Converting Text to Speech in Java

Java Speech API:

The Java Speech API allows Java applications to incorporate speech technology into their user interfaces. It defines a cross-platform API to support command and control recognizers, dictation systems and speech synthesizers. Java Speech supports speech synthesis which means the process of generating spoken the language by machine on the basis of written input. It is important to keep in mind that Java Speech is only a specification i.e. no implementation is included. Thus third-parties provide the implementations. The

javax.speech package

defines the common functionality of recognizers, synthesizers, and other speech engines. The package

javax.speech.synthesis

extends this basic functionality for synthesizers. We will understand that what is required for java API to convert text to speech

1. Engine: The Engine interface is available inside the speech package."Speech engine" is the generic term for a system designed to deal with either speech input or speech output.

   import javax.speech.Engine;

2. Central: Central provides the ability to locate, select and create speech recognizers and speech synthesizers.

   import javax.speech.Central;

3. SynthesizerModeDesc: SynthesizerModeDesc extends the EngineModeDesc with the properties that are specific to speech synthesizers.

   import javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerModeDesc;

4. Synthesizer: The Synthesizer interface provides primary access to speech synthesis capabilities.SynthesizerModeDesc adds two properties: List of voices provided by the synthesizer Voice to be loaded when the synthesizer is started.

   import javax.speech.synthesis.Synthesizer;

Below is an open-source implementation of Java Speech Synthesis called

in the form of steps:

• Download the FreeTTS in the form of zip folder from here
• Extract the zip file and go to

  freetts-1.2.2-bin/freetts-1.2/lib/jsapi.exe

• Open the jsapi.exe file and install it.
• This will create a jar file by the name jsapi.jar. This is the JAR library that contains the FreeTTS library to be included in the project.
• Create a new Java project in your IDE.
• Include this jsapi.jar file into your project.
• Now copy the below code into your project
• Execute the project to get the below expected output.

Below is the code for the above project:

// Java code to convert text to speech

import java.util.Locale;
import javax.speech.Central;
import javax.speech.synthesis.Synthesizer;
import javax.speech.synthesis.SynthesizerModeDesc;

public class TextSpeech {

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        try {
            // Set property as Kevin Dictionary
            System.setProperty(
                "freetts.voices",
                "com.sun.speech.freetts.en.us"
                    + ".cmu_us_kal.KevinVoiceDirectory");

            // Register Engine
            Central.registerEngineCentral(
                "com.sun.speech.freetts"
                + ".jsapi.FreeTTSEngineCentral");

            // Create a Synthesizer
            Synthesizer synthesizer
                = Central.createSynthesizer(
                    new SynthesizerModeDesc(Locale.US));

            // Allocate synthesizer
            synthesizer.allocate();

            // Resume Synthesizer
            synthesizer.resume();

            // Speaks the given text
            // until the queue is empty.
            synthesizer.speakPlainText(
                "GeeksforGeeks", null);
            synthesizer.waitEngineState(
                Synthesizer.QUEUE_EMPTY);

            // Deallocate the Synthesizer.
            synthesizer.deallocate();
        }

        catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Output:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLA1tNbNiU&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

References:

• https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17802_01/products/products/java-media/speech/forDevelopers/jsapi-doc/javax/speech/package-summary.html
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/jsapifaq-135248.html

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