Speech::eSpeak - Perl extension for eSpeak text to speech
use Speech::eSpeak;
$speaker = Speech::eSpeak::new();
$speaker->speak('hello world');
eSpeak is a compact open source software speech synthesizer for English and other languages. It's written by Jonathan Duddington. You can find more information from http://espeak.sourceforge.net. This package is direct binding for eSpeak, which is based on the API of speak_lib.h.
None by default.
AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK AUDIO_OUTPUT_RETRIEVAL AUDIO_OUTPUT_SYNCHRONOUS EE_BUFFER_FULL EE_INTERNAL_ERROR EE_OK N_SPEECH_PARAM POS_CHARACTER POS_SENTENCE POS_WORD espeakCAPITALS espeakCHARS_8BIT espeakCHARS_AUTO espeakCHARS_UTF8 espeakCHARS_WCHAR espeakEMPHASIS espeakENDPAUSE espeakEVENT_LIST_TERMINATED espeakEVENT_WORD espeakEVENT_SENTENCE espeakEVENT_MARK espeakEVENT_PLAY espeakEVENT_END espeakEVENT_MSG_TERMINATED espeakEVENT_PHONEME espeakKEEP_NAMEDATA espeakLINELENGTH espeakPHONEMES espeakPITCH espeakPUNCTUATION espeakPUNCT_ALL espeakPUNCT_NONE espeakPUNCT_SOME espeakRANGE espeakRATE espeakSILENCE espeakSSML espeakVOLUME
Initialize speaker. Only one object should be created. Or unexpected error will occured.
Speak $text.
It won't return until all speech in the buffer finished.
Stop speaking.
Return whether the speak is playing. 1 for playing, 0 otherwise.
If $language is specified, it is set as current language. Or current value is returned.
Return:
If $pitch is specified, it is set as base pitch. Or current pitch is returned. The range of pitch is 0 to 100. 50 is normal.
If $range is specified, it is set as pitch range. Or current range is returned. The value of range is from 0 to 100. 0 for monotone and 50 is normal.
If $rage is specified, it is set as the speaking speed in word per minute. Or current rate is returned. 170 is the initial value.
If $volume is specified, it is set as the volume. Or current volume is returned. The value is from 0 to 100. 0 for silence.
Not implemented yet.
Not implemented yet.
Synthesize speech for the specified text.
$text: The text to be spoken.
$size: Equal to (or greatrer than) the size of the text data, in bytes. This is used in order to allocate internal storage space for the text. This value is not used for AUDIO_OUTPUT_SYNCHRONOUS mode. In normal case, $size = length($text) + 1;
$position: The position in the text where speaking starts. Zero indicates speak from the start of the text.
$position_type: Determines whether "position" is a number of characters, words, or sentences. SEE "espeak_POSITION_TYPE"
$end_position: If set, this gives a character position at which speaking will stop. A value of zero indicates no end position.
$flags: These may be OR'd together:
Type of character codes, one of:
espeakSSML Elements within < > are treated as SSML elements, or if not recognised are ignored.
espeakPHONEMES Text within [[ ]] is treated as phonemes codes (in espeak's Hirschenbaum encoding).
espeakENDPAUSE If set then a sentence pause is added at the end of the text. If not set then this pause is suppressed.
$unique_identifier: message identifier; helpful for identifying later data supplied to the callback.
$user_data: pointer which will be passed to the callback function.
Return:
Synthesize speech for the specified text. Similar to espeak_Synth() but the start position is specified by the name of a <mark> element in the text.
$index_mark: The "name" attribute of a <mark> element within the text which specified the point at which synthesis starts. UTF8 string.
For the other parameters, see espeak_Synth()
Return:
Speak the name of a keyboard key. Currently this just speaks the "key_name" as given
Return:
Speak the name of the given character
Return:
Sets the value of the specified parameter.
relative=0 Sets the absolute value of the parameter.
relative=1 Sets a relative value of the parameter.
parameter:
0=none,
1=sound icon,
2=spelling,
3 or higher, by raising pitch. This values gives the amount in Hz by which the pitch of a word raised to indicate it has a capital letter.
Return:
$current=0 Returns the default value of the specified parameter.
$current=1 Returns the current value of the specified parameter, as set by SetParameter()
Example:
print 'rate: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakRATE, 1), "\n"; print 'volume: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakVOLUME, 1), "\n"; print 'pitch: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakPITCH, 1), "\n"; print 'range: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakRANGE, 1), "\n"; print 'punctuation: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakPUNCTUATION, 1), "\n"; print 'capitals: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakCAPITALS, 1), "\n"; espeak_SetParameter(espeakPITCH, 100, 0); espeak_SetParameter(espeakRANGE, 100, 0);
Specified a list of punctuation characters whose names are to be spoken when the value of the Punctuation parameter is set to "some".
$punctlist: A list of character codes, terminated by a zero character.
Return:
Controls the output of phoneme symbols for the text
$value=0 No phoneme output (default)
$value=1 Output the translated phoneme symbols for the text
$value=2 as (1), but also output a trace of how the translation was done (matching rules and list entries)
$stream output stream for the phoneme symbols (and trace). If stream=NULL then it uses stdout.
Compile pronunciation dictionary for a language which corresponds to the currently selected voice. The required voice should be selected before calling this function.
$path: The directory which contains the language's '_rules' and '_list' files. 'path' should end with a path separator character ('/').
$log: Stream for error reports and statistics information. If log=NULL then stderr will be used.
Reads the voice files from espeak-data/voices and creates an array of espeak_VOICE pointers. The list is terminated by a NULL pointer
If voice_spec is NULL then all voices are listed.
If voice spec is give, then only the voices which are compatible with the voice_spec are listed, and they are listed in preference order.
Example:
# list all voices
my $voices = espeak_ListVoices('');
foreach my $voice_spec (@{$voices}) {
foreach (keys %{$voice_spec}) {
print $voice_spec->{$_}, ' ';
}
print "\n";
}
Searches for a voice with a matching "name" field. Language is not considered. "name" is a UTF8 string. For example, "en" for English, "de" for German, "zhy" for Cantonese. It could be added a variant too. For example, "fr+f2" for female voice variant of French, "it+m4" for male voice variant of Italian.
Return:
Example:
use Speech::eSpeak ':all';
espeak_Initialize(AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK, 0, '', 0);
espeak_SetVoiceByName("de");
my $synth_flags = espeakCHARS_AUTO | espeakPHONEMES | espeakENDPAUSE;
my $text = 'Sprechen Sie Deutsch?';
espeak_Synth($text, length($text) + 1, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0);
espeak_Synchronize();
Example:
my $spec = {name => "german",
languages => "",
identifier => "",
gender => 2,
age => 0,
variant => 0
};
espeak_SetVoiceByProperties($spec);
Returns the espeak_VOICE data for the currently selected voice.
This is not affected by temporary voice changes caused by SSML elements such as <voice> and <s>
Example:
my $voice = espeak_GetCurrentVoice();
print 'name: ', $voice->{name}, "\n";
print 'languages: ', $voice->{languages}, "\n";
print 'identifier: ', $voice->{identifier}, "\n";
print 'gender: ', $voice->{gender}, "\n";
print 'age: ', $voice->{age}, "\n";
print 'variant: ', $voice->{variant}, "\n";
Stop immediately synthesis and audio output of the current text. When this function returns, the audio output is fully stopped and the synthesizer is ready to synthesize a new message.
Return:
Returns 1 if audio is played, 0 otherwise.
This function returns when all data have been spoken.
Return:
The last function to be called.
Return:
Returns the version number string.
The parameter is for future use, and should be set to NULL.
typedef enum {
POS_CHARACTER = 1,
POS_WORD,
POS_SENTENCE
} espeak_POSITION_TYPE;
typedef enum {
/* PLAYBACK mode: plays the audio data, supplies events to the calling program*/
AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK,
/* RETRIEVAL mode: supplies audio data and events to the calling program */
AUDIO_OUTPUT_RETRIEVAL,
/* SYNCHRONOUS mode: as RETRIEVAL but doesn't return until synthesis is completed */
AUDIO_OUTPUT_SYNCHRONOUS,
/* Synchronous playback */
AUDIO_OUTPUT_SYNCH_PLAYBACK
} espeak_AUDIO_OUTPUT;
typedef enum {
EE_OK=0,
EE_INTERNAL_ERROR=-1,
EE_BUFFER_FULL=1,
EE_NOT_FOUND=2
} espeak_ERROR;
typedef enum {
espeakSILENCE=0, /* internal use */
espeakRATE,
espeakVOLUME,
espeakPITCH,
espeakRANGE,
espeakPUNCTUATION,
espeakCAPITALS,
espeakEMPHASIS, /* internal use */
espeakLINELENGTH, /* internal use */
espeakVOICETYPE, // internal, 1=mbrola
N_SPEECH_PARAM /* last enum */
} espeak_PARAMETER;
typedef enum {
espeakPUNCT_NONE=0,
espeakPUNCT_ALL=1,
espeakPUNCT_SOME=2
} espeak_PUNCT_TYPE;
typedef struct {
char *name; // a given name for this voice. UTF8 string.
char *languages; // list of pairs of (byte) priority + (string) language (and dialect qualifier)
char *identifier; // the filename for this voice within espeak-data/voices
unsigned char gender; // 0=none 1=male, 2=female,
unsigned char age; // 0=not specified, or age in years
unsigned char variant; // only used when passed as a parameter to espeak_SetVoiceByProperties
unsigned char xx1; // for internal use
int score; // for internal use
void *spare; // for internal use
} espeak_VOICE;
Note: The espeak_VOICE structure is used for two purposes:
1. To return the details of the available voices.
2. As a parameter to espeak_SetVoiceByProperties() in order to specify selection criteria.
use strict;
use Speech::eSpeak ':all';
espeak_Initialize(AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK, 0, '', 0);
my $synth_flags = espeakCHARS_AUTO | espeakPHONEMES | espeakENDPAUSE;
espeak_Synth('hello world', 12, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0);
espeak_Cancel() if espeak_IsPlaying;
my $text = 'hello <mark name="newstart"> world';
espeak_Synth_Mark($text, length($text) + 1, 'newstart', 0, espeakSSML, 0, 0);
print 'rate: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakRATE, 1), "\n";
print 'volume: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakVOLUME, 1), "\n";
print 'pitch: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakPITCH, 1), "\n";
print 'range: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakRANGE, 1), "\n";
print 'punctuation: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakPUNCTUATION, 1), "\n";
print 'capitals: ', espeak_GetParameter(espeakCAPITALS, 1), "\n";
espeak_SetParameter(espeakPITCH, 100, 0);
espeak_SetParameter(espeakRANGE, 100, 0);
espeak_SetPhonemeTrace(2, \*STDOUT);
espeak_Synchronize();
print 'version: ', espeak_Info(0), "\n";
espeak_Terminate();
use strict; use Speech::eSpeak ':all'; espeak_Initialize(AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK, 0, '', 0); my $synth_flags = espeakCHARS_AUTO | espeakPHONEMES | espeakENDPAUSE; my $s = 'Hello Debbie'; espeak_Synth($s, length($s) + 1, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0); # set a female variant voice of English. # We can specified the variant from 'm1' to 'm4', 'f1' to 'f4', 'croak' and 'wisper'. # There maybe new variants in future. Just refer to directory espeak-data/voices/!v/ espeak_SetVoiceByName(en+f2); $s = 'Hello Cameron'; espeak_Synth($s, length($s) + 1, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0); espeak_Synchronize();
use strict;
use Speech::eSpeak ':all';
espeak_Initialize(AUDIO_OUTPUT_PLAYBACK, 0, '', 0);
my $synth_flags = espeakCHARS_AUTO | espeakPHONEMES | espeakENDPAUSE;
espeak_SetVoiceByName("zhy");
my $s = '你好';
espeak_Synth($s, length($s) + 1, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0);
my $spec = {name => "german",
gender => 2,
};
espeak_SetVoiceByProperties($spec);
$s = 'Guten Tag!';
espeak_Synth($s, length($s) + 1, 0, POS_CHARACTER, 0, $synth_flags, 0, 0);
espeak_Synchronize();
use Speech::eSpeak;
$speaker = Speech::eSpeak::new();
$speaker->speak('hello world');
$speaker->pitch(100);
$speaker->speak('hello world');
$speaker->range(100);
$speaker->speak('hello world');
$speaker->synchronize();
$speaker->rate($speaker->rate / 2);
$speaker->speak('Do you mean I am too talky?');
sleep(1);
$speaker->stop() if ($speaker->is_playing);
eSpeak Documents, speak_lib.h, http://espeak.sourceforge.net, eGuideDog::Festival
Cameron Wong, <hgn823-perl at yahoo.com.cn>, http://e-guidedog.sourceforge.net
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc Speech::eSpeak
You can also look for information at:
http://search.cpan.org/dist/Speech-eSpeak
eSpeak TTS is designed by Jonathan Duddington. http://espeak.sourceforge.net
Copyright (C) 2007 by Cameron Wong
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.8 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
