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Now, a browser that can talk to you
Posted By:jasmin On 5/21/2005

Now, a browser that can talk to you

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE, DEC. 25. Opera, the Norwegian web browser that has become a cult favourite with many Internet surfers for its zippy speed, today released Version 8 in beta or test format, with a unique capability: you can talk to it and it will talk back.

In addition to standard browser features, Opera 8 includes a voice recognition engine (to understand spoken commands) and a speech synthesizer (to `read' the contents of web pages). The technology is said to have been sourced from IBM which distributes a speech software called "Via Voice".

The beta version is a free download from the http://www.opera.com/ website and this correspondent could install the 3.7 megabyte software in about seven minutes using a dial-up connection today. To enable the voice functions, it is necessary that the PC is equipped with microphone and loudspeakers fairly standard with all multimedia machines these days. The talking mode needs to be activated by going to the "Tools" function and selecting "Voice". You are encouraged to speak simple commands like "Opera reload", Opera back" and "Opera reload" while holding down the voice button on the toolbar and to "train" the software by reading a prepared passage. The spoken command vocabulary is fairly small but the real advantage is in the operation triggered by saying "Opera speak". This will make the browser read out the scrolling content of web pages which can be a tremendous boon to the visually challenged.

For users who have poor or partial vision, the new Opera also has a useful "zoom" and "fit to window" feature. This allows one to increase the size of text and pictures by up to 200 per cent, without having to constantly scroll horizontally across the page.

There are a number of products which perform text-to-speech and text-to-Braille screen reading functions for the visually challenged, of which the most well known, is JAWS. But this is perhaps the first time, such a function, albeit at an elementary level is available with a standard browser. The free download version comes with a bar of advertisements on the top of the page. A paid version will shortly be available for those who want to avoid the advertisements.




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