Salt Lake City — (press release excerpt) — Fonix Corp. today announced the availability of a Linux version of Fonix DECtalk, “the world's most intelligible text-to-speech solution” for embedded device applications. The new Linux support will be especially useful for application providers developing screen readers and other reading aids for the visually challenged on the Linux platform.

“As a long-time user of Fonix DECtalk TTS, I'm delighted to see Fonix DECtalk software becoming available on Linux,” said T.V. Raman, a leading advocate of Linux's use in the assistive community and the creator of Emacspeak, a leading Linux-based desktop audio tool. “Combined with Emacspeak, this turns Linux into a robust but low-cost access solution for blind and visually impaired users around the world. Emacspeak features a wealth of speech-enabled tools for accessing online resources and might be of interest to the wider audience of users interested in eyes-free computing as well.”

Application can voice-enable their Linux device or screen reader application, whether they run on an Intel or a Strong-Arm platform. This makes Fonix one of the first to deliver voice capabilities to the new array of Linux-based assistive devices.

Linux users have their choice of Fonix DECtalk's four male, four female, and exclusive child's voice. The solution supports six international languages, including U.S. and U.K. English, French, German and both Latin American and Castilian Spanish. In addition, the Fonix DECtalk/Linux combination supports visual cues to allow for the synchronization of voice with facial avatars. It can also be used to make an application sing. Since all Linux versions come from a common code pool, Fonix DECtalk supports all popular commercial versions available in the market today. Fonix DECtalk also supports the various Windows Oss, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX.

 
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