dk.brondsted.mssapi

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dk.brondsted.MSSapi is a Java package providing easy high-level access from Java to Microsft SAPI 4.0 complient Text-To-Speech synthesizers. The constructor loads a native dynamic library TTSCommand.dll, implemented in C++ and linked to the Microsoft Speech SDK 4.0 spchwrap.lib (with Visual C++). An equivalent native library for other platforms than Windows 32 systems can, of course, not be provided.

The package is "inspired" by the standard extension package javax.speech.synthesis providing access to JSAPI compliant speech synthesizers on all platforms (also Linux, Unix ...) and solves the problem with speech synthesis products that only supports the Microsoft SAPI interface (e.g. the Danish speech synthesizer by SpeechWare).

Note that the native library TTSCommand.dll can also be accessed from C/C++ programs compiled with any 32-bit compiler on Windows systems. At the bottom at this page there is a simple "Hello World" coding example.

Package dk.brondsted.mssapi download v. 0.1 beta

public class JMSSapiTTS

public JMSSapiTTS()

Loads the native library TTSCommand(.dll) located in the library path. Per default the voice "Carsten" (male voice of the Danish speech synthesizer by SpeechWare). If not found, the voice "Sam" (US-English male synthesizer shipped with Microsoft SAPI 4.0) is loaded.

public void addVoice(String voice)

Similar to addVoice(Voice v)of javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerModeDesc. However, the argument is simply the name of the voice. The available voices can be displayed with the method getVoices (see below).

Similar to cancelAll()of javax.speech.synthesiz. Cancel all objects in the synthesizer speech output queue and stop speaking the current top-of-queue object.

Similar to the javax.speech.Engine method. If deallocated and an application invokes one of the other synthesizer methods (e.g. speakPlainText), resources are automatically reallocated by the native library. Applications would normally only use the deallocate method if they interface to a demo-synthesizer that, e.g., only accepts input for a certain period of time.

Similar to the javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerModeDesc method. However rather than returning an actual  Voice[] array, the method simply prints the names of the voices installed on the machine to stdout. Subsequently, one of the names can be chosen and used as argument for the addVoice method

Is an improvised solution to the problem that events like "TextDataStarted", "TextDataDone" sent to the ITTSBufNotifySink on the SAPI-side cannot be passed on to a SpeakableListener on the Java-side (see speakPlainText below). The native library simply counts the number of TextDataStarted-events and substracts the number of TextDataDone-events. If the result is >0, the method isBusy returns true, otherwise false.

Similar to the pause method inherited from javax.speech.Engine in javax.speech.synthesiz. Pause the audio stream for the synthesizer.

Similar to the pause method inherited from javax.speech.Engine in javax.speech.synthesiz. Resume the audio stream for the synthesizer.

Similar to the method of javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerProperties. When setting the pitch, the native library also displays the minimum and maxium values defined for the chosen voice.

Similar to the method of javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerProperties. When setting the speaking rate, the native library also displays the minimum and maxium values defined for the chosen voice.

Similar to speakPlainText(String text, SpeakableListener listener) of javax.speech.synthesiz. Note that the method includes no SpeakableListener in it's arguments. The application can  access the isBusy method (see above) in a Timer object to keep track on the state of the synthesizer. Note further that no method for accepting text in the Java Speech API Markup Language (JSML) has been implemented.

Java text strings with national characters (Danish 'æ', 'ø', 'å' etc.) are translated correctly into the representations requred by the native WIN32 system.

Hello World-program in C/C++ that interfaces to TTSCommand.dll. The example can be compiled with both Visual C++ and Borlands free bcc32 command line compiler.

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

typedef LPCSTR (CALLBACK* DLL_COMMAND)(LPCSTR);

int main()
{
   HINSTANCE hInstance=LoadLibrary("TTSCommand.dll");
   if (hInstance==NULL) fprintf(stderr,"Failed to load dll");
   DLL_COMMAND TTSCmd=(DLL_COMMAND)GetProcAddress(hInstance,"TTSCommand");
   if (TTSCmd==NULL) fprintf(stderr,"Failed to get procaddress in dll");
   (*TTSCmd)(NULL);//initialises. Default voice Carsten if installed, otherwise Sam

#ifdef DANISH
   (*TTSCmd)("Her ser du en række kommandoer til at styre syntesen");
#else
   (*TTSCmd)("#SETVOICE Sam");
   (*TTSCmd)("On the screen you see a set of commands to control the synthesis");
#endif
   (*TTSCmd)("#HELP");

   char wbuffer[1024];
   while(1)
   {
      printf("\nReady: ");
      fgets(wbuffer,1024,stdin); // Not Unicode version!
      if (wbuffer[0]=='\n') break; //empty line
      wbuffer[strlen(wbuffer)-1]='\0';//strip newline character
      (*TTSCmd)((LPCSTR)wbuffer);
   }
   FreeLibrary(hInstance);
   return 0;
}