Split TTS and Speech Recognition?

Hi, folks–

I'd like to propose that the text-to-speech feature be split out from 
the Web Speech API spec; it's more or less orthogonal with the speech 
recognition aspect of the spec, and while there are still open issues 
that are being discussed, I think it's more stable in terms of 
implementations, and could move forward more quickly on its own.

I have been using both TTS and speech recognition in some of my recent 
apps, and I think both are very cool and useful; I think both will be 
great for accessibility, as well. TTS is much simpler, though, and I 
think we could get more implementations right away if we split it out. I 
really want to see both succeed, at their own pace.

(As an aside, I made a "talking calculator" back in 2004 using SVG and 
the Microsoft IE TTS API; it no longer works, but it hints to me that it 
wouldn't be too hard for Microsoft to implement the more modern TTS 
functionality in IE, if the path ahead were clear for them.)

In light of the recent news that the W3C Web Speech WG is not going to 
be formed [1], I think the work should still be done in the Web Speech 
Community Group, though maybe when it's mature enough, it could move to 
an existing W3C WG to become a Recommendation.

(I don't have a strong feeling about which group this might fit in, but 
a few spring to mind: the WebApps WG, the Audio WG, or the HTML WG to 
take advantage of the new CC-BY licensing being experimented on there. 
It could even be its own WG, though that seems like overkill to me.)

If any of this resonates with this group, I'm happy to help with it 
unofficially, with my W3C staff experience. (If it were ultimately moved 
into the Audio WG, then I could give my official help, since that's one 
of my working groups. :P)

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-new-work/2013Oct/0004.html

Regards-
-Doug

Received on Tuesday, 8 October 2013 16:28:38 UTC