Brief guide to the Apollo speech synthesiser. When using this guide, place the synthesizer on its feet with the speaker facing you. Please note, the speech quality is greatly improved by use of an external speaker plugged into the earphone socket. 1. The apollo Speech Synthesizer 1.1 Controls There is only one control, which you will find on the front panel. This serves as both the on/off switch and the volume control. When you switch on the apollo you should hear it speak "hello". This means it is now ready to receive data. If you do not hear anything make sure you have plugged in the mains adaptor as the internal Nicad batteries will probably be discharged. 1.2 Headphone socket You will find the headphone socket towards the front on the left hand side. This accepts a standard stereo headset of the Walkman variety. You may also use this socket for an external speaker, cassette recording purposes or for connection to another device. 1.3 Mains adaptor You will find the mains adaptor socket on the right hand side towards the rear. It will accept 12 volts DC with a negative tip supply and will charge the internal Nicads whenever connected. You may leave it connected as you cannot overcharge the Nicads. The internal charging circuit will switch off once the Nicads are fully charged. For information the Nicads should take about fourteen hours to fully charge from dead flat. 1.4 Signal connector There are both serial and parallel inputs to the apollo although they both share the same 25 way D-type socket. The socket also contains links for changing the serial baud rate. Please see later for a detailed description of the connector. 2. apollo Speech Synthesizer Specification Weight 1lb Size width 4" x length 7.5" x Front height 1.25" Rear height 2.25" Battery life 6-8 hours depending on use Headset stereo 3.5mm jack (lives are shorted) DC socket 12v, 200ma max, negative tip, positive barrel Serial Socket Pin 19 gnd Pin 22 rts Pin 23 cts Pin 24 tx Pin 25 rx Baud rate Pin 20 Baud 1 Pin 21 Baud 2 Baud Rate Table Baud 1 Baud 2 NC NC 9600 to pin 18 NC 1200 NC to pin 18 300 to pin 18 to pin 18 19200 Parallel Pin 1 strobe Pins 2-9 data bits 0-7 Pin 15 ER at +5v Pin 10 ACK Pin 11 Busy Pin 12 PE at gnd Pin 13 SEL at +5v Pins 14, 18 and 19 are at ground 3. apollo Command Summary Most commands start with an "@" sign and are followed by a Hex, decimal, octal or binary digit as indicated by h, d, o or b. h = hex (0..9, A..F) d = decimal (0..9) o = octal (0..7) b = binary (0 or 1) Control A or X mutes the synthesizer @Wh sets the speech rate or speed @Qd sets the inter word pause @,h sets the pause for end of a phrase, breath group or sentence @Ro sets prosody or excitability @Fh sets the pitch or frequency @Sb sets spell mode on or off @Vb turns speech on or off @Pb sets punctuation on or off @A steps between amplitudes under software @Hb turns hypermode on or off @Xb turns phonetic mode on or off. Please note that dsd representations are used. Please contact us if interested. @T Self test loop @? Speaks rom version number Please note that when using hyper mode all the function words are removed as in a telegram. As "a" and "i" are words as well as letters, and would normally be ignored in hyper mode, Hal does not echo these characters from the keyboard when the hyper mode option is set. Please note, we would be interest in receiving lists of words that are incorectly pronounced and any bugs you may find. We would appreciate word lists in an ascii format on a standard 5.25" IBM PC 360k disk. The following information may be of interest to programmers:- The apollo runs at 9600 baud, uses 8 bit words with no parity and one stop bit. A carriage return character is necessary to send data to the apollo. The apollo has an 8k ram buffer and utilises a hardware handshake for up to this amount of data. If the data sent exceeds 8k, the handshake stops operating thus allowing the apollo to receive control commands such as "mute". Take care not to send more than 8k of data to the apollo at any one time otherwise data will be lost. 4. Additional commands for apollo @!c sets c to be the new "escape" character (i.e. it is used instead of @). @=1 and @=2 are used to select ROMs 1 and 2 to switch between languages. @Ex echos x back to the computer (RS232 only) when it is processed. This will be before the line is spoken. To get the computer to tell you when something has finished, do "text to speak"@Ex, and the x will come back when the "text to speak" has finished. @F+ or @F- cause the pitch to be raised or lowered slightly. (Experimental command.) 5. Voice Command Controls: @V0 turns voice off. @V1-6 select 6 voices. The first three are based on a male voice and can be scaled with the commands below. The last 3 are based on a not quite so male voice, and can also be scaled. The following features are more advanced commands and should only be changed by the more competent user. @@dh+ or @@dh- where d is between 0 and 9, are used to add or subtract the given hex amount (h) from parameter d in the list below. d = 0 Fn .. Frequency of the nasal formant. 1 F1 .. Frequency of first formant. 2 F2 .. Frequency of second formant. 3 F3 .. Frequency of third formant. 4 ALF .. Low frequency amplitude. 5 A1 .. Amplitude of first formant. 6 A2 .. Amplitude of second formant. 7 A3 .. Amplitude of third formant. 8 A4 .. Amplitude of fourth formant. 9 IV .. Degree of voicing. (See @B below.) Please note that the only ones of these which are scaled in a sensible manner (currently) are the amplitudes! The others are just there for experimentation. @Bo where o is between 0 and 8 is used to set the degree of voicing of the voice. So 0 is a whisper (no voicing or very breathy) and 8 is full voicing. @Mx where x is between 'A' and 'Z' is used to set the mark-space ratio, which if pushed could be described as a sort of tone control. @$x where x is between 0 and 7. Values are as follows: voice filter voicing source @$0 male (default) default (male) @$1 female default @$2 male spike @$3 female spike @$4 male cut-down default @$5 female cut-down default @$6 male reduced high frequency (female) @$7 female reduced high frequency (female). Below you will find lots of lines of text with @ commands embedded in them. You can use HAL with screen punctuation off to read these lines and thus change the voice. @B0 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B1 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B2 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B3 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B4 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B5 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B6 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B7 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @B8 hello, i am a speech synthesiser @MA i am a speech synthesiser @MZ i am a speech synthesiser @MB i am a speech synthesiser @MC i am a speech synthesiser @MD i am a speech synthesiser @MF i am a speech synthesiser @MG i am a speech synthesiser @MK i am a speech synthesiser @MN i am a speech synthesiser @MT i am a speech synthesiser @MZ i am a speech synthesiser @F+ i am a speech synthesiser @F- i am a speech synthesiser @V0 hello how are you @V1 hello how are you @V2 hello how are you @V3 hello how are you @V4 hello how are you @V5 hello how are you @V6 hello how are you @@44- hello how are you @@40+ hello how are you @@41+ hello how are you @@54- hello how are you @@50+ hello how are you @@54+ hello how are you @@64- hello how are you @@60+ hello how are you @@64+ hello how are you @@74- hello how are you @@70+ hello how are you @@74+ hello how are you @@84- hello how are you @@80+ hello how are you @@84+ hello how are you @@04- hello how are you @@00+ hello how are you @@04+ hello how are you @@141 hello how are you @@10+ hello how are you @@14+ hello how are you @@24- hello how are you @@20+ hello how are you @@24+ hello how are you @@34- hello how are you @@30+ hello how are you @@30+ hello how are you @$0 hello how are you @$1 hello how are you @$2 hello how are you @$3 hello how are you @$4 hello how are you @$5 hello how are you @$6 hello how are you @$7 hello how are you There now follows a number of short passages which can be read first with hyper mode off and then with hyper mode turned on. Notice the way in which Hal removes all the padding words to reduce the text into a telegram style. The rain in spain falls mainly on the plain. She sells sea shells on the sea shore, but the shells that she sells are sea shells I am sure. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I am a speech synthesiser. Am I a speech synthesiser? The schedule for your route is ready to collect at your leisure. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party. hello david, how are you? @v1 good morning dave abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Release 1 February 1989