The primary goal of Hear2Read Ⓡ Text-To-Speech (TTS) Apps is to help Visually Impaired (VI) read books, web sites, e-mail, text files, Word documents, SMS text, Facebook postings and WhatsApp messages etc. by listening to speech output. Hear2Read Apps are also useful for people without Visual Impairment - often referred to as sighted user.
Hear2Read Apps use Android TTS service APIs to provide TTS service to any App that wants to support the ability to 'Read' by listening to software generated speech. The TTS engine runs as a background service available to any App (including Talkback) on the Android device (Smart Phone or Tablet).
These Apps convert Unicode Indic text and ASCII English text to speech. Hear2Read Apps cannot read .pdf files that contain graphical images of text since it requires OCR software.
This major update from Release 1.1.3 to Release 2.0 splits the TTS Engine and Tamil voice in separate Apps. This App contains the voice database and prompts the user to install Release 2 TTS Engine from Play Store at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.hear2read.indic.
Once the TTS Engine is installed, users can install additional Hear2Read voices. TTS Rel. 2 Engine is used by all Hear2Read voice Apps. The shared TTS Engine requires devices with at least 1 GB RAM and Quad core CPU. This requirement is same no matter how many Hear2Read voices are installed.
Hear2Read Apps include a Demo page that allow users to listen to example sentences.
For reading longer text (such as books, web sites, e-mail, Word and text documents) use the Talkback feature (if you are a VI) or one of many screen reading Apps such as @Voice Aloud Reader. Hear2Read Apps are not meant to be used by themselves.
Many screen reading Apps provide an option to save the speech output. Hear2Read engine does not save speech output.
Please send questions to Feedback@Hear2Read.org.
PLEASE DO NOT USE REVIEWS TO ASK QUESTIONS. We love to answer questions on how to use Hear2Read Apps. However, our response to review comments is limited to 350 characters by Google. Often this is insufficient to provide a complete answer.
Talkback (Accessibility feature for VI users) uses the TTS voice selected for the preferred engine under “Text-to-speech output” settings. The preferred engine default is generally Google TTS Engine. The language default is generally 'system language' which is most often English. These are good choices for VI users who understand Android navigation buttons spoken in English even if they do not speak or understand English.
Some screen reading Apps (such as '@Voice Aloud Reader') determine the content language and then select the appropriate TTS engine and voice. Such Apps do not require users to change the preferred engine to Indic Hear2Read. Please turn on Audio ducking (Focus Speech Audio) under Talkback setting , when using screen reading Apps (such as @Voice Aloud) that uses TTS directly to speak, instead of relying on Talkback. This allows the screen reading App to pause speaking, when Talkback speaks using the preferred engine, as is the case when the user touches a navigation button or home button to open another App.
Some Apps (e.g. Voice Dream Reader) allow the user to select and associate a TTS Engine and voice with each book. This selection is used instead of the preferred engine & voice used by Talkback.
Hear2Read Apps use Festvox, Festival and Flite Open Source software developed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and collaborators including Hear2Read volunteers and University of Edinburgh.
Thanks,
Hear2Read team
Note: Hear2Read is a registered trademark.
