Regarding SpeechSystemUtterance.rate

Hi everyone! First of all, if I'm understanding correctly it's thanks to you guys that most browsers now support TTS! 
That's super cool, so thanks for that :)


tl;dr please make speech rate a multiplier

this will lead to optimal-by-default TTS, so the default rate "1" produces output at the user's preferred rate.


= the situation = 

As far as I can tell, there is no way to determine what the system default speech rate is.
The rate's default value 1 does not reflect the system rate, and there is no way to query it.

As a result, there is currently no way to deliver an ideal TTS experience through a web browser. 

The developer must simply guess what the user prefers. 
The user must manually adjust the rate on every site / app they will ever use. 

Oh no!



= suggestion = 

(A) implement speechSynthesis.nativeRate and set rate to that value by default

(B) or -- much better -- make speech rate a multiplier !

In this case, rate functions as a modifier for the system rate. 

So the default value 1 will *equal* the system rate
0.5 and 2 will be half and double the normal speed,
where "normal" is user-dependent (configured in OS TTS preferences). 

The rate-multiplier option feels cleaner to me. 
It would not require changing the API. 
Plus, all existing code would continue to work. In fact, it would even work *better* :)



= context / motivation =

Discord (on web and desktop, since it's a web-app either way) does not respect the system speech rate.

In Discord, there's no speed slider, so on a busy day (which is every day) the spoken conversation starts lagging and never catches up.
( next stop: bug Discord devs about that missing speed slider! )
 
So I did some digging and figured out it was actually because of decisions you guys made years ago!
I don't know if you guys are still involved in this, since it looks like most of the work was done a long time ago. 
But I'd be really happy if something were done about this.

The future of optimal-by-default TTS is in your hands!

I don't know C++ or I'd take a stab at it myself
It might be time to give it a try... :)


Thanks so much,
andai

Received on Saturday, 5 August 2017 16:22:21 UTC