SBIR-STTR Award

The objective of this research and development project is to investigate cost effective (low cost/high performance) products and applications designed to interface with a Personal Computer, which will vocalize upon a given command words or processes which have been stored in the computers memory or are displayed on the computer monitor. The product goal is the design and implementation of a printed circuit board which can be inserted into one of the bus slots on an IBM or equivalent personal computer. The uses of this system in an educational environment include: (1) prompting and vocalizing specific words in any text which have been previously stored on disk; (2) vocalizing and prompting mathematical processes for teaching mathematics; and, (3) reading from the computer text input from any source. A computer which can vocalize words at the users signal is of particular importance in special education as a significant number of students can relate to speech yet have cognitive or perceptual deficits with symbols (written text or numbers).Anticipated results/

Potential Commercial Applications:
Review and evaluation of the current state of the art technology available for converting computer text and symbolic representations to speech. Document the hardware and/or software approaches currently available in the marketplace which can be adapted for this application. Evaluate whether a modification of an existing approach or a new hardware/software solution is necessary to produce a high quality, cost effective product. By the end of Phase II develop a low cost speech synthesizer board that can be inserted into one of the spare slots of an IBM or compatible personal computer.

The objective of this research and development project is to design a cost effective (low cost/high performance) product that will interface with a Personal Computer, which will vocalize upon a given command by the user, words or processes which have been stored in the computers memory or are displayed on the computer monitor. The product is a low cost high speech quality printed circuit board which can be inserted into one of the bus slots on an IBM or equivalent Personal Computer. The use of this system in an educational, rehabilitation or employment setting include: (1) prompting and vocalizing specific words in any text which have been previously stored on-disk; (2) vocalizing and prompting mathematical processes and, (3) reading from the computer text input from any source. A computer which can vocalize words at the users signal 18 of particular importance in as a significant number of individuals can relate to speech yet have cognitive or perceptual deflects with symbols (written text or numbers).Anticipated Results and

Potential Commercial Applications:
The goal of this project 18 to design and develop a cost effective (low cost/high performance) product to be used in conjunction with a Personal Computer which will vocalize words of text and other symbolic representations that may be imaged in the computer's memory. The Product goal is the design and implementation of a printed circuit board which can be inserted into one of the bus slots on an IBM or equivalent Personal Computer.A second part of this product development phase 18 to create the appropriate interface and application software to create an easy to use "turn key" product. The goal of this portion of the development 18 to create a "user friendly" environment that will allow an unskilled user to operate the speech system. Key Words: Microcomputer, Synthesized Speech, EducationTopic 2: Input and Output Mechanisms and Devices