From Deleted Scenes: Source of Computer Voice?

POSTED BY: Talvin
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 19:11
VIEWED: 3636
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TALVIN

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:31 AM

Greetings!

I am a new recruit to the Browncoats and I may be posting something that is already common knowledge (though I did look first).

A brief bit of background: I am happily married to a lady who is studying Journalism in college. She is also totally blind.

When my best friend got me the Firefly Set, I was flipping through some of the extra features on Disc 4 when I came across the deleted scene where Simon is using his encyclopedia. I sat up straight in my chair and said, "Where the heck have I heard that voice before?"

"Dear? Could I borrow you for five minutes? I need you to ID a voice for me!"

She listened. It *seems* to be one of the programs used by the blind to read books and the like after scanning them in: Kurzweil 1000.

http://www.kurzweiledu.com

She is not 100% certain. But, we may have identified a guest "actor" on the show, and a bit of modern-day tech to go along with the Win2K screenshot.

SHINY

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:42 AM

Many different programs/web sites may use the same "voice" for text-to-speech. I think 'Tash may have some experience with these programs, if memory serves...Tash?

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TALVIN

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 3:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shiny:
Many different programs/web sites may use the same "voice" for text-to-speech.

Not necessarily. Sad to say, alot of the stuff out there for the blind or visually impaired can be very, very proprietary (not to mention very, very expensive). With some, it is possible to customize the voices to a great degree, but the "stock" voices tend to be specific to a particular program or piece of hardware.

My wife says she thinks it is the "Jennifer" voice from the Kurzweil 1000, which is what they have at school. At home she uses Openbook, which has very different voices, so difficult for her to compare directly between the DVD and the product.

It will be interesting to see if they include any more talking computers (as opposed to pre-recorded messages like the O^2 warning in "Out of Gas") in the movie or the soon-to-be-revived series (yes, I am an optimist).

And I am sure this is boring everyone to tears, so I will hush now.

JERSEYBROWNCOAT

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 7:11 PM

I'm fairly certain that it's one of the voices included in the Scriptware screenwriting program (I know I've heard it before), possibly put in as a temp track, as the audio was not completed at the time.