Re: [css3-speech][ISSUE-271] “neutral” voice

On 07/23/2012 05:51 PM, Jon Rimmer wrote:
> On 23 July 2012 14:56, Jens O. Meiert<jens@meiert.com>  wrote:
>>
>> What is the definition of a “neutral” voice (family)? It seems the
>> spec so far fails to define this [1]?
>>
>> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-speech/#voice-props-voice-family
>
> However, a question worth addressing might be: Is "neutral" intended
> to communicate, "I don't care about the gender, use whatever is the
> cultural default", or "I do care about the gender, and I want the
> voice to be gender non-specific if possible."

That's a very interesting question. My guess is also the latter, but
perhaps the former might be a use case worth addressing, e.g. as an
'auto' value.

> If it were the former, the speech engine would default to a male
> voice, but if it were the latter, it would use a distorted or
> robotic voice.

Or maybe just raise the pitch to a more neutral range. I doubt
'neutral' is intended to mean "inhuman". :)

> My interpretation would be that it is the latter, but perhaps it
> should be made clear.

Filed as ISSUE-271:
   https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Tracker/issues/271

Fwiw, the CSS2.1 Aural chapter only lists 'male', 'female', and 'child'
as options. Maybe Claudio knows what was intended.

Claudio?

~fantasai

Received on Tuesday, 24 July 2012 01:45:47 UTC