[NBLUG/talk] Re: [WLUG] Electronic format to audio

Paul Wehr lugwash at paulwehr.com
Wed Aug 2 08:39:47 PDT 2006


I will "me too" on festival.  probably the best answer to your 
question.  There is a gnuOCR project out there somewhere, then all you 
need to do is rig up a webcam on a stick, pipe the output through OCR 
and into festival, and BAM! you have a $10k book reader.  Someone must 
already be working on this...

... Nope, googling shows you still may need to roll-your-own: 
http://larswiki.atrc.utoronto.ca/wiki/Software

FWIW my grandmother had macular degeneration, and we bought a LCD 
projector screen, which made it possible for her to still "read" email 
(albeit in 72-point type on a 6' x 4' projection -- each letter maybe 6" 
tall -- someone still had to start up mail reader), and watch TV.  Also, 
She was able to get just about any book on tape from a library near the 
county jail on Hogback (Carpenter) and Washtenaw, for free, I believe, 
because of documented eyesight problems.

Hope this helps.

Jack Smith wrote:

>My mother's eyesight has just gone much worse, suddenly, and she can no
>longer read.  If we can find electronic books, is there anything in Linux to
>convert them to audio?  I'll look myself, but often somebody already knows
>the answer I'm looking for.
>
>Thanks,
>Jack
>--
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