Program Which Reads Text Aloud Novels & Stories

Smiling brightly at the opportunity to help him and more so, at the trust he’s given me, I click through a few more settings on his digital text, showing him how to use the text to speech function to have the program read the text to him. Opening another program on his laptop, I explain how to use speech recognition to dictate his paper rather than having to type or write it, and adjust the settings so, with one click, he can have the program read back what he’s dictated, highlighting each word as it goes so he can edit mistakes. Finally, I help him set up his laptop’s voice recognition, so he can speak to initiate internet and document searches. The frustration and irritation is completely

“What the fuck?” He lifts his hands in bemusement, then puts them on his hips. MOTHER is my baby, and I’ve been working on it for years, using our cousin Titus’s AI program to completely revolutionize text-to-speech software for use in for an augmentative and alternative communication or AAC device for people who can’t speak—either because they have a condition such as ALS, motor neurone disease, or cerebral palsy, or because they’ve had a stroke or a traumatic brain injury. I chose the name MOTHER because it refers to the phrase ‘mother tongue,’ and also because we’re all fans of the movieAlien, in which the computer is called Mother.

What reaches me now has a fan in it. A low cooling drone under every word, the sound of server blades turning over in the dark, and under that a thin electric scrape like a current looking for ground it cannot find. The words arrive in pieces, and the pieces do not all sound like they were spoken by a person. “Elena. You’re. On the. Beach.” A pause, and in the pause the fan gets louder, climbs, peaks, falls. “I can see you through the. Through the.” The word does not come. Something else comes instead, a flat synthetic syllable with no breath in it, a noise a machine makes when it has forgotten the human word and reached for the nearest one in a language I was never taught.

“How so?” “You know, pictures. With that program, I actually call it Remer, don’t ask, I just made it and Remer searches for a picture that I saved with just a keyword. I actually have it on my phone too.” Arthur then proceeded to show his phone to the younger programmer and showed him how it works. Basically, once Remer was told to search a picture with a specific word, he would pull the picture up for you at light speed. And since Arthur has a lot of pictures, searching for one can really be tiring, time- consuming and exhausting. “Woah, I could really use that program.” Albert said as he observed how easy it is to use and how it made life easier. He desired the program, but he desires to

He barely took off his boots before he crossed the living room and opened the laptop that waited like a silent judge. The screen glowed dimly. SYNTHESIZED AUDIO: DEMODULATION COMPLETE Duration: 47 seconds His throat was dry as he sat down, hovering over the play button. Finally, he clicked it. The voice came on, clear and without distortion or hiding. “You’ll live.” “Rumors are made by cowards.” “Careful. You’re starting to sound curious.” Alex stared at the speaker as though it had personally betrayed him. It wasn’t anonymous anymore.

I press the play button and instead of it playing music just as it's name implies I heard my grandfather's voice,he actually recorded his speech and it says thus; "Let all human race girdle themselves together for death is coming upon us,no one can save us,the evil mark is here and it will consume us all.Be prepared for damnation is here,the angel of death has come for vengeance and he won't stop until he has sucked our blood to it's satisfaction.BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

My fingers rested on the keyboard but nothing moved. Writing always felt like pushing through mud. I reached into my bag and grabbed my phone. I had to use my tricks, they weren't perfect but they worked. I took a picture of the folder and used an app to turn the image into text. Then I put my earbuds in. A flat, robotic voice started reading the words to me. It was slow and boring, but it helped my brain see the sentences without them scrambling.

“We improvise it live.” Pauly handed her a slim, battered paperback—Mockingbird, cover worn, pages gutted to hold a wafer-thin transceiver and a micro-SD slot. “Your new copy. Same weight as the real one. Press the title twice if you’re burned; it wipes your last three hours and plays an audiobook. Press the author twice and it pings us with location.” She slid the book into her tote without looking. “And if I press the spine?” “It complains about being objectified,” Pauly said.

A low humming noise, growing louder by the second. "What's that?" Maya asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Ryder's eyes locked on the computer screen, his face pale. "It's the AI program," he said. "It's activating."

I select a recent audio file and play a snippet of Mabel's voice into the console microphone. "Calibrate to this vocal profile," I instruct. Instantly, the AI's response comes back through the speakers. It perfectly matches Mabel's sweet, familiar cadence: "Profile updated, Trinity. Would you like to log the reason for selecting this specific voice sample?" "That's my cousin, Mabel," I say. "Now, we're changing your system name, too." "Understood, Trinity," the AI says in Mabel's voice. "Would you like me to select a name from the registry?"