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Subject: 
Re: nxt + i2c sp03 Text-To-Speech?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.nxt
Date: 
Tue, 5 Dec 2006 20:27:52 GMT
Viewed: 
13871 times
  
In lugnet.robotics.nxt, Chris Phillips wrote:
In lugnet.robotics.nxt, Tony Buser wrote:
On 12/5/06, Dick Swan <dickswan@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
The NXT can also optionally apply 9V to I2C sensors on the same
input/wire that is used for reading the analog values. There's a flag to
set this up. I know it is accessible in RobotC and I think you should
also be able to set it up via NBC.

That would be the LOWSPEED_9V flag?

If you post the current draw on the TTS chip, likely someone will
comment on a simple circuit for dropping the voltage.

I just might do that.

I'd also do a little more searching for other TTS chips that might work
on the lower voltage.. There was a nice article in either "Nuts and
Volts" or "Servo" magazine sometime in the last year on a TTS chip

The chip used in the book I have is the SpeakJet
http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/R225-SPEAKJET.html It's a LOT
cheaper than the sp03, however, it uses a serial interface and would
be a lot more complicated.  I'd have to figure out a way to convert
the i2c signals into serial commands and it works by sending
allophones instead of arbitrary text.  I did find a page that
describes a way to add i2c to it, but it's a little beyond my
understanding at the moment
http://www.modularsynthesis.com/modules/synthmodules/PSIM-SpeakJet/PSIM-speakjet.htm
That or preload phrases and use the digital inputs to trigger them,
neither of which would be as nice as just sending an i2c message to
say "Shall we play a game".  Although I must admit, the speakjet can
output some pretty cool bleeps and blops sound effects like r2d2 and
overall has a cooler sounding retro robot voice.  :)

It sounds like the NXT probably doesn't have enough power available to run that
chip, but you might look at using a BUC (Boost-Up Converter) component to bring
the 4.3V supply up to a higher level?  I've only been peripherally involved with
projects using these, but BUC converters can efficiently step up a supply
voltage to a higher voltage level at lower current levels.

I also wonder whether you could accomplish text-to-speech entirely in software?
I've seen TTS software that uses highly-compressed ADPCM phoneme samples to
convert a stream of allophones into digital audio output.  This would probably
strain the memory resources on the NXT, and I don't really know how well this
kind of thing would be supported without a firmware upgrade, but it sounds so
crazy that it just might work.

There are chips available to convert ASCII text to allophones, although this
would increase the power requirements. One example:
http://www.speechchips.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=19

I actually used such a combination (many years ago) to build a simple speech
synthesizer board for my apple 2+. It produced very "roboty" speech which was a
bit hard to understand at times, but I'm guessing the synthesis chips have
improved quite a bit since then...

ROSCO



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: nxt + i2c sp03 Text-To-Speech?
 
(...) It sounds like the NXT probably doesn't have enough power available to run that chip, but you might look at using a BUC (Boost-Up Converter) component to bring the 4.3V supply up to a higher level? I've only been peripherally involved with (...) (17 years ago, 5-Dec-06, to lugnet.robotics.nxt)

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