12.243.1 An Overview Of Voice Design ¶

Aural CSS defines 4 primary device-independent dimensions. Average-Pitch, Pitch-Range, Stress, and Richness. There are ten possible values along each dimension (0..9), giving a total of 10,000 possible settings.

Engine-specific modules such as dectalk-voices and outloud-voices map these dimensions to device-specific parameters and are responsible for generating the final device-specific codes.

12.243.2 Creating Distinct Voices Via Aural CSS ¶

Along each dimension, a setting of 5 is mapped to the default setting for the voice as implemented by a given engine. Values on either side of 5 produce opposing effects. This module defines the following effects, which can be conceptualized as pairs.

1. bolden , lighten
2. animate, monotone
3. brighten, smoothen

In addition, we define bolden-and-animate as an auditory analog of bold-italic. The two additional voices indent and annotate predate the above and are retained as two softer voices. Finally, there are 4 overlay voices, corresponding to the 4 dimensions; these each set one of the dimensions to 8. Thus, we have a total of 25 unique voices defined in this module.

12.243.3 Things to note ¶

• These voices are designed to be distinctive when used in a given utterance.
• Non-goal — to be able to identify each distinct voice in isolation.
• Audio-formatting is designed to set apart different types of content so that when used in context, one can easily pick-out distinct parts of the utterance.

12.243.4 voice-defs Options ¶

Variable: User Option voice-animate-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-animate-extra

Default Value:

(nil nil 8 8 8)

Variable: User Option voice-animate-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-animate-medium

Default Value:

(nil nil 7 7 7)

Variable: User Option voice-animate-settings ¶

Settings for voice-animate

Default Value:

(nil nil 6 6 6)

Variable: User Option voice-annotate-settings ¶

Settings for voice-annotate

Default Value:

(nil nil 4 0 4)

Variable: User Option voice-bolden-and-animate-settings ¶

Settings for voice-bolden-and-animate

Default Value:

(nil 3 8 8 8)

Variable: User Option voice-bolden-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-bolden-extra

Default Value:

(nil 1 nil 8)

Variable: User Option voice-bolden-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-bolden-medium

Default Value:

(nil 2 nil 3)

Variable: User Option voice-bolden-settings ¶

Settings for voice-bolden

Default Value:

(nil 4 nil 6)

Variable: User Option voice-brighten-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-brighten-extra

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 3 8)

Variable: User Option voice-brighten-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-brighten-medium

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 4 7)

Variable: User Option voice-brighten-settings ¶

Settings for voice-brighten

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 5 6)

Variable: User Option voice-indent-settings ¶

Settings for voice-indent

Default Value:

(nil nil 3 1 3)

Variable: User Option voice-lighten-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-lighten-extra

Default Value:

(nil 9 nil 4)

Variable: User Option voice-lighten-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-lighten-medium

Default Value:

(nil 7 nil 3)

Variable: User Option voice-lighten-settings ¶

Settings for voice-lighten

Default Value:

(nil 6 nil 2)

Variable: User Option voice-monotone-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-monotone-extra

Default Value:

(nil nil 0 0)

Variable: User Option voice-monotone-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-monotone-medium

Default Value:

(nil nil 1 2)

Variable: User Option voice-monotone-settings ¶

Settings for voice-monotone

Default Value:

(nil nil 2 4)

Variable: User Option voice-overlay-0-settings ¶

Settings for voice-overlay-0

Default Value:

(nil 8 nil nil nil nil)

Variable: User Option voice-overlay-1-settings ¶

Settings for voice-overlay-1

Default Value:

(nil nil 8 nil nil nil)

Variable: User Option voice-overlay-2-settings ¶

Settings for voice-overlay-2

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 8 nil nil)

Variable: User Option voice-overlay-3-settings ¶

Settings for voice-overlay-3

Default Value:

(nil nil nil nil 8 nil)

Variable: User Option voice-smoothen-extra-settings ¶

Settings for voice-smoothen-extra

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 0 2)

Variable: User Option voice-smoothen-medium-settings ¶

Settings for voice-smoothen-medium

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 2 4)

Variable: User Option voice-smoothen-settings ¶

Settings for voice-smoothen

Default Value:

(nil nil nil 4 6)