Compact Arduino Speech Production, ( Speak n Spell )

 

A clever codes reverse engineered the speech compression technology Texas Instruments devised in the late 70s, and created Arduino code called Talkie to play word sets lifted from old product ROMs, there are 6 different libraries included in the examples totaling about 1000 words with redundancies, there's also experimental compression of a 2 minute Susan Vega song that occupies 24k of space..

The file links below are all Arduino IDE format.

The original code version works properly with the timers in the Arduino Mega 168 or 328 running at 16 Mhz.

This version is tweaked to work on an 8Mhsz processor.

Here's a version translated for ATmega32U4 processor.

This version was translated by the creator of the Teensy computer boards.


One collector of vintage voice synthesis files created a $95 music synthesizer plugin product, chipspeech based on these robotic voices. You can listen to tracks from an album incorporating these sounds.

Speak n Spell uses a rather complicated compression method: Linear Predictive Coding, and originally was played back by a DSP chip that emulated the human vocal tract, the TMS5100, the encoding complexity may explain why there are only 30+ year old word sets available.


A little Speak n Spell History  from hackeducation.com


The video below shows a quick sample from the Talkie Vocab_US_Large Words List, containing some 403 words/phrases. It demonstrates the clunky one code line per word coding used in examples, one could streamline things by adding code to read sequences from an array.

 Talkie Vocab_US_Large Words List with an Aeronautics slant
 403 Words/Phrases derived from VM61003/4/5 ROMs   

ZERO       ONE        TWO        THREE      FOUR       FIVE       SIX        SEVEN      EIGHT      NINE       TEN        ELEVEN     TWELVE     THIRTEEN   FOURTEEN   FIFTEEN    SIXTEEN    SEVENTEEN  EIGHTEEN   NINETEEN   TWENTY     THIRTY     FOURTY     FIFTY       SIXTY      SEVENTY    EIGHTY     NINETY     HUNDRED    THOUSAND   MILLION    PATH       NEGATIVE   POINT    AFFIRMATIVE  TIMES    DIVIDED    BY         HOURS      PLUS       MINUS      EQUALS     RED        YELLOW     GREEN      WHITE      THEE       THE        ANSWER     IS         START      STOP       READY      TEMPERATURE  TIME       A_M        P_M        OCLOCK     DEGREES    CELCIUS   FARENHEIT  ERROR      MILES      PER        HOUR       MINUTES   GUSTING_TO GUST       EAST       WEST       SOUTH      NORTH NORTHEAST  NORTHWEST  SOUTHEAST  SOUTHWEST  HAIL       TORNADO    WIND       WEATHER    SHOWERS    SLEET      SMOKE      STORM      SNOW       SAND       PELLETS    RAIN       ICE        HEAT       FOG HEAVY  LAND       THIN       OF         AERIAL     OBSCURED BROKEN     ALOFT      CEILING    PARTIALLY  VISIBILITY DRIZZLE    INDICATED  SEVERE     MODERATE   GREENWICH  MEAN       MIST       ESTIMATED  DECREASING MOVING     PRESSURE   ALTERNATE  CLEAR      CURRENT    BLOWING    AT         TURBULANCE THINLY     INCREASING MORE_THAN  LESS_THAN  FREEZING   AIR        BELOW      AND        FOR        HAZE       HIGH       SCATTERED  INCREASING_TO          IN         LOW      THUNDERSTORM OVERCAST   UNLIMITED  LOW2       PERCENT    OVER       ALPHA      BRAVO      CHARLIE    DELTA      ECHO       FOXTROT    GOLF       HOTEL      INDIA      JULIET     KILO       LIMA       MIKE       NOVEMBER   OSCAR      PAPA       QUEBEC     ROMEO      SIERRA     TANGO      UNIFORM    VICTOR     WHISKEY    XRAY       ZULU      AFFIRMATIVE NEGATIVE   MAYDAY WARNING    ICING      DANGER     EMERGENCY  ROGER      HERTZ      SECURITY   TARGET     VECTORS    LIGHT      FRONT      WAY        GLIDE      OPEN       LIGHTS     ON         GUNDISH    R_NAV      SELECT     FILED      MIG        ALERT      ZONE       TERMINAL RADIOS     SPEED      KNOTS      EXPECT     ACTION     RADIAL     POWER      GAS       INFORMATION TRUE      PRESSURE   CHECK      DECREASE   ADVISE     YOU        HAVE       ERROR2     ALL        LONG       NO       IMMEDIATELY  FINAL      PLEASE     START      COURSE     RADAR      PLAN       TARGET     WINDOWS    WATCH      USE        TURN       TRAFFIC    CHECK      SLOW       RELEASE    KEY        IGNITION   DEGREE     RAIN       REPAIR     CANCEL     VERIFY     READY      USE2       OUT        OTHER      OIL        OFF        NEAR       GREAT      MIXTURE    MUCH       GREAT2     IS         CAUTION    BELOW      CYLINDER   CONTACT    AND FUEL   FOR        SEQUENCE   SIDE       SLOW                  TO         RICH       PUMPS      LEVEL      LOWER      REAR       HOLD       LONG       LEVEL      LEFT       RIGHT      OPEN       STRAY      CLOSE      EVACUATE   FAILURE    SERVICE    ABORT      IDEMTIFY   TOO_LOW    CENTRE     AREA       BASE       CONTROL    MEASURED   D          THE        VACUUM     ABEAN      ATU        FSS        ILS        IFR        VFR        VHE      LANDING_GEAR LEVEL_OFF UNDERCARRIAGE SPOILERS AIR_BRAKES AERIAL    ENGINE     FLAME_OUT  FLAK_LOAD  INBOUND    IGNITE     NO_TURN    FLAPS      EVACUATION DOORS      CABIN      ARRIVAL   ACKNOWLEDGE RAISE      LIST       APPROACH DEPARTURE CLEARANCE_DEL FUEL       IDLE       INCREASE   UP         TAXI       AS         CONVERGING ABOVE      BRAKE      CALM       BREAKING   CALL       CROSSWIND  CRYSTALS   CYLINDER   CYCLE      DOWN       GROUND     FULL       NEW        LEG        MAINTAIN   LANDING    LEAN       SET        SHORT      WAKE       ADIS       NOTEM      RVRS       SQUALKING  MAGNETOS   STABILISER PAKM       SELCAL     VORTAC     VOR        BARKER     HEADING    ETA        DOWNWIND   CEILING    MIDPOINT   SIGNET     ROLL_OUT   CROCS      AIRCRAFT   ALTIMETER  AUTOPILOT  LOCALIZER  COWL       INFLIGHT   OVERSPEED  DEPARTURE  LAUNCH     TOWER      FLIGHTWATCH STALL      TOUCHDOWN  SQUALK     ELEVATION  CLIMB      BANK     ACCELERATED  TRIM     UNICOM     SLOKE      NINER      GALLEY     FREEDOM    FLIGHT     DEGREE     AIRPORT    AIRSPEED   CLEARANCE  ALTITUDE   RADIAL     REMARK     REFUELLING OUTER      MIDDLE     INNER    INSTRUMENTS  FLIGHT     APPROACHES GEAR       BOOST      TELEPHONE