!  You'd get tired waiting for
her to shut up!  Had I understood the disease (and its rate of
progression) better, I would have taken steps to capture her voice
so she could have kept "using it" after her body no longer could.

Imagine you could give someone back their voice with a few hours of
captured speech...  ANYTHING better than "Paul" would likely be
welcomed!

> those behind Hawking's voice, updated over the years, reference dectalk as part
> of their programming.
> In the end, what is more individually significant, getting the job done as you
> define that experience with dignity, or the code under the hood?
> I respect your personal choices.  still, I have countless experiences of
> people  who have say only heard standard speech in Linux,  being absolutely
> blown away when they here my  Dectalk setup.