Talking Browser\for vision impaired

             was doing some research when I came upon this talking web broswer....there was no mention of it being either freeware/shareware....anyone interested or knowing of someone this browser may benefit should read all information regarding it very carefully....just as a pre-caution......as should be a common practice.



        http://www.sensus.dk/sib10uk.htm




                                    snowman

 

snowman - I've been reading all your posts today and let me congratulate you - you are into this stuff! Keep up the good work and thank you for your efforts! Pete

 

           Pete

           Thank you....in the beginning it was a real struggle.....I knew absolutely nothing about computers not even the most minor functions..it was like walking into the Twilight Zone.....an only because of the great help I received from persons such as yourself have I managed to make any progress....one baby step at a time........LOL......

           When I came upon this Talking browser the thought struck me that the world of the internet...and computers can be available to everyone...an should be.

           Thank you Pete..for being so patient with me over the years......an for sharing.  

                         Snowman

 

You're quite welcome, snowman. Pete

 

Thank you very much for that message, i'll have a look at it.
Do you know it's integrated in the MSAgents technology and there are quite a few programs there which do read your pages, emails, alert for new mail, etc etc?
For who doesn't know:
Several years ago i found the speech technology in TDS-2, searched all about that and found it part of the MSAgent technology, which opened a complete new world for me.
So i found a program Chips Speaking especially for people to ask assistence from their environment (can you scratch my back please, can you give me some water please, and that kind of practicle pre-programmed sentences), found voice controlled web browsers (Philips has a free version on their site which really jumps remarkable fine) , found reading browsers like Talkster, ReadIt, SpeakIt (to include in an email or web browser so people just click the icon and the whole page is read for you), etc etc.
You can do a lot of that stuff, make your own agents aided scripts and put in your functions to make it a valuable desktop-helper, make them read any text you want read for you, voice control your system, etc.
The same technology based on this but more advanced is included in XP, (with the SAPI 5 speech technology), the MSAgents work with SAPI 4 (5 is not an upgrade but a different technology beside it) and you can have them both on your system.
Just for pure fun of scripting i create several scripts for TDS with the agents included, so one day we have TDS voice controlled as well and reading the menus and whatever we want it to do.

Sorry for the long and super enthusiastic explanation, just want to tell you, if you like this technology, there is a whole world for it and lots of tools are for free or you can rather easily compose yourself with the available tools.
If you like to see a functioning desktophelper get the free trial of DesktopWizard (www.e-clips.com.au) which is MSAgent based so need some components download, which it will indicate. Even that one you can add some functions you want for yourself to try the technology.

OK, now i'll look at your URL!
EDITED:
Looked, interesting for sure, as it has some extras build in the software, like translations of links and images and some more especially for vision impaired people.
They could have used the voice recognition possibilities though, so users don't need keystrokes to jump to something, but just can say "jump to 1", or "jump to keyword.." etc.
Ok, for the MSAgent technology look at the www.microsoft.com/msagent sites, and the msagent webring, Look for an editor like MASH, etc.

 

Haven't used MASH for quite a while, but it will definitely get the job done, in any easy-to-use way.

Plus, I believe it (still) has the ability to make .exe files out of your MSAgent scripts. A very neat feature.  

-javacool

 

       Jooske

       THANKS FOR THE SUPER GREAT REPLY!!  an you can bet that I will make certain that the information you shared will be put to use.

       a couple of months ago while strolling around in a church sponsored second-hand store I came upon a brand new..never used copy of Dragon point & speak software......an purchased it for three dollars U.S.,  .....    it was passed on to someone and is being well used today.

        definitely I find this technology amasing..an delightful.   until now I have not seen very much information on the subject.......

        thanks Jooske..for sharing...its appreciated.
                          -------------------------

        JAVA

           I will take a look at MASH later tonight....



                                  best regards

                                 snowman

 

        Jooske

        I came from the M$ webpage on MSAGENT.....I had no idea about some of what is offered!!    I will check into this more indepth.


                                      snowman

 

Hi, you might like it as many do!
I wrote about the technology in the TDS threads in this forum as well (with some news groups and URLs), and you might be aware of some fun scripts i made with them as just fun or kind of little desktop helpers integrated with TDS.
http://www.msagentring.org
think is the webring, Sunfire pages there is one of the most complete collections of programs based on that, www.agentry.net has a nice collection of characters for download as well as several applications and scripting help, etc.
The speech part is used a lot in telephony applications among others.
The technology is becoming better and more advanced by the day!


Did not know about the Dragon point&speak, going to look at that too.
Thanks!


EDITED:
forgot to tell: the rule is they try to make all kinds of speech technologies exchangable among each other, at least for the MSAgents. For that is a little piece of software on the MS msagent pages. So you can have several speech engines/systems on your pc, and make a nice collection of different languages (i'm aware of about 28 different languages but there might be more)

 

          Jooske

           in case you drop in here.....I have been reading info at the url's you so kindly provided.....an due to this technology being so totally new to me I am having a rather difficult time getting a workable understanding.

           my interest would be to experiment on my own desktop......as a beginner.    would you by chance know of any url that could provide some info for a beginner?

                         much thanks

                         snowman

 

Hi Snowman,

I'm sure Jooske will drop by.
She really knows a lot about it !

 

         FANJ....thanks......this is an exciting technology...its surprises me that its gone so un-noticed.

                               snowman

 

Aha, hai, dropping in again
thought you would look in the TDs threads as well about sound and in the TDS4 thread explained to get it working on a XP system; for other windows versions it's less complicated to get it working maybe.
Although:
XP has the whole technology included in the system, very advanced, you can use it to voice control your whole system, even dictate texts. The msagents are included (you might need to install additional characters either from the install cd-rom or download from the www).
Here is the creator of Sniffles and some more:
http://camp-agenteer.wha.la/ and a whole instruction how to build your own charactor, with any drawing program, and MS ACE (agent character editor).
Sniffles is created by a whole group of users via newsgroups, and is cut in some separate characters as well, so all together you can make your whole sniffles orchestra playing for you or use the big Sniffles, who includes lots of ad randum animatiopns, so your script shows up differently each time you run it.
http://agentwebs.ath.cx:5500/grandpajim/index.htm
Several of Grandpa Jim's scripts will run there.
Newsgroup with downloads in the files there:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agentcharactors
http://dogagent.com/upload/ many characters for download

Other parts you find on every members page of the msagent web ring and on the www.microsoft.com/msagent pages, which contain the necessary parts (only d/l if you need, which you can check easily if you have in windows the folder/directory msagent\chars )
You start with installing the MS Agent 2 (core program, to steer the whole thing), starting with US English; i installed all the additional language core components for just in case (2.
Furthjer below on that page you get the TTS engines, Text-to-speech, the character needs to speak at all the texts he reads or you give in.
Also grab all languages you find there (7 or 8 on the site, several more in the wild).
Then the larger Voice recognition engine of 6mb, which is to make the character and your system listening at you.
After is the speech control panel, so all third party engines can run likewise on the system.
And get the four MSAgents characters, Peedy, Merlin, Robby, Genie, as those four are used a lot all over internet.
Install all those items default.
As i'm very much interested in the speech part, i ever installed from their speech section the whole largest SAPI 4 engine (was over 40mb) including all dictyation and recognition etc etc etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/speech/download/old/
So XP users only need to grab the sapi 4 runtimes and the msagents characters they need, all the rest is there on their systems already.

At the Sunfire pages  http://www.angelfire.com/il2/sunfire/index.html you see what Maureen collected for us in programs, instructions and characters, while the agentry has images of most agents with downloads, applications, programming instructions.

The people are most in the newsgroup
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.msagent
and news://....public.speech_tech
and news://...publlic.speech_tech.sdk
news://grandpajim.ath.cx/msagentstationary

Yes, i now see the SAPI 5 (which is in XP) contains the other languages! including chinese. the agent can read it, but to actually make him speak it, need the sapi 4 just explained in that msagent newsgroup.

These newsgroups are rather technical, help with scripting, etc, very stimulating.

Another way of intelligent speech is here, but can be combined with an MSAgent character
(i don't have this installed, but practised on that site)
See this message:
'quote'
Try http://www.rydell.com/programe/nuke/pn703/html/ or hhtp://www.alicebot.org
You can find the AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) Files there to load in the database. You can actually write your own AIML and add it to your database.

'quote'
I am post-graduate student working on intelligent tutoring systems.  I wanted to add an MS Agent to the program.  Can you provide me with a starting place for an MS Agent using words from a database of questions?

'quote'
I did some research to actually talk with the Microsoft Agent. I loaded Program E an adaption of AliceBot at
http://www.rydell.com/programe/nuke/pn703/html/ to the server (MySQL and PHP abilities are required) and the following code makes it possible to actually talk with the Agent.
<<snipped for lenght, can PM the JS if wanted, but i don't know the technical details>>

 

        Jooske

        thank you being so wonderfully patient...an my apology..I did not realize I could have gone to TD...an oversight on my part.

        first thing in the morning...its 3 am my locale..I will begin researching...visiting the sites you so graciously provided.

       my os is winME 98.........msagent is install..as is the Marlin charcter....I did visit the M$ site....an "the Ring"
now I need to check to see what is already installed on my os......an take it from there.

       my eyes have grown rather heavy so its time for me to shut down for the night.......

       my sincere thanks

       snowman

 

XML specifaction also includes speach. Dunno if any browsers support it yet, but when they do (sooner or later), then any site that wishes to can make the site audiable with little effort.

 

      Unicron

      I have been looking at browsers.....there are well over 100 out there....an if I come on one that suports EML I'll post it..........talking webpages...interesting!


                         Snowman

 

watch for voxML (voice XML)

 

snow man moveing in  on newby turf i must retain my newby title

snowman where is the any key

 

www.voicegeek.com has Surfie, a talking browser with some speech recognition and part of a bigger whole.
If you get the SpeakIt from http://www.trav-tech.com/SpeakIt.html you can make every page speaking to the visitors.
I include such things in emails too.
How about an email with right-click of the mouse start reading their text?
http://www.security-pro.co.uk/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=test;action=display;num=1019351748;start=0;#13
Paste my example in this thread in notepad or email source, save as HTML and try it. For me it works, just right click on the page.  

With XML, if you cna reach the pages, here is an example. http://www.dogagent.com/xml/
and there is a compiled exe for those without VB.
(have the project zipped, 16k in case you want it by email)

 

      MrBLASE

      you will always be #1......an the ever humble snowman seeks no status.....




       Jooske

        its been a pleasent surprise to discover that alot of what I need is already installed in my computer.....TrueVoice...an a few other things.....

         also discovered that I can add "voice" to many actions performed by the computer by simple making a recording to go with the action......an can change the start-up music to any song of my choice.....I had no idea!

                              snowman

 

It's always nice to grab all TTS engines you find, still looking for an Aussie English one, and all characters you like of course.
If you have TDS (yes a real security tool!) which enables among others MSAgents/speech technology to function with it, the many fun scripts among others we made, among which a large coke machine, calling exe's, wave, music, a jukebox, a desktophelper, and lots more, in this forum in the TDS threads i posted several little scripts to play around with, in the private forum are several, (today just added a few examples there, like having the MSAgent telling the computer time and thus enabling it to be used as a timer to start other processes, etc.)
If you copy the script i posted in the "this is not a test" thread you have the right click speak page function for yourself or to include in a web page, it's an exiting world!
Win XP and ME have all components included, for other versions the msagent download page at MS has all the necessary parts.
I've seen system monitoring tools as well, and remote control with msagent steering.
There are some nice snowman characters as well btw, you might like to try for yourself.
And all the time we use for playing around with scripting with the agents is most certainly not wasted, we learn from it and can use it in other occasions.
at the www.e-clips.com.au site you see some nice applications which you can add to yours or yours to theirs, with sample code etc.
I play around a lot with it, not knowing the differences between SS3, VBS, JS and somehow it runs after some trying and changing; you can make your own speech waves or try to make some samples at www.speechworks.com (speechify) which uses the sapi 4 as well, etc etc etc..... a whole world to dig in!

 

         Jooske

         had a major os crash right after my last post..due to a virus scan update......took me awhile to sort it out...an want to do more testing....if everything is in proper working order I hope to begin this weekend to explore the features of msagent.....this is the most fun I've had with a computer ever!

        never would I consider this a waste of time...this technology has real potential....

       but I am getting ahead of myself..first I need to learn how to use this.

        Josske I honestly do greatly appreciate that you have shared so much with me in this area...you have given alot of your time...an in turn I will try to pass the kindness on......I consider myself a forever learning newbe..an yet I really try passing on the kindness to others in however minor way I can

       
                            regards

                            snowman

 

i want the best talking browser i have visual problems even for my young age

which one do i get

also jooske have you full programed ms agent script like you weretalking about in this thread  where it tellsa time reads to you acts as a talking office assistant for ms word among other things

id use it on the reaper with whisper voice that wouls rock an ms agent with good uses

i got ahold of dragon preferd speaking will that work with ms agent some how like voice comands o fetch me this and that

fax machine helper

read to you helper

dictation helper

all by voice command

 

        MrBlase

        I am right now looking at a copy of Dragon Point & Speak....(I don't have it installed)   an this is what they claim it will do:


 !) true continuous speech- just speak naturally, without the need to pause between words

2) works with Windows applications including america online...corel wordperfect. lotus. notes. microsoft word and microsoft office...qualcomm eudora..and many others

 3) learns your speaking style--including dialects and accents

4) achive up to 160 words per minute and more

5) accuracy as high as 98%

6) supports multiple users

7) contains 30,000 word active vocabulary and 230,000 word total vocabulary

      *from: dragon systems

 this is the new, easiest way to create e-mail messages, write letters or reports..do homework...create chat text or just to get your thoughts on paper--WITHOUT TYPING!

 its amasing,  now just point and speak to see your words appear immediately on screen!

                         ----------------


      MrBlase I have spoke with one person who is using this technology...an he swears by it!  

                               snowman

 

I'm told XP is all voice controlled and if you add the SAPI 4 runtimes you can use the MSAgents in it, but then you must close the SAPI 5 of XP during that time.
You might know the FreeSpeech software as well, which is not really cheap, but very good; they have as a demo at least their FreeSpeechBrowser to surf over internet.
I downloaded Surfie, which reads the pages, but does not take voice commands from my dutch system, but they're working on that now. www.voicegeek.com

If you download the whole SAPI 4 SDK at microsoft for instance there is voice recognition and dictation and all that included. The SAPI 5 i would not download but get the CD, as that is over 129MB.

The dragon software sounds interesting, time to look for a trial and find out if it works with all the other technologies as well.

MrBlaze, with the msagents they are just a bunch of images, and we need to add the commands, to make them do what we like them to. So MASH and MASS among others are good editors for that as well as SS3 in TDS. What you want is a stand alone function, like the DesktopWizard from e-clips.com.au (free trial) and CyberBuddy (basic versions free) from..... ? (is by that name in the search engines) etc...
Yes in the CokeMachine SS3 script i included a desktop helper, but very primitive, compared by what we really want now. It is an exe file, so can be run from everywhere in your system.