Talk@TV: Advanced Text-To-Speech Technology

Everyday in the UK another 100 people start to lose their eye sight. The prevalence of sight loss increases with age, and the world's population is ageing.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People, RNIB, is the UK's leading charity offering information, support and advice to those with sight loss. One of the key areas in which the RNIB is investing its efforts is Digital TV.

Ocean Blue Software has been working closely with the RNIB as part of a consortium, also including STMicroelectronics (hardware partner) and TW Electronics (Remote control manufacturer) to develop advanced Text-To-Speech technology for digital set top boxes and TVs.

The Talking TV technology could potentially completely change the digital TV viewing experience for millions of people worldwide, bringing the term accessibility to a whole new level.

The objective of the project was to develop the world's first digital set top box specially designed for and targeted at the growing market of older people and those with disabilities and sight impairment.

The end-product is an accessible, "Digital Tick" compliant Freeview set top box designed for ease to use, visual clarity in operation and a better experience than normally associated with digital TV receiver devices. The breakthrough development has been achieved through improved design of the TV user interface, menus, TV programming guide and talking on-screen prompts.

The project has utilised many years of experience from the RNIB, on designing products for the visually impaired using the knowledge from psychologists, creative designers and feedback from focus groups.

The product is the world's first digital set top box designed to provide speech/talk-based TV programming guides and set up menus. Live data such as the narrative for programs, menu items and menu layouts are clearly described by voice. Advanced features include the ability to change the verbosity of the speech, filtering by programmes that contain subtitles and/or audio description and the choice of font size and contrasting colour schemes; allowing the system to be customised to suit the user's impairment, experience and Digital TV awareness.

The technology recently won the IABM Award for Excellence in Design and Innovation, and has been shortlisted for other awards.