RE: SSML, further comments

Dear Dave,

Thank you for your comments.

As discussed with you on the WAI-PF telecon of 17 September
(see http://www.w3.org/2003/09/17-pf-irc), here is our response to
your comments:

>>> We believe there is a misunderstanding that is simple to correct.
>>> There is already an ability in the specification to adjust
>>> pronunciation both internally via the phoneme element and
>>> externally via a lexicon.  We agree there are times when one needs
>>> a lexicon.  By placing better pronunciations for words in an
>>> external lexicon, the processor will automatically use the values
>>> in the lexicon over its own defaults without any additional markup
>>> (except for the single use of the <lexicon> element at the top of the
>>> document that points to the lexicon definition file).
>>> We also agree that the specification wording you quote unintentionally
>>> implies a claim about the quality of today's synthesis technology.
>>> To correct this, we will change "are expert at performing" to
>>> "are designed to perform".

If you believe we have not adequately addressed your request,
please let us know as soon as possible.  If we do not hear
from you within 7 days, we will take this as tacit acceptance.

Again, thank you for your input.

-- Dan Burnett
Synthesis Team Leader, VBWG

-----Original Message-----
From: David.Pawson@rnib.org.uk [mailto:David.Pawson@rnib.org.uk]
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 12:44 AM
To: Daniel Burnett
Cc: www-voice@w3.org
Subject: RE: SSML, further comments


Hi again Daniel.

> Thank you again for your careful review of the SSML 
> specification in 2001.
> Again, for completeness, we have prepared responses to your 
> requests from that
> time.
> 
> If you believe we have not adequately addressed your issues with our
> responses, please let us know as soon as possible.  If we do not hear
> from you within 14 days, we will take this as tacit acceptance. 
> 
> 
> After another read of the spec. Some more comments.
> 
>  1.2, list item 4, para 3.
> "TTS systems are expert at performing text-topohoneme conversions
> so most words of most documents can be handled automatically".
>  Rather too sweeping for my liking. Certainly not the case for
> the systems I've seen :-)
> 
> >>> Proposed disposition:  (none yet)
> >>> 
> >>> Thank you for your comment. Do you have a specific suggestion
> >>> for how to change this sentence?
> 

I basically believe it to be a falsehood, judging by my own experience
of tts engines (and text-topohoneme should be text to phoneme).

I don't want W3C to be liable when a user of that spec determines it to be
false.
If you wish to say that modern tts systems are vastly improved over engines
of
a few years ago, then that's relative, and true?

regards DaveP

 


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Received on Wednesday, 19 November 2003 17:05:31 UTC