speechassistant.png

 

*This is not intended to be used by people suffering from vision loss.

 

I know people (including myself), can read much more efficiently if there's a narrator.

That's why some people buy audio books along with physical books to complement.

 

But how about when you read a blog-post or news article on the Internet? 

This simple speech assistant will help you read fast.

Also, "listening" to what you wrote is a great way to proof-read. 

How to use

 

1. Launch the program and choose your favorite voice.

(It automatically detects the voice installed on your computer. Some commercial voice package available in the market will sounds much more natural than the others. Do NOT delete "KyleSpeechAssistant.ini" and "TextProcessor.dll". They are essential!)

2. Go to any website or open a word document.

3. Highlight any text you wish to be spoken.

4.  While holding down Ctrl (left), quickly press 'C' twice (as if you were double clicking it.)

5. It will start reading the text you've selected.

6. If you wish to stop, quickly press Shift (left) twice (as if you were double clicking it.)

7. To correct how the voice engines pronounce certain words, edit "KyleSpeechAssistant.ini" file. (The words before bar( | ) will be automatically replaced to the words after when voice engines analyze text. Add more lines for your needs)

8. Check "Save Wave" if you want to save WAV files for the voices spoken by the voice engines. (automagically saved into the same folder as your .exe file)

Executable

 

Download an executable for Windows 8 or above only (Tested fully functional on Windows 10) (Current Version 1.5)

I have not tested under Windows 7, although it should work fine in theory:)

Change Log

Sep 22nd 2013: Version 1.0 Released. Initial Version

Oct 26th 2013: Version 1.1 Released. Added the ability to skip new line pauses and reference brackets while reading academic papers 

Nov 11th 2013: Version 1.2 Released.  Now it correctly handles when a word is written over two lines and connected w/ dash

Jan 7th 2016: Version 1.3 Released. Ability to save texts into WAV file added.

June 27th 2017: Version 1.5 Released. Now the program shows the progress of reading in the bottom text box.