NAV voice change?

The woman's name is Jill, if you can believe the name on the voice data file. The voice is controlled by a data file, but as far as I know, there are no other voices available. The voice has been changed for 2010, but not in a studlier way.

Tom

 

Yes, and since it's a separate file, it is technically possible to use different voices. Unfortunately Toyota decided to not give us that option.

Tom

 

Could you... copy the DVD under the seat to your computer's hard drive, record your own voice saying "Left turn ahead" replace "Jill_Left_Turn_Ahead.wav" with the new "Jill_Left_Turn_Ahead.wav" that you recorded, burn the modified data to a new DVD and pop it in?

If you don't like your own voice, there are plenty of text-to-speech programs available with different sounding voices.

I suspect the file names are not so pleasantly named on the DVD, so you'd have to listen to each one and figure out what Jill's saying in them.

If the files aren't encrypted on the DVD when you put it in your computer, the only defense against this I can think of is if it checks for some file length or markers in the .wav file to verify it's authenticity... those could be spoofed fairly easily.

As long as you do not share the original or modified versions of your DVD I don't see why Toyota should care or complain about IP violations... but I'm an engineer, not a lawyer.

If anyone has tried this please report your success of failure. Or if you have information that tells you it will fail without having to test it, please share.

 

In all of our discussions about this, I am not aware of anyone who has reverse engineered the format of the voice file.

Tom

 

You all might find this amusing, from today's Houston Chronicle:

The face behind the GPS voice finds fame
By KRISTIN FINAN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 19, 2009, 6:06PM

Australian singer and voice-over artist Karen Jacobsen is Garmin’s GPS voice.

Click HERE for story.

 

I'd certainly rather see her face on my MFD than listen to her voice say "recalculating" !!!

 

I and I would bet Doc Willie, have wanted to have Majel Barret Roddenberry to be the voice of my car computer. After all, if she's good enough to be the standard computer voice for all Starfleet Vessel computers, she's good enough for my Prius Class Shuttlecraft.

Remember, the Lincoln car ad said it best, "Starships don't need keys", but they forgot to add "Neither do Shuttlecraft"

Gotta love SKS!!

 

Rather than recordings (WAV or MP3) sound files, the voice engine uses a text-to-speech engine, with certain phrases tuned to sound correctly.

The engine is Nuance's Realspeak. It supports different dialects, but it would probably be very complex to switch it out. Here's the voice samples. As mentioned above, "Jill" is the one used on the Prius.

 

I think they should use the same one NOAA weather radio uses. That text to voice sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger: "In Traaverss CETy the temPURature is 69 DeGrees with a dew point of..."

Tom

 

Absolutely. Majel RIP. And I would upgrade the MFD to LCARS specs. (make sure your sound is on when you visit that site.)

I laughed when I saw that commercial. I would be in the Prius and leaving by the time that guy was finished punching in his door codes.

Other than that, it was a very nice commercial from the design point of view.

 

Majel did get one voice gig -- she's the voice of the Union Pacific Railroad's defect detectors in California.

The old NOAA voice was "Paul" by DECTalk. The new voices are "Tom" and "Donna" by Nuance.

 

Donna sounds like Tom with his shorts a bit too tight.

Tom

 

I pity the fool who doesn't turn left in 500 feet. :madgrin:

 

She also did a number of the Southern Pacific detectors throughout Oregon and California, and appears on ex-SP Metrolink detecors.